The journey from small guy to teenager...

[weeksy]

We'll be moving in about 18 months when he finishes A levels, not quite to Wales but somewhere between Coleford and Monmouth.

[weeksy]

I wasn't happy today with the shifting on the Session. It shifted OK between gears up and down but 4/5 were a little skippy, just every now and again you can feel where it's not perfect on the workstand. No matter how much i played with the indexing it was just a fraction from spot on. 

This is where sometimes i think i'm a bit of a nutter, the boy hasn't mentioned it, but we all know by now, it's either perfect or it's not... there's no middle ground.

So i thought "shall i fit a new gear cable" but then moved onto "you know what i may as well throw a new mech on as well" , the old one has done 18 months or so of DH and even though it's nice enough, well, who knows if it'd be better. The pivot at the hanger is a little draggy, so i thought "why not". 

New cable and shifter and it's absolutely lovely... every gear just instantly perfect, snick, snick, snick. Sweet.

Also threw on the new top guide.

IMG_20250203_132403 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

IMG_20250203_132200 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

Time to start getting organised for Europe in summer. The plan is still a little loose as the European Championships still isn't announced for location or date, but it's possible we'll be spending 3 weeks over in Europe, how much of that is in accomodation and how much sleeping in the van is open to debate/finances lol.

First booking is the UCI Continental race at Les Menuires on the 24th Aug, we're planning on getting there a few days before potentially to scope it out and maybe pre-ride the track. THE UCI races give the chance (maybe not a massive chance) or scoring UCI points, this could/may ultimately decide a few things for 2026 and beyond.
I think the accomodation is smaller than our garage lol. But it's got a bathroom to clean ourselves, a stove type thing for some food and sort of beds.. that'll do nicely.

[weeksy]

The day was spent at Tirpentwys yesterday with 13 laps done for the boy and his mates. It's a place he knows well and a great little self uplift spot with maximum time and fun. The 2 mates haven't been there before and struggled to get up to speed, which did show us a lot about how important it is to get track knowledge at places we don't know as well as some.
The boy was trying some other tracks than his usual ones as well which were steep ones and commented how superb the Mavens are on them as a lot of the time on tracks he's not really braking much, sometimes just a drag, but there on steeper stuff and needing to scrub off speed hard, they're apparently amazing (which pleases me lots of course)

He was doing this little gap at the bottom, which looks honestly pathetic in the video but it's so so much trickier in real life as where you land is on the back of a 3' drop and you've got a tonne of speed into the wall corner, but as i say, the video doesn't really show it sadly.

[Mr Moofo]

We'll be moving in about 18 months when he finishes A levels, not quite to Wales but somewhere between Coleford and Monmouth.

You do realise that everyone in Coleford plays a banjo and has the same surname ?

[weeksy]

We'll be moving in about 18 months when he finishes A levels, not quite to Wales but somewhere between Coleford and Monmouth.

You do realise that everyone in Coleford plays a banjo and has the same surname ?

We'll break that cycle then But the reality is, for us, Coleford or similar and even as far as Monmouth makes complete sense.
Neither of us work in the office any more
We get more beds/space/rooms for the money
We can do FoD in 5 mins
We can do Ponty and Pearce in under an hour and Dyfi/Llangollen in 2 hours instead of 3.5.
I'll be able to get up on a Sat morning, get kitted up, go riding on super trails and be home by 11am, whereas at the moment i'm home by 5pm. It takes it's toll on Mrs Weeksy in terms of being sitting at home, but this way she can shoot out for a cup of tea and cake and it's 5 mins down to Parkend to meet up etc.
The only downside if you can call it that is not being in as easy a location for places like London, but that bothers me 0%

Option 2 is closer to Ludlow but that doesn't tick the box of making the boys commute to work (assuming he's doing as expected) as easy as it would if we lived in FoD.

[Mr Moofo]

We'll be moving in about 18 months when he finishes A levels, not quite to Wales but somewhere between Coleford and Monmouth.

You do realise that everyone in Coleford plays a banjo and has the same surname ?

We'll break that cycle then But the reality is, for us, Coleford or similar and even as far as Monmouth makes complete sense.
Neither of us work in the office any more
We get more beds/space/rooms for the money
We can do FoD in 5 mins
We can do Ponty and Pearce in under an hour and Dyfi/Llangollen in 2 hours instead of 3.5.
I'll be able to get up on a Sat morning, get kitted up, go riding on super trails and be home by 11am, whereas at the moment i'm home by 5pm. It takes it's toll on Mrs Weeksy in terms of being sitting at home, but this way she can shoot out for a cup of tea and cake and it's 5 mins down to Parkend to meet up etc.
The only downside if you can call it that is not being in as easy a location for places like London, but that bothers me 0%

Option 2 is closer to Ludlow but that doesn't tick the box of making the boys commute to work (assuming he's doing as expected) as easy as it would if we lived in FoD.

