The journey from small guy to teenager...

[Mr Moofo]

Time for a wheel building course , methinks

That's certainly something i'm considering as an option yeah. I see wheels as a bit of a dark art, but i think the reality is, they're just wheels. Once you've done a couple, it'll be fine.

You see a fair few at various races at Pearce/wherever, but not tonnes.

If bike mechanics can build wheels ....

[Beancounter]

That's certainly something i'm considering as an option yeah. I see wheels as a bit of a dark art, but i think the reality is, they're just wheels.

I haven't done a wheel building course but I did build a couple of my own wheels. Far from perfect but perfectly serviceable for my riding. Was actually quite therapeutic and satisfying. I've got Roger Musson's 'Professional Guide to Wheel Building' which I can email to you if you fancy giving it a go yourself.

[weeksy]

That's certainly something i'm considering as an option yeah. I see wheels as a bit of a dark art, but i think the reality is, they're just wheels.

I haven't done a wheel building course but I did build a couple of my own wheels. Far from perfect but perfectly serviceable for my riding. Was actually quite therapeutic and satisfying. I've got Roger Musson's 'Professional Guide to Wheel Building' which I can email to you if you fancy giving it a go yourself.

i wonder if it's one of those things that gets easier when you just get on with it and starts making sense then

[Beancounter]

That's certainly something i'm considering as an option yeah. I see wheels as a bit of a dark art, but i think the reality is, they're just wheels.

I haven't done a wheel building course but I did build a couple of my own wheels. Far from perfect but perfectly serviceable for my riding. Was actually quite therapeutic and satisfying. I've got Roger Musson's 'Professional Guide to Wheel Building' which I can email to you if you fancy giving it a go yourself.

i wonder if it's one of those things that gets easier when you just get on with it and starts making sense then

Possibly, I never tried to do without guidance of some sort. From what I can remember, it's quite specific so even working out what length of spokes you need is crucial. It was certainly a lot easier with the right tools - using a dishing tool is way easier than just using a wheel stand, for example.

[Count Steer]

That's certainly something i'm considering as an option yeah. I see wheels as a bit of a dark art, but i think the reality is, they're just wheels.

I haven't done a wheel building course but I did build a couple of my own wheels. Far from perfect but perfectly serviceable for my riding. Was actually quite therapeutic and satisfying. I've got Roger Musson's 'Professional Guide to Wheel Building' which I can email to you if you fancy giving it a go yourself.

Intrigued. What was wrong with them? I always assumed that if they were round, had the right, even tension in them and ran true they were

I do remember the old chap at my local shop doing wheels and he seemed to do a lot of twanging spokes and listening and he appeared to do a lot of adjusting that seemed to be the opposite of what I expected. It seemed to be a bit of a dark art.

As a complete aside, I noticed that my Mrs was still using my old 'bonk bag' - branded by a shop that must have disappeared 30+ years ago - as a casual satchel

[Beancounter]

That's certainly something i'm considering as an option yeah. I see wheels as a bit of a dark art, but i think the reality is, they're just wheels.

I haven't done a wheel building course but I did build a couple of my own wheels. Far from perfect but perfectly serviceable for my riding. Was actually quite therapeutic and satisfying. I've got Roger Musson's 'Professional Guide to Wheel Building' which I can email to you if you fancy giving it a go yourself.

Intrigued. What was wrong with them? I always assumed that if they were round, had the right, even tension in them and ran true they were

I do remember the old chap at my local shop doing wheels and he seemed to do a lot of twanging spokes and listening and he appeared to do a lot of adjusting that seemed to be the opposite of what I expected. It seemed to be a bit of a dark art.

As a complete aside, I noticed that my Mrs was still using my old 'bonk bag' - branded by a shop that must have disappeared 30+ years ago - as a casual satchel

The spokes weren't evenly tensioned, and the dishing was slightly out (so the wheel line wasn't exactly centred). The wheels were perfectly serviceable for me around the Surrey Hills.

You can buy a tension meter from Park Tools which uses force but playing the spokes like a harp is apparently the best way. It's a very methodical process but does require patience to make sure you don't place unnecessary stress on the opposite side. Definitely a dark art. Satisfying to make something useful though.

I had to Google 'bonk bag'!

[Count Steer]

I haven't done a wheel building course but I did build a couple of my own wheels. Far from perfect but perfectly serviceable for my riding. Was actually quite therapeutic and satisfying. I've got Roger Musson's 'Professional Guide to Wheel Building' which I can email to you if you fancy giving it a go yourself.

Intrigued. What was wrong with them? I always assumed that if they were round, had the right, even tension in them and ran true they were

I do remember the old chap at my local shop doing wheels and he seemed to do a lot of twanging spokes and listening and he appeared to do a lot of adjusting that seemed to be the opposite of what I expected. It seemed to be a bit of a dark art.

As a complete aside, I noticed that my Mrs was still using my old 'bonk bag' - branded by a shop that must have disappeared 30+ years ago - as a casual satchel

The spokes weren't evenly tensioned, and the dishing was slightly out (so the wheel line wasn't exactly centred). The wheels were perfectly serviceable for me around the Surrey Hills.

