The journey from small guy to teenager...

[weeksy]

Code RSCs fitted and installed on the GT Fury. He'll be testing it quite a lot next week as we've got multiple days out on the DH bike.

2023-05-26_10-33-50 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

I'll get him to bed them in first of course. But they're installed, hose trimmed to length and re-bled to around about his preference in terms of lever feel. I'll be curious to see if he can run these a little closer to the bar and still get good pressure as he was running the Tech3's quite far out we felt, which may have been part of the resason he's getting hand ache... but that could also just be the levels of intensity of some of the courses he's been racing on.

We've got a few interesting developments in terms of 2024 race bikes, so just waiting to see how they all pan out, but in truth i don't think he'll be on a Fury next year.

[weeksy]

Had an annoying creak this weekend.

Pedally creak.

Swapped pedals, still there.

Stripped and checked all pivots, linkages, still there.

New chain, still there.

New bottom bracket, silence

[ChrisW]

Had an annoying creak this weekend.

Pedally creak.

Swapped pedals, still there.

Stripped and checked all pivots, linkages, still there.

New chain, still there.

New bottom bracket, silence

Hehe - why is it NEVER the first thing you swap out!

[weeksy]

[weeksy]

"oh, by the way, the Privateer was creaking yesterday"


Mmmmm ok.

Yup, creaking.

Stem, mmmm bit dirty and when you loosen a bolt that creaks, maybe. Ah damn, no.

Shock mounts, bearings checked, no.

Rear wheel, no

Top shock pivot linkage, no

Chainstay to linkage, no

Main pivot YES! Phew. Of course it has to be the one that means the crank needs to come off. But it's solved it with just a clean

[weeksy]

'We' are having some debates at home currently... I say we.. The lad doesn't massively get involved in them which is a little weird.

basically in 6 months time for next years racing, he'll have grown out of the Medium frames and be looking for a Large.

Current plan/options.

1. GT Fury frame, used in Large £800, swap all components off purple/blue onto it.
2. Santa Cruz V10 £6700 https://www.stifmtb.com/collections/san ... 2018492527
3. Specialized Demo £4500 https://www.balfesbikes.co.uk/bikes/mou ... old__48954
4. Used Scott Gambler from our suspension tech mate £3500
5. Alternative plan which may or may not happen and is secret (i know lol)

With DH bikes getting treated how they do, a bit abused and deffo pretty battered down trails, i'm leaning away from buying a used DH bike in many way, although the Scott above i know the owner and respect him and his skills keeping it nice.
The Fury frame is a nice and simple option of course, but i do wonder if 'something new' and different geometry etc may give him a bit 'more' in terms of speed, comfort, stability etc.. Maybe.... ish.

Whilst the V10 is clearly awesome, i'm not sure it's THAT awesome and spec pound for pound is relatively poor on the V10s compared to some others. However it's very very pretty.. but does that matter much when it's bouncing down a rock garden upside down

PArt of me wants to not have the GT so i can move on from the high pivot idler which at times i'm convinced causes more issues than it fixes. But we know the GTs well, know their quirks, good bits, bad bits and how they ride..

[Mr Moofo]

Just buy the frame - I doubt swapping brands is going to make a huge difference ( maybe marginal) . Going from a M to L will make far more difference !
It just better economic sense - plus in 12 months time, he may well need a XL.

The Santa Cruz is always the best choice for the Waitrose and Chablis set

But, as this is a Weeksy thread, it depends on how much you ant to spend 6k plus

[weeksy]

Just buy the frame - I doubt swapping brands is going to make a huge difference ( maybe marginal) . Going from a M to L will make far more difference !
It just better economic sense - plus in 12 months time, he may well need a XL.

The Santa Cruz is always the best choice for the Waitrose and Chablis set

But, as this is a Weeksy thread, it depends on how much you ant to spend 6k plus

Swapping the frame with DHs isn't always the simplest plan due to shock length/stroke, headsets stuff, BB/Cranks and even wheels.... nothing is often interchangable...So a direct frame swap can often mean 90% of components anyway.

Unless of course we went for the GT Fury, which is of course directly swappable between all bits.

[MingtheMerciless]

SC, have a chat with Bike Tart or Evolution Cycles to see if they can do a deal on one.

EVO do doggy discount so I can hire mine out to you at a good rate........ Alternatively mention my name and hear the tutting and muttering about bearings.

[Count Steer]

For £800 I'd go for the larger Fury frame and assess the benefit. If it works out, you've saved £££s. If it doesn't, you sell it and have a rethink. Worst case is spending, say, £6700 and not seeing any benefit...too risky for me.

What does 'Coach' think?

[weeksy]

SC, have a chat with Bike Tart or Evolution Cycles to see if they can do a deal on one.

EVO do doggy discount so I can hire mine out to you at a good rate........ Alternatively mention my name and hear the tutting and muttering about bearings.

SC there are currently no DH frames/bikes in large in existence.. i'm assuming there WILL be... but not yet... The problem with DHs is that very few actually make it to market.

We'd like a new GT Fury frame which is an all new one as of a few weeks ago... "you won't get one for at least a year" was the answer when we enquired. That's why i was looking at that Specialized above for example as it's not here until end of August, but can be purchased now.

