revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Fun ride with the boy last night, still learning, still working and still trying. As always, he just 100% puts me to shame... Even uphill.

There's a climb at the local which is tricky/tough on the MTB, not dying tough, but pretty hard graft... He climbs it on his 7 speed DH bike behind me lol. Then at the end we did a road sprint-off with him giving me a 10s lead... Yeah he destroyed me.

With that in mind/conversation, he's got a new sponsor to work with this week/future.
https://thestrengthfactory.uk/

Will be massively interesting to see what they make of eachother and what he can learn from the trainer and put into place. It will mean some driving to Bristol for the training, but that's OK.

New super UDH mech hanger from Burgtec for the Session today. We've been diagnosing an issue where the indexing on the top jockey wheel isn't quite right, so i scooted to Rotec who says "yeah that hanger ain't straight" and now that we've put a Burgtec on i can kinda see it yeah. It wasn't huge, but enough i think.
The Crank Brothers Mallet DH are due a rebuild and service so they're off the bike for that and i'll fit a new set for the weekend.

I'm excited about this weekend he's got the day with RSR Bikeworks getting the new Rimpact TMD setup and suspension tweaked accordingly. I'm really curious as to what him and Rich find in terms of setup, differences and hopefully a bit of speed as well.

IMG_20250521_093551 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Apologies for the quality as it was sent via Whatsapp, but a comparison run of all 3 bikes.

So this is the TMD or Tuned Mass Damper, along with variations of springs. The weight isn't different on setups, just the springs.

IMG-20250522-WA0003 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Screenshot_2025-05-23-20-48-34-994_com.instagram.android by steveweeks59, on Flickr

As always with testing it's a bit of a slow process, a try this, try that, lets do this, lets do that, go again, again, up again....

But that's the nature of the beast and the steps needed to dial things in. The morning started with a baseline to see where our settings were, apparently they were not the best LOL, add to that his tyre was a Kryptotal Re (rear) on the front, which i'd obviously fitted in a hurry at Fort William, but it seemed to work OK there
After the baselines, they went to work on the getting the suspension dialled with the standard bike first. While they were doing that i went out and hit the long red loop with the new sections in there too and had a blast on my Fuel.

The afternoon brought in the TMD testing, but also a bit of a hugey for the boy who lost it, possibly due to mistakes but possibly due to slightly too much rebound on the back. It's all about rider feedback at this stage, along with what the data says of course, but a combination of rider/data to get the end result. As we've used Rich before, the boy knows what to expect and knows that just riding the bike isn't the answer, it's riding and thinking.

The only downside with the TMD testing was that the boy was getting a bit tired by the time we got to TMD runs, but was still putting down the pace hard, he's flying at the moment. I wasn't around for this testing as i just leave them to it, i'm not at their levels so i was fixing a puncture for a mates son along with grabbing a beer and talking shit with the blokes
But the reports for the TMD are that
1. He can notice it
2. The bike feels a chunk more stable.
3. He likes it
4. The weight doesn't adversely affect the ride.

All in all, very positive. I'll wait for the data sheets from Rich along with all the information that comes too, but i'm happy that both him and the boy are happy with the bike... (yeah yeah, despite it being too small lol)

The 'too small' bike thing is getting plans slowly put into place, but he's got an afternoon with Katy this week where there's hopefully a few questions and answers that'll come up and then the odds are a new bike will be ordered soon. Unless the question i think were being answered, are not..then, i have no clue

A load of mates of both him and me were at the Forest today, which made the day even better, i did some lapping with one of the parents, who as i know is a fair chunk quicker than me both up and down, but i think i made a reasonable fist of things and did OK, i hit a few features faster than i've ever done before and that cheered me up a lot But most importantly it showed that our upcoming house move is deffo the right plan..It'll be nice to finish the day at 4.45 and be home before 5

Into the garage nice and handy this morning...

