The journey from small guy to teenager...

[weeksy]

That was some route the Sat Nav brought us up on. The A494 was like worlds most dangerous roads after we passed Revs.

Beers and food time

IMG_20240315_203358 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

Trying to add a bit more of a human element to the trips, I only seem to post the riding but the trips are way more than just that.
All today's footage is on the GoPro so will come off there on Monday.
We both had an epic time, him playing with Nathan and Ruben from Trailrippers, we out with RikkLegge from her and his Bro.

After riding and the clean up we headed to a pizza place I'd found in dolgellau



(I know, but got to plug the sponsors)


He was flagging!!



Superb sourdough pizza sorted him out



It was then off to random farm house near Dyfi and chilling while watching Bond. Neither of us have the energy to head to town..

[Dodgy69]

Nice little town Dolgellau. We walked some of the Mawddach trail a few weeks ago. George pub on the estuary is very nice, plus the ones in town. Taking our ebikes up that way soon. Enjoy.

[Mr Moofo]

Trying to add a bit more of a human element to the trips, I only seem to post the riding but the trips are way more than just that.
All today's footage is on the GoPro so will come off there on Monday.
We both had an epic time, him playing with Nathan and Ruben from Trailrippers, we out with RikkLegge from her and his Bro.

After riding and the clean up we headed to a pizza place I'd found in dolgellau



(I know, but got to plug the sponsors)


He was flagging!!



Superb sourdough pizza sorted him out



It was then off to random farm house near Dyfi and chilling while watching Bond. Neither of us have the energy to head to town..

Very happy to see the lack of pineapple !

[weeksy]

The Sunday was equally epic for him, arguably more so, but as always not without some trials and tribulations.

We met up with a few racing mates, them and the lad have raced a fair few times in the last 18 months, so had seen them about, but as is often the way, i was more familiar with the parents than he was with the kids. But they all spent the day together, laughing, joking, hitting trails, facing the rain and wind. Sometimes my lad was forced into leading which pushed him on, sometimes he was chasing.. but either way, they all came down laughing and joking Awesome and exactly what i wanted from the weekend.

He did have an excursion into the floor sadly, he was riding Race Track and as he came over a crest, there was someone in the track walking their bike up the middle of the track !!!! He was flying on that run and had 2 simple choices, plough straight into them or avoid and take a big tumble.... he chose the latter. Cuts and bruises a plenty, but nothing more than that happily.

We got back about 8.15pm which made it a very long but very enjoyable weekend. It was then onto the 'sorting' for me after a quick bit of food.

1. Sat morning we found he only had the 1 pair of shoes in the van. Arrggggg. He thought i'd but the shoes with DMR cleats in, i thought he had. We've been running the DMRs for a few weeks and he's really happy with them, but not tested fully in anger yet at a big-boy place. So we though, "ok, we'll put the cleats on from his spare pedals"... Well that didn't go as planned. 1 of the bolts was proper seized in the shoe and no amount of effort was getting it off.
So he had to run the C-B pedals all weekend as i wasn't risking breaking the shoes and screing up the weekend.
Sunday i battled and had to cut the cleats off
IMG_20240317_214534 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2. The other issue we've been having is the shifting.... Considering he's running X01 mech and shifter, it's really not as crisp as i'd like it to be. Sunday he ended up with 6 gears instead of 7 as i simply wasn't getting them all in the car park. But the 6 he was getting were decently indexed, so we went with it. It was only 1 time apparently that he had a gear selection issue on the trail, between 2 jumps it didn't change... but we were mostly OK.
So last night i pulled the inner, which was tougher than i'd have liked, so i'm pretty sure the inner needs replacing, but possibly the outer too. I think it may have been kinked when fitting through the chainstay. However, it was a NIGHTMARE job, so i think i'll give to ROTEC as he's got the double ended barb to attach the 2 outers together and do the outer.

Apart from that, it was a brilliant weekend and lots of riding, progress, chatting, laughs and smiles (oh, and a smashed iPhone). I met up with RikkLegge from here again and even though i wasn't riding Sunday, we still had plenty of chats with him and Rob, i must say, both are properly nice (sorry if i bored you with my ramblings.. i do that).

Videos, footage and clips are still pending approval from the media team (him and wife) so they're not ready yet.

Onwards to the next adventure

[Count Steer]

I now know more about fitting cleats than I did yesterday. (I just watched a YT on cleat fitting ). Funnily enuff the young woman presenting said she had a pair of shoes with very worn cleats that simply won't come off and she used Muc-Off Bio Grease on the new shoes/cleats to stop the same thing happening again.

There's a lot more to it than the last time I screwed some on....in 1970-something.