You can buy a tension meter from Park Tools which uses force but playing the spokes like a harp is apparently the best way. It's a very methodical process but does require patience to make sure you don't place unnecessary stress on the opposite side. Definitely a dark art. Satisfying to make something useful though.

I had to Google 'bonk bag'!

they're known as 'musette' these days. The shop was A&C Sports and the bag may actually be 40+ years old. (They built my schoolmates bike, no expense spared, Anquetil frame etc. He joined the local club, won all the road races and then gave up cycling ).

[Mr. Dazzle]

Wheel building is what you move on to after you've mastered tig welding, piano tuning and rolling fags in a 45 knot breeze innit?

[weeksy]

Unrelated to that... we have some dates

British National DH Series.
Rheola 15-16 April
Fort William 6-7 May
Llangollen 8-9 July
Rhyd-Y-Felin 22-23 July NATIONAL CHAMPS
Glencoe 19-20 August
Antur Stiniog 23-24 Sept (clashes with Milland Southern Enduro)

All booked and paid.

Add that to spending nearly £17,000 on a van this week... it's been an expensive one !!!

[weeksy]

[weeksy]

Massive thanks to Charlie and Hannah at Singletrackworld.com towers. The boy has a load of new kit to wear, probably in spring when it warms a little, but tonight he's been living in the Camo hoodie

[weeksy]

Coaching was canned this weekend due to being closed.... We were supposed to be at Cwmcarn with Katy and the team getting coached and having uplift. But along with the rest of parts of UK, this was canned.
The day before we were also booked to race a little one at FoD, but that too was canned as the Ambulance couldn't get up the road if needed to mid-point.

So the boy has been off the bike, which probably isn't a bad thing with his shoulder, whilst he can ride, he's still far from 100% with it and some of his exercises are troubling and difficult. So we're taking it easy, hitting the Zwift bike and doing the best we can not to make things worse.

We need to make some plans for the coming week, but with the new Privateer 141 potentially arriving and a new request in from Katy to jump on a race at Western Bike Events in an Enduro in March, we're hanging off plans of where and when to ride over the festive time as we'd like to dial in the Privateer if it arrives in time, so would be more like a day at Afan and Surrey Hills, rather than a Rogate and a BPW. But we'll see how things play out in the coming next few days and what the Postie does or doesn't bring.

I was also considering a bit of a crazy one and an IXS Downhill Cup race, but both date conflicts and also the "WTF" from Mrs Weeksy seems to have taken that idea firmly away from us/him lol.

He's still not worn anything other than his new Singletrack clothing since it arrived...

[Beancounter]

... but with the new Privateer 141 potentially arriving...

What have I missed?

[weeksy]

... but with the new Privateer 141 potentially arriving...

What have I missed?

With his new team he was given a choice of a Privateer 141 or 161 as his play/training toy for next year. Katy his coach is looked after by Privateer and they're also supplying the team riders with bikes. Obviously there's a certain amount of Instagram/YouTube/etc needed for this, but other than that there's no requirement to race it or anything. We will be of course racing it, because that's what we do

There's also another fairly significant sponsor onboard for the team, but still waiting for when we're allowed to talk about that one.

[Beancounter]

With his new team he was given a choice of a Privateer 141 or 161 as his play/training toy for next year. Katy his coach is looked after by Privateer and they're also supplying the team riders with bikes. Obviously there's a certain amount of Instagram/YouTube/etc needed for this, but other than that there's no requirement to race it or anything. We will be of course racing it, because that's what we do

There's also another fairly significant sponsor onboard for the team, but still waiting for when we're allowed to talk about that one.

I didn't even realise J was signed to a team! Well done to him!

[weeksy]

Today’s update is the biggest one we've had with regards to weeksy08 and his racing.



A month or so ago we got an email when chatting which was very much out of the blue.

Since then it's been more and more mails, more discussions and more in the way of the plot thickening.

But the announcement today is that weeksy08 has signed to the newly created team of Katy Curd Coaching and the Privateer Young Guns.

073A7694 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Katy Curd Coaching. Katy has been waiting for years to be able to make this happen and I can't put into words just how proud we are to be part of the squad. It'll be a 3 rider team, he'll competing in DH and Enduro in 2023. Katy is an absolutely infectious personality and her passion comes out in spades every time we speak.

Both ourselves and her have long term goals, aims and dreams and they've all magically aligned and this opportunity has come up for us to race for her. Part of this team brings masses of coaching, guiding, on-course, off-course, at various locations and even on-race tuition, coaching and assistance. This will push James higher and harder, along with personal training and physical development to get him to the next level. It's going to be absolutely epic.

2023 we've got various targets, he will be DH racing in British National Downhill Series and Pearce DH events.Alongside that he will be racing in Southern Enduro series along with the Haibike Enduro series for 2023.