Needed a surprising amount of jobs doing, it was one of those days where when you start, you find something else, then something else, then you're balls deep in bits, wheels, tyres and stuff.

first was sorting tyres. One of the fronts had a Kryptotal rear, so was swapped for a front. However when i then went to put that rear onto the rear i found a decent dink in the rear rim.... Which sadly meant the rear isn't holding air.
IMG-20250526-WA0003 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

I think it'll fix up fine, but wanted to take it to the LBS next week first as this was a bit of a test rim, so he can send feedback to them.

So a new rear wheel went in instead and i was checking the pads.
Yeah they're TOAST
IMG_20250526_092830 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

So that's a new set of pads and a full bleed along with a 'piston massage' done on the back end.

He was saying yesterday about having jumpy gears, but as we only had a new mech hanger (Burgtec) last week i thought it's more likely to be the indexing, as the cable end was frayed, a new gear inner went in and that's all done.
IMG-20250526-WA0016 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

As is common on DH bikes the triples creak where a bit of dust gets in between the uppers and clamps, so the forks were stripped, cleaned and put back together with a bit of grease on the bolts, you can hear it when you release one of the clamp bolts that it 'creaks' so needs a clean...

After that it was a new DMR Saddle installed and that's it, all good. Apart from a bit of a lack of wheels at the moment, which we'll get sorted this week, we're all good and ready for racing this weekend.

Lots of changes both front and rear with 10psi more in the front and 15psi more the rear Vivid.

5 clicks different in the Vivid rebound.

Quite different on the front end in terms of both rebound and LSC too.

I expect it'll ride pretty differently so may get him to do a few uplifts on DH this week if he's got energy.

So once again it's race weekend of course  

This one is Pearce, it's at a new forest/location known at Redwood. A few people have done an uplift day there, but as that was on the same weekend as Fort William, most missed the day and went there instead. From watching the videos it's very very 'Pearce' as you'd expect. They build tracks in the same sort of way wherever they go. Some steep, some twisty, a few jumps.. Typical sort of Shropshire off-piste type stuff blended into a bit of trail center as well.  It's generally great fun and i can't see why this will be any different. 

It'll be the usual weekend of camping fun with mates, banter, laughs and a bit of friendly rivalry as the majority of our mates will be finishing very close together come race day. So always a bit of needling and rivalry coming out  

We're back up to 2 rears at the moment, but weirdly the Halo which i couldn't get to seat/bead went straight on last night at LBS with the compressor, so he's heading in today to see if it stayed inflated. If it did, it's good to go i guess, but we've got a spare anyway with a brand new Kryptotal fitted on there so that's golden. 

The Pearce series is always cracking racing and him and mates should all go pretty well assuming they have clean runs. I'm most interested to see how he goes with the TMD. He's got an afternoon at FoD today with Katy to dial himself into the TMD and new settings as well. Again, really curious to see how that goes. 

We fitted the new jockey wheels yesterday which the LBS doesn't like much due to lack of float, so everything apparently needs to be perfect or they get a bit yukky. But he was having issues with SRAM jockeys dropping indexing onto the wrong cog of the narrow wide and this was the easy solution. Apparently it's quite a 'thing' ... but in truth until recently i've not seen it much/at-all.  Just another minor thing that's being tested lol.

The boy is trying to persuade me into the Frech Cup race in Les Menuires in Aug. Funnily enough we have an entry in it as i booked it in March and have been unable to cancel, but after the Euro Champs and stuff with work i was unable to do it. However part of our plans changed as the IXS in Bellwald clashes with the last Pearce race, so we'll stay here and do Pearce, but that frees up a bit of cash so he's trying to get me to do :

Return from Morzine, head straight to Llangollen for National.  Then on the Wed head to Les Menuires, race the French Cup, then drive back and after 2 days off head to the next Pearce LOL. I'm not even sure i can manage the annual leave for it, let alone the actual logistics without dying   So it's looking somewhat unlikely. 

weeksy wrote: Wed May 28, 2025 7:30 am
The boy is trying to persuade me into the Frech Cup race in Les Menuires in Aug. Funnily enough we have an entry in it as i booked it in March and have been unable to cancel, but after the Euro Champs and stuff with work i was unable to do it. However part of our plans changed as the IXS in Bellwald clashes with the last Pearce race, so we'll stay here and do Pearce, but that frees up a bit of cash so he's trying to get me to do :

Return from Morzine, head straight to Llangollen for National.  Then on the Wed head to Les Menuires, race the French Cup, then drive back and after 2 days off head to the next Pearce LOL. I'm not even sure i can manage the annual leave for it, let alone the actual logistics without dying   So it's looking somewhat unlikely. 

