The journey from small guy to teenager...

[weeksy]

Sometimes i get blown away by people and their help. We've been having discussions with TFTuned about the new Vivid and settings. Ruth was slightly concerned that we're sort of cobbling plans together rather than having a defined solution.

"Why don't we just fit a new set of Zebs and a Vivid Coil for the rest of the year".... I mean SERIOUSLY... how bloody nice are they....

I love the fact that people really can and will do just about anything to help the lad out.

[weeksy]

IT's been the usual insanity of riding, playing, sorting lately.

This weekend brings National DH series again at Antur Stiniog. In the proper wastelands of North Wales near Ffestiniog. The riding, terrain and camping at somewhat harsh, with it being 99% rocky stuff.



Last weekend brought testing of both bikes, his trail/enduro bike and his DH bike.
DH bike had testing of high and lower rise bars, with once again the higher rise bars winning the timed testing, so they're on for the weekend. I also picked up one of the slightly wobbly and now less wobbly rear wheels from LBS at Rotec.
Along with now sorting bike i've got shoes to get ready with cleats, all the riding kit and then we need to head out food shopping so we've got enough for the weekend. He's doing a pre-race test day on the Friday but won't put in as many laps as possible so he can save a bit of energy for the weekend.

Trail bike had sprint laps at FoD with him and a mate racing eachother both up and down the hill as part of the training. He seemed to enjoy the Vivd a bit more than previously so hopefully we're getting along the correct lines of sorting it. We'll see though what the next few weeks brings in terms of suspension and stuff.

It's the boys last day of school today as well, would you believe that, he turns 18 in 8 weeks time... gone are the days of him being tiny.

[weeksy]

https://my.raceresult.com/398220/#0_E78090

Practice today but is timed. Rider 30 in junior

[superstu]

Decent run, looks like he’s just outside the top ten.
When is seeding / race day…presumably AM then PM tomorrow?

[weeksy]

Yeah National is seeding 12ish and then racing about 4 for him.
Run wasn't bad. Needs to find 5-7s today really

Fuck me it was horrifically windy last night, well, still is today actually. Character building is thibk they call it. Nearly lost gazebo multiple times

[Mr Moofo]

When does he stop being a junior ? 18?

[weeksy]

When does he stop being a junior ? 18?

Yeah. End of this year is end of juniors. He'll then go into experts and if he continues, Elites

[weeksy]

There wasn't a lot really to mention from my last post even though it was a race weekend. It all went off pretty smoothly really.

Sunday was pretty damn windy, but down the bottom was fairly OK, up top though they were cold and getting blown about all over the place. But the boy stuck in a 2:34.9 which was his fastest time of the weekend which put him in P18.
He was happy with his run, it felt good.

The bike was checked, sorted and fettled, but really this was sort of a dream bike weekend where apart from setting tyre pressures you do very very little. He was fed and sent out. It was warmer now, but still not toasty lol. But he was feeling OK.

As a parent when you're at the bottom i find you're clock-watching the other riders as they pop into view and seeing how long they take to get to the bottom from there... So when your rider pops into view you know roughly where they need to be in terms of time to be competitive. I'm waiting for him and as usual i wouldn't say i'm nervous as such, but there's a tension for the result, for the time as much as anything. A lot of parents have the fear of crashing etc, but that doesn't really happen for me, it's more a fear of disappointment.

Fortunately that didn't happen. He popped into view about the right time and came past the line into P1 (which in theory you should do on a race run due to seeding). It didn't last long of course, but he ended up P13.
It could be argued we wanted better than P13 at the start of the year, but with some new people coming in and some old people finding more speed, P13 is actually bloody great. As with all sports in the world, the game is being upped and upped day in day out and DH is the same, it's just SOOOOO competitive and the riders are honestly incredible. He's beaten 3-4 of the lads who were consistently beating/matching him last year, so it's hard to say he's not getting better, he really is.. It's just that some are getting BETTER at the moment and that's simply how it is.
He doesn't get that 13th in the UK is amazing all the time, sometimes he gets disappointed with that, but that's the nature of competitive sports of course.

We eventually got home just after 9pm and i've now