One of the other aims and goals is obviously Social Media content and progressing his development of all forms of media to enhance his personal profile. With this in mind, Instagram tagging, YouTube, Facebook etc will become an integral part of the future for the lad along with providing riding content on a regular basis. As you'll be aware, he's a very very stylish rider and jumper, so with a bit of time and effort he should be able to get some pretty impressive pics and videos.

https://www.youtube.com/@MrWeeksy59

https://www.rootsandrain.com/rider11196 ... s/results/

@weeksy08 on Instgram (please add the boy on Insta to increase his profile, he'll be entertaining, I promise you that.)

https://www.instagram.com/weeksy08/

https://www.instagram.com/katycurdcoaching/

https://www.instagram.com/foxmikemtb/

https://www.instagram.com/privateerbikes/

Sunday brought the first meeting of the team, all getting their new kit and starting to find their friendships within the crew. This was really one of the easiest parts as Katy has chosen her riders really well. They’re all really nice kids, polite, attentive and you can see how they formed bonds quickly, playing off each others’ strengths.

2022-11-20_03-06-21 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2022-11-20_03-05-33 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2022-11-24_10-42-30 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2022-11-24_01-23-04 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

The boy is working hard on training, fitness and core while off the bike, taking various classes on conditioning and developing his strength. As soon as he's back on the bike we've got days of uplift planned at all Pearce Racing event sites. Plus numerous coaching sessions with Katy and her team. We're waiting for dates for 2023 to come out for both the National Downhill Series along with Pearce events. Southern Enduro events will be taken as 'B' events, not meaning they're less important to his development but with the National and Pearce being the 'A' events, they will be giving different priorities in terms of booking.

We'll be spending quite a few hours on the road next year I think, with events in Scotland and Wales being fairly high up in the calendar, but we're very much looking forward to it.

Katy for anyone who doesn't know runs and owns

https://www.katycurdcoaching.com/ She raced at World Cup level obtaining multiple podiums in DH along with a pile of British Championships. But for us, it's her personality and coaching that meant within minutes of her offer, it was signed and sealed within the family and a response of "YES" was sent to her. The boy has been coached by her for a few years and we've tried other coaches, other courses but every time we've asked him “Let's go to Katy" is always his answer. She sees something in him and he sees something in her that means they have a brilliant bond.

He will currently be racing DH on his GT Furys, both the newer 2019 bike as his primary machine, now kitted up with the Rockshox Boxxer forks and Hope Pro4 wheels. Alongside that will be the older 2018 GT Fury, ready to roll with a 'muddy' setup, but its main function will be a a race spare.
For the Enduro races he'll be on a Privateer 141 very kindly supplied by Katy and Privateer bikes, he's really looking forward to this and hopefully the differences in terrain, fitness, strength etc of racinf Enduro will obviously also help with the DH racing.

2022-11-22_09-17-21 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Let’s see what 2023 brings !

@Beancounter

[weeksy]

Still getting back into practice, feeling his way in and dialling in the suspension

[weeksy]

Well that was slightly interesting. The boy has been saying "they still feel too soft" in reference to the Boxxers
.
Maybe I'd been too used to standard generic air forks being roughly 1psi per kg. So we started at 55psi, which was silly soft. Eventually moving to 81 and the Shockwiz pretty much agreeing on air pressure. However the lad still felt the front felt softer than he wanted on his last ride.

I was thinking about it earlier and asked myself "I wonder what Rockshox say"

https://trailhead.rockshox.com/en/tunin ... 0/DEBONAIR

For his weight, 96psi as the start point. Hmmm

So we'll be out tomorrow if his legs work after a 'leg' day today, but would be nice to see.

If not, we're at FoD on 27th and Hopton on 30th to play.

[weeksy]

It's been amazing the support we've had from many places and it seems according to Katy, more places to come.

The first of the Privateers is ready and the boy decided last night on his colour scheme as Black is out of stock in P2.

So he's gone for the pale green version.



Once that arrives we've got multiple non-riding videos for the first installments with the Privateer, all will become more apparent when we get the bikes delivered.. but it'll be cool and fun

There's 10,000 other things Katy is working on with the boy and in the background, everything from nutrition, to training to riding and many many other aspects. I doubt the lad quite grasps how lucky he is in all of this and the chance he's getting, but i do hope so.

One of the minor curveballs in there is some of the Enduro racing, but whilst the lad hasn't quite got the Enduro bug, he'll be putting the time in to get there. One of the surprising things in there relating to that is Katys acceptance of Ebikes for this. The logic being 20 runs of practice is better than 5... Which of course does make sense. So we've got a couple of Xmas break days out planned where he'll be on the Bike and running multiple sessions to my slow manual bike sessions. But with the recent massive outlay to get a Transit Custom for next year, there's simply not budget to get an Eeb for myself... Not happening. But the lad even when he's not that keen on a bike (as with the Liv Eeb) he just rides it hard anyway and seems to have fun.

I'm borrowing a camera from a mate today, just to see if we can get better media pics, he's got a new super GoPro arriving at the weekend for videos too, so we'll be boring the beejaysus out of everyone by the 27th with videos and pics lol, apologies in advance.

[weeksy]