When in August? I've got some family coming out - one could drive to save you some time and I could do an airport pick up so you only have to drive one way at least? Les Menuires is a right turn a bit before the right turn for my resort!!

A bit random I suppose, but if the dates work, might help?

Also, there are often local people here wanting to go to or from the uk - could ask around if anyone is planning a trip that would fit to do some driving for you?

Not sure it will actually help you as you'll still have to come out and you'd have to trust someone random to drive the vehicle/bikes, but if you think it would, let me know

Noggin wrote: Wed May 28, 2025 5:33 pm

weeksy wrote: Wed May 28, 2025 7:30 am
The boy is trying to persuade me into the Frech Cup race in Les Menuires in Aug. Funnily enough we have an entry in it as i booked it in March and have been unable to cancel, but after the Euro Champs and stuff with work i was unable to do it. However part of our plans changed as the IXS in Bellwald clashes with the last Pearce race, so we'll stay here and do Pearce, but that frees up a bit of cash so he's trying to get me to do :

Return from Morzine, head straight to Llangollen for National.  Then on the Wed head to Les Menuires, race the French Cup, then drive back and after 2 days off head to the next Pearce LOL. I'm not even sure i can manage the annual leave for it, let alone the actual logistics without dying   So it's looking somewhat unlikely. 

When in August? I've got some family coming out - one could drive to save you some time and I could do an airport pick up so you only have to drive one way at least? Les Menuires is a right turn a bit before the right turn for my resort!!

A bit random I suppose, but if the dates work, might help?

Also, there are often local people here wanting to go to or from the uk - could ask around if anyone is planning a trip that would fit to do some driving for you?

Not sure it will actually help you as you'll still have to come out and you'd have to trust someone random to drive the vehicle/bikes, but if you think it would, let me know

Thank you but it's a gazillion miles away from any plans at the moment.
Just working on the logistics for Spain as we've just completed the entry for the European champs

But I really appreciate it

weeksy wrote: Wed May 28, 2025 5:45 pm

Noggin wrote: Wed May 28, 2025 5:33 pm

weeksy wrote: Wed May 28, 2025 7:30 am
The boy is trying to persuade me into the Frech Cup race in Les Menuires in Aug. Funnily enough we have an entry in it as i booked it in March and have been unable to cancel, but after the Euro Champs and stuff with work i was unable to do it. However part of our plans changed as the IXS in Bellwald clashes with the last Pearce race, so we'll stay here and do Pearce, but that frees up a bit of cash so he's trying to get me to do :

Return from Morzine, head straight to Llangollen for National.  Then on the Wed head to Les Menuires, race the French Cup, then drive back and after 2 days off head to the next Pearce LOL. I'm not even sure i can manage the annual leave for it, let alone the actual logistics without dying   So it's looking somewhat unlikely. 

When in August? I've got some family coming out - one could drive to save you some time and I could do an airport pick up so you only have to drive one way at least? Les Menuires is a right turn a bit before the right turn for my resort!!

A bit random I suppose, but if the dates work, might help?

Also, there are often local people here wanting to go to or from the uk - could ask around if anyone is planning a trip that would fit to do some driving for you?

Not sure it will actually help you as you'll still have to come out and you'd have to trust someone random to drive the vehicle/bikes, but if you think it would, let me know

Thank you but it's a gazillion miles away from any plans at the moment.
Just working on the logistics for Spain as we've just completed the entry for the European champs

No worries - if by some chance things almost fall into place, shout if a driver would help !!

Some days just turn into a farce

Yesterday he was at FoD and first plan was trail ride on the Fuel.. which started well until his cranks basically fell apart. Which is somewhat bizarre as 2 weeks ago he was out on them and it was all fine, no issue. But apparently the pinch bolts on the Shimano crank arm was less than finger tight... Mmmmm weird.
So he grabs the Session out of the van after an uplift from Mrs Weeksy.... she heads down and he then noticed he doesn't have pedals on it. So he has to do a top to bottom as there's no signal without any pedals on the Session. Heading down countdown/launchpad with nothing... lol.. nutter.

After that the afternoon went slightly better, although the next run he found he'd forgotten to do tyre pressures and had 33/10. I'd fitted a new tyre so the 33 was me leaving it after setting it on the bead
TMD he's liking for sure and happy now, i think he got 7-8 runs in yesterday playing.

Does any of this mean he REALLY needs his mechanic, or his mechanic should be sacked... i'm not sure

I’d be fumigating the van for a Gremlin infestation

Yesterday we put in his entry/paperwork for the World Championships. I'm 99% sure that at the moment he's 1-2 riders away from being in the squad, but it won't hurt him to apply at all. I don't think there'd be any disappointment from not getting in.

But on the flip side, how amazing is it to apply for a World Championship jersey and be in with a chance of getting it lol. It's utterly insane.

Weekend was going sweetly enough until about 20 min before his race run, then it went rainy. It's that weird misty rain that gets out wet without being big raindrops.

As we got closer to his run the rain continued making the track wetter for the later riders. As it's reverse order from championship position he was out late.

He came down in P2 on his run but with 2 fast lads behind him who both pipped him so finished 4th on run 1. 

It's continued to get and stay wetter so I'm not sure anyone can find more in run 2. But we have 2 hours until then, so who knows. 

His run wasn't bad he said but he wasn't sure how much to push in the conditions, it turns out a bit more was needed lol 

Both races score points for the overall, so it's still important to try and get a fast 2nd run. 

Rain rain rain. Runs were 10s slower so finished 4th

randr-photo-15781829-6048px-by-joe-breakwell-bps by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Lost his gloves again.

Tough but good weekend all round really. From practice 1 on Sat morning i can't say the boy was massively feeling the track, it was very new and some of the berms/corners were not holding as well as i think they hoped, but when you throw 200+ riders down them time and time again they take a massive beating.

He was trying new lines, particularly in the woods, which on race runs would work out well and he was one of only 3 taking this line but that ended up being 2nd quickest on the sector timing.

The bike was working lovely, with a few quirks on the gears so in the afternoon i ended up re-fitting the standard SRAM jockey wheels after removing the Hopes. Even with checking the mech, checking the alignment etc i still couldn't get the gearing perfect. Thoughts were that the Hope jockeys have 0 float in them which can make it really finicky on things.

The evening brought beer, banter and spannering as always, again as always none on our bike lol. It was various wheels, tubless setups, installing a new E-13 Sidkick wheel/setup , some brake bleeds and other various fun little jobs. But it was all spent with a beer in hand so i'm fine with that of course

Race day was smooth, apart from a buddy snapping his femur on the early triple, whoops. The boy just wasn't quite there in terms of speed for the win/podium. But he was right in the ball park. Run 1 he just didn't know how much the conditions had affected things and 1 major corner that was riding very loose he took really easy after the first big rain shower but apparently it had really helped that corner so lost a fair bit of time.

There's a long wait now he's in juniors at times throughout the day and the conditions were changing from minute to minute. But he wanted the Arogtals on so that's what he got. I wished i had the new compressor with me, but it was OK with the track pump if a little sweaty

Run2 again he was happy, his splits were decent but no-one was getting anywhere near their run 1 times, so his finish was about as good as it gets.

It's still a 3 hour drive to get home and by the time you get home you've got a tonne of stuff in the van to unload, the bike to re-wash and lube and not forgetting the washing, the cooking stuff and all the kit to dry like the gazebo lol