[weeksy]

Yeah it's a lesson we'll not make the mistake in again that's for sure. Both in terms of forgetting set 2 of the shoes (we have 3 sets as well !) and for not sticking a bit of grease/something on the cleat bolts. User/team error for sure, but happily it was this weekend, not a race weekend, so not a massive loss, only a mild-inconvenience.

[Count Steer]

Different cleats but I was a bit confused when she appeared to smear the grease on the shoe soles rather than the bolt threads.

I think the vid needs to be a bit clearer on the point but most of it is about getting the fit/adjustment right.

[media] [/media]

[Mr Moofo]

Different cleats but I was a bit confused when she appeared to smear the grease on the shoe soles rather than the bolt threads.

I think the vid needs to be a bit clearer on the point but most of it is about getting the fit/adjustment right.

[media] [/media]

Easily solved but wearing what are called flat shoes
No clips - which are great fro recreational riding but I can see why you want clips for racing

[weeksy]

I had 2-3 times per run at Antur where my feet were getting kicked off on one of the reds, like a poppy section over a blind rock, i think clipped in pedals would have helped on that.. Obviously the boy is going WAY faster and harder than me, so i can see 100% why he runs them.

[Count Steer]

Last time I used such things the cleat was basically a screwed on metal slot and the pedals had a toe basket type thing with a quick release strap.

I was about to pedal away from the local bike shop and, had to abort - I think my mate stopped suddenly in front of me. No time to flip the quick release so I slowly keeled over, into the bike shop, plate glass, window.

(Fortunately it didn't break. )

[weeksy]

Last time I used such things the cleat was basically a screwed on metal slot and the pedals had a toe basket type thing with a quick release strap.

I was about to pedal away from the local bike shop and, had to abort - I think my mate stopped suddenly in front of me. No time to flip the quick release so I slowly keeled over, into the bike shop, plate glass, window.

(Fortunately it didn't break. )

You're far from the only person.

[Count Steer]

Last time I used such things the cleat was basically a screwed on metal slot and the pedals had a toe basket type thing with a quick release strap.

I was about to pedal away from the local bike shop and, had to abort - I think my mate stopped suddenly in front of me. No time to flip the quick release so I slowly keeled over, into the bike shop, plate glass, window.

(Fortunately it didn't break. )

You're far from the only person.

Yeah. It was just more embarrassing because it was the bike shop. I still have a bonk bag with the shop name on it, A&C Sports, and it's still pretty mint. Not bad value as it's lasted 50-odd years.

[Taff]

I've found the easiest way is to drill the head off the seized bolt, that way the cleat falls off and you can retrieve the backplate from under the sole padding thingies. You can get the stud out with a pair of molegrips.

[weeksy]

I've found the easiest way is to drill the head off the seized bolt, that way the cleat falls off and you can retrieve the backplate from under the sole padding thingies. You can get the stud out with a pair of molegrips.

Would've arguably worked yeah. It seems it was top of clear seized into the bracket rather than the thread/bolt.

[MingtheMerciless]

Last time I used such things the cleat was basically a screwed on metal slot and the pedals had a toe basket type thing with a quick release strap.

I was about to pedal away from the local bike shop and, had to abort - I think my mate stopped suddenly in front of me. No time to flip the quick release so I slowly keeled over, into the bike shop, plate glass, window.

(Fortunately it didn't break. )

I normally do it adjacent to a pile of horse poo, a blackthorn bush or if I'm really trying a large flint.

[weeksy]

[weeksy]

Sometimes i think i need my own personal mechanic at times.

It’s been a few weeks since the boy rode the Privateer, but he’s out on it this evening along with a full days riding with Katy on the weekend. So i thought i’d pull it down from it’s place and get it ready. I assumed that’d only involve fitting the DMR pedals from the spares box and giving the chain a wipe/lube.

However, when i put in the stand i noticed the headset was properly seized… well, it loosened off once i rotated it… but it wasn’t perfect. So pulled it apart and found, yup it was WELL past it’s best… We’ve all seen old knackered headsets that explode into 5 pieces when you go to take them out

So a new upper and lower bearing is now in there, along with a clean and greasing of it all, the multitool is back in and it’s all torqued up.

Bit poor from me really… but we do have a lot going on at the moment. Lucky i checked really, although i expect he’d have just taken the Orbea out anyway.

[weeksy]

New bars came in stock with DMR and were shipped out to us.

Didn't get a chance last night, but fitted this morning

IMG_20240321_080550 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

First day for the boy today as not a rider, but a trainee coach. Something he's working on at the moment is becoming a proper MTB coach as well as a racer, so it was an experiment with Katy and him to see if the concept matched the reality. He did 2x3hr shifts and learned a lot of valuable lessons, both in terms of teaching and what the role of being a coach entails.

He'll be repeating the exercise again soon.