Monmouth and the Wye Valley is lovely. A bit of a contrast to the Thames Valley. I used to go to Coleford to visit the Ribena / Lucozade factory. TBF, they do you knves and forks in Coleford, Cinderford is another matter.
Bristol in nearby - you can hang our with Greeny, lay down some beats and roll a big fat dooby together!

How often do you have to be in the office - or is that never?

[weeksy]

How often do you have to be in the office - or is that never?

Once or twice a year.

[weeksy]

[Mr Moofo]

^ looking at that clip , I cannot see how you have enough time to react to the track / events/ etc. Does he have incredibly fast reactions , or how does he learn the course?

[weeksy]

^ looking at that clip , I cannot see how you have enough time to react to the track / events/ etc. Does he have incredibly fast reactions , or how does he learn the course?

Well without being too flippant, his are no better than the people who beat him lol.
But as to the rest, I think he sees it differently to me or you and id just so much in control it's insane.
He deffo goes faster on tracks he knows, but of course even that doesn't make it any less impressive.
You'd almost think watching it that it's been sped up, but I promise you it hasn't.

Honestly, you should make the trip over the last weekend in March to FoD just to see how fast he/they ride. He's far from the only one. But you see them and as you say above, you just think "how's that even possible"

Somehow though it is.

[Mr Moofo]

^ looking at that clip , I cannot see how you have enough time to react to the track / events/ etc. Does he have incredibly fast reactions , or how does he learn the course?

Well without being too flippant, his are no better than the people who beat him lol.
But as to the rest, I think he sees it differently to me or you and id just so much in control it's insane.
He deffo goes faster on tracks he knows, but of course even that doesn't make it any less impressive.
You'd almost think watching it that it's been sped up, but I promise you it hasn't.

Honestly, you should make the trip over the last weekend in March to FoD just to see how fast he/they ride. He's far from the only one. But you see them and as you say above, you just think "how's that even possible"

Somehow though it is.

I will see if i can ...

[weeksy]

[weeksy]

Llangollen today.



Been a crazy few days with Cwmcarn twice, Dyfi, Llangollen and if weather allows we'll be at Llangollen again tomorrow.

[Dodgy69]

Jeez...

[weeksy]

Got to love a pivot bearing swapping in hotel room with cider

IMG_20250220_193727 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

[Dodgy69]

I prefer Crumpton Oaks with my grease.

[weeksy]

I prefer Crumpton Oaks with my grease.

That was all they had apart from Doom Bar. Wasn't my preference but sometimes you take what you can get.

[weeksy]

Half term, jeeez that's hard work.

Sunday was Cwmcarn, Wed was again Cwmcarn, this is the location for the first National DH and a course very few will have ridden or visited, so we're heading there a bit to get in some time and learn the track. The bottom section is closed but it's jump jump fast jump, they all do that brilliantly so doesn't matter with it being closed. It's a bit pedally at the top and some 'maybe' gaps that he's been practicing and some gaps in the steeper section before the tunnel. Didn't really get to play with anyone other than his mate Isaac who we've ridden with a lot so don't always get to see the others we could practice with. A lad we know from the Sterlands team was there on Weds but the boy didn't get to the top at the same time. He was using the Mondraker all morning and then in the afternoon i used the Orbea to tow him to the top on his Session so he could get some fast laps in. Considering he thought he was flying in the morning, he went 5s quicker in the afternoon on the DH.
From there it was up to Dyfi for Thurs, beers in the evening were great but can't say it was the best nights sleep ever lol.
Dyfi was typically Welsh in terms of weather. Trails slightly wet, but OK for an hour, then it walloped down for the next 2-3 hours.
I spent that time fixing the cafe chefs brakes and sorting a guy with a Session out with a mino link and bolt he'd lost on the trail, luckily i carry spares of most Session bolts.
The boy wasn't exactly loving it, i'd been out for a run up/down Climachx trail and it was just a river of water everywhere lol. At 1pm he came down for food and bailed on the day. I was struggling to argue.
So we headed towards Wrexham Premier Inn for the night, but near there we passed a sign for Llangollen of 11 miles and it was dry(well, dry for Wales), so we went to Llangollen for a few hours and 6 runs there. The track have some proper steep bits and it's a good fast techy track (sadly you don't see this on GoPro).

This morning we got up for a lazy breakfast at 7.45 and cruised over to Llangollen for the day. unfortunately it was a complete no-no as it was 50mph wind stopping play, we walked over at the top for a look at the trail and were nearly blown over the side of the hill, so sadly we called it a day and jumped back in the van and home.

The afternoon will be spent with a washer, a washing machine, a pile of cleaning cloths and cleaning/lube stuff. We've got a tonne of stuff that needs cleaning and sorting as potentially we're heading to Cwmcarn on Sunday with the coach

[weeksy]

Well that's complicated lol

European champs is 1-3 Aug at La Molina, northern Spain near Andorra.
Considering the UCI race is 23-24 Aug that makes life slightly tricky lol

I suspect we'll be driving down, then back for 2 weeks, then down again lol.