[weeksy]

What does 'Coach' think?

We've not talked about it in depth in honesty.. She kinda leaves the DH side of things in terms of bikes etc down to us to make our own decisions. As i imply there's a side-discussion we have going on that i can't really get into at the moment which may change things, but that's a bit of an unknown at the moment in many many parts. We're over at the forest tonight and i may get 10 mins with her to go through a few aspects of it. Hopefully.

[weeksy]

Worst case is spending, say, £6700 and not seeing any benefit...too risky for me.

Well in simple terms, if we spent the £6700 he'd at the very least have a frame that fitted better in the coming year. That's not really open to debate in the context of 'benefit' but as above, i'm also not convinced the bike in itself will change his finishing position massively. He won't go from 24th to 10th purely by swapping bikes (i think)

[millemille]

What about Mondraker? Don't Sprung in FoD support the Mondy factory DH team, might be a way to get some top notch kit and support?

[weeksy]

What about Mondraker? Don't Sprung in FoD support the Mondy factory DH team, might be a way to get some top notch kit and support?

There's nothing that's not 'on' the list in many ways... but i must admit they've not come up in discussions. Summums are mostly (i'm not sure if ALL) 27.5 and at a minimum we want Mullet, but would be nice if it can be 29er fully compatible too if that's a road he goes down.

I was looking at this one the other day.
https://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/3634742/

Which is pretty sweet in truth... Only thing i don't like is the brakes, but they can easily be swapped/sold/whatever.

Support we already have from TFTuned as the team are sponsored by them, we have a day with TFTuned next weekend at Windhill to get his Privateer fully set-up as he's not quite gelling with the rear shock at the moment. So whilst the Mondraker (or anything else) isn't a bad shout, using certain companies in certain contexts is pretty complicated.

The politics of certain things can get somewhat cloudy as a rider and who/what/where/when can honestly get messy. So we stick to things in terms of kit/stuff that are 100% non-conflict to keep things simple.

[Mr Moofo]

TBH, I do not understand the obsession with Santa Cruz - sure, Steve Peat rode one. But he never had to buy it !

I would discuss the issue with the Katemeister before committing to anything - she may even be able to leverage deals

[weeksy]

TBH, I do not understand the obsession with Santa Cruz - sure, Steve Peat rode one. But he never had to buy it !

I would discuss the issue with the Katemeister before committing to anything - she may even be able to leverage deals

Yeah i hear you on that part... As i sit and watch DH there's a few obvious contenders in terms of big boys.

From say Saracen, Specialized, Santa Cruz, Commencal being the obvious. Commencal are written out of any thoughts, because they crack, they used to crack, they still crack (up to 2022, no-one knows on the 23s yet) so they're a NO.

But any given DH race and esepcially in the boys classes they can be won by anything and everything, from a Saracen, Mondraker, GT, Specialized and it's WAY more about the boy sitting on it than it is what they're riding. So i don't think there's such a thing as a bad bike these days. There's bikes that are arguably more reliable, or easier to work on, or easier to get parts for, which really is that it comes down to in some ways. So things like the internal routing on brakes REALLY irks me on a DH bike, if the boy chucks it in the floor then i want to be able to throw a new brake on in minutes, not spending 25 mins trying to re-route the cable internally. This is where things like the Fury makes me happy as removing a few of the quirks of the high pivot, it's still a simple thing to work on.

Katy is AWESOME in the things she's doing, but her focus is rightly on one particular brand, Privateer, so the only deal i would expect her to potentially broker/help with is Privateer based, but as we know, they make 161/141. she's also very much of the same belief as me that it's not going to be the bike that makes him faster/better. It'll come down to him and her making him faster and faster.

Was chatting with the lad a little earlier and we're just sitting waiting to see what happens with the Purple bike at the moment. It's up on Ebay and Pinkbike and has a bit of interest, but only as far as interest currently, not offers. What happens there will decide a few other parts of where/what we go for.

At the end of the day, it's not my decision, it's down to the lad... but it is down to me to guide him and of course to fund the bikes

[MingtheMerciless]

Trek Session?

Choice of internal or external routing.

[weeksy]

It's a nice option. Thoughts are the session is a bit more flighty, compared to say Demo which a bit slower steering and more stable

[weeksy]

Mid way through a long riding week.

Weds night was 3 hours of coaching for the lad on the Privateer. Spent some time with Katy trying to dial in his rear shock, the Privateer responds differently due to the kinematics and we're still not quite there with it. So it looks like we'll have a TFtuned tech soon to help us.
Today was an uplift day with the Fury at FoD and 12 runs for practice for him.

Whilst that was going on I took the Privateer out for the morning to Shutcastle and Dowies. I really enjoyed the 141 and how it rides. The rear isn't as plush as the Slayer but it's more poppy and arguably the longer reach means it's a bit nicer in some ways. I don't think I'll be chopping in the Slayer for one but it was ace.


Tonight we're back home instead of in a tent, then up early for a Pearce uplift day at Hopton as race practice, from there it's straight to accommodation before Sat at BPW. Not sure we'll have much left in us after that.

The lad is really working hard on bike setup, fitness, practice, speed and techniques, hopefully it'll all pay off