The journey from small guy to teenager...

[weeksy]

[Crosshair]

Some sic edit that

[weeksy]

Another day of coaching for the lad, along with a day playing for me.



He also did some daft chute which is like a blood cliff face in reality. It goes down about the same height again to the bottom.
2023-02-16_08-46-51 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[Count Steer]

Odd, the Instagram link takes me to something completely different.

Saw it earlier on Instagram though. He looks really comfortable on the bike, really in control and enjoying it.

[weeksy]

Odd, the Instagram link takes me to something completely different.

Saw it earlier on Instagram though. He looks really comfortable on the bike, really in control and enjoying it.

Yeah he's loving the thing. Which is great as he's coming back beaming after every ride at the moment, which is of course the whole reason behind it.
Rest day tomorrow and the bikeparkwales on Sat. All this playing is killing me!

[Count Steer]

Odd, the Instagram link takes me to something completely different.

Saw it earlier on Instagram though. He looks really comfortable on the bike, really in control and enjoying it.

Yeah he's loving the thing. Which is great as he's coming back beaming after every ride at the moment, which is of course the whole reason behind it.
Rest day tomorrow and the bikeparkwales on Sat. All this playing is killing me!

Links working now.

[Mr Moofo]

Odd, the Instagram link takes me to something completely different.

Saw it earlier on Instagram though. He looks really comfortable on the bike, really in control and enjoying it.

Yeah he's loving the thing. Which is great as he's coming back beaming after every ride at the moment, which is of course the whole reason behind it.
Rest day tomorrow and the bikeparkwales on Sat. All this playing is killing me!

( you know you need one )

[weeksy]

Odd, the Instagram link takes me to something completely different.

Saw it earlier on Instagram though. He looks really comfortable on the bike, really in control and enjoying it.

Yeah he's loving the thing. Which is great as he's coming back beaming after every ride at the moment, which is of course the whole reason behind it.
Rest day tomorrow and the bikeparkwales on Sat. All this playing is killing me!

( you know you need one )

A rest or a Privateer ? I'd own one tomorrow, no issues on that.. I like em. But wouldn't give me anything the RM doesn't already. However if Privateer were to hand me a 161 in Ohlins trim.... I'd find it very hard to refuse. Sadly, i have about 1/20th of the talent of the boy.

[Count Steer]

I admit, I'm intrigued. I don't understand a lot of the technical stuff about the spannering and changes you make (only just found out what a dropper is ). He looks, even to my untrained eye, happier, more aggressive? etc on the new bike.

So. What is it about the bike that makes the difference? Could his other bike(s) be modded to be equivalent or is there something very different about the new one?

Ta.

[weeksy]

I admit, I'm intrigued. I don't understand a lot of the technical stuff about the spannering and changes you make (only just found out what a dropper is ). He looks, even to my untrained eye, happier, more aggressive? etc on the new bike.

So. What is it about the bike that makes the difference? Could his other bike(s) be modded to be equivalent or is there something very different about the new one?

Ta.

Yeah i think that's a slight misconception. It's a combination really of both him liking the new bike, but some of his coaching paying off and his boddy position, movement etc all now coming into play. Back 6 months ago he was quicker than the mates, but in recent months they've either caught him up or he's dropped back to them, but in recent riding they looked quicker than him. However now, he's honestly back to destroying them on trails. Which is amazing to see again. Mostly down to him and Katy, but some may be down to the bike as he finds it light, flickable, quick turning etc compared to his DH bike... but that's the whole thing really, the DH is lower, stable, hits anything, but the 141 can be flicked, popped and thrown about. You can't really make the DH more of that though due to weight, tyres, double crown forks, geometry.

He's racing next weekend and i'm going to send him down it on the 141 in practice as well as the DH, because at certain places and this being one of those, i think he'd be quicker on the trail bike. We'll try to time it to see, so hopefully we'll get some data and a comparison.

It's exciting times as i feel his speed is coming together at the moment and he'll obviously do a bit better in some of the races if that's the case. A tester for it all is tomorrow at BikeParkWales as not only are his mates going but his faster team-mate, so will be interesting to see if the boy can stay with him. It'll be slightly skewed as my lad knows BPW pretty well, but Drew hasn't been there. So will even itself out quite a bit.

[Count Steer]

Looking forward to the BPW report.

(It's also nice to see that investment in good coaching (and lots of practice!) pays off in performance and enjoyment terms too ).

[weeksy]

Looking forward to the BPW report.

(It's also nice to see that investment in good coaching (and lots of practice!) pays off in performance terms too ).

I honestly think that depends on the type of person. I'm not sure i'm able to be taught, i listen, try, practice, but i don't think any of it really goes in and stays there. The youngies though can seem to just be a sponge, suck in the info and then implement it... it's just not what fat old 50s can do though.

[Count Steer]

Looking forward to the BPW report.

(It's also nice to see that investment in good coaching (and lots of practice!) pays off in performance terms too ).

I honestly think that depends on the type of person. I'm not sure i'm able to be taught, i listen, try, practice, but i don't think any of it really goes in and stays there. The youngies though can seem to just be a sponge, suck in the info and then implement it... it's just not what fat old 50s can do though.

Us old dogs, new tricks etc... Wish I'd had some proper m/cycle training when I was 17+ rather than 50! I think I'd have been a lot better rider through the years - quicker, but safer.

[weeksy]

Jeez that was a bit of a morning...
3 bikes stripped, cleaned, sorted. The Mallet DH pedal on the blue Fury needed a bearing sorting, i'll get some new bearings ordered, but a clean and regrease has got it fairly OK for now.
But FFS how much mud, mess, dirt can you get on a bike in a day.... Although i wonder how much of the dirt came from the uplift rather than the trails.

The boy had an awesome day and was flying down the trails with his team-mate Drew. I was 'chasing' them down some reds, but chasing kind of implies there was a way i'd catch them, but that wasn't going to happen was it
They then hit some blacks, 50 shades of black for example, which is outside of my depth of talent, so i had to leave them to it.

We had a weird little problem with his rear mech on the DH bike which had 'moved/slipped' in some way, i've not massively looked into what yet, but the boy and a mate sorted it while i was out on the trails.

Couple of days off for both of us now until we hit FoD and Stile Cop next weekend.

2023-02-19_09-18-34 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

So there's been some 'shock' issues and discussions this week.

The boy bottom'd out the shock at BPW on the 50 Shades bigger drop.. So we whipped the shock of the purple bike to fit to the blue. Reason is that the purple bike has shock with 400 spring, the blue has a 350... however after testing we couldn't get it feeling as nice, which seems to be caused by a siezed/broken rebound adjuster. It moves but doesn't affect the rebound.
Sadly the MArzocchi Bomber CR shock also has issues as the first 50% of travel is very sluggish and slow, with the remaining having a clunk in it too.

So both of these need attention/service/something.

A call to my mate at RSR Suspension and we now have a new shock and a few spare tyres.
2023-02-22_03-49-52 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2023-02-22_03-49-46 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

The boy loves the new shock, really happy.
We did have some interesting times when fitting as the pin that holds it was a struggle to get in the new hardware.

2023-02-23_08-46-25 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2023-02-23_08-46-19 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2023-02-23_08-46-14 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

It was using the push end cap type which seem to allow a bit more freedom and of course movement. We wanted the full bushing which spreads the load better.

I called the GT expert who had a spare straight one and it was soon installed.

So it's now on with new hardware.

Need a bit more work on pressure as it's a smidgen soft, but he's loving the DH bike at the moment for sure.
Busy weekend coming up!

[weeksy]

https://sicd.co.uk/product/shock-bolt-f ... 2019-2021/

That's not an unreasonable price. Ordered one as a spare.

[weeksy]

Coaching day for the team then straight to Stile Cop race and a quick practice before they closed the course, walking back up the course to pick out his lines to try in the morning.



Excited boy for tomorrow

[weeksy]

Race day. Sunny, dry and cooolllllld

[Crosshair]

Have a good one Team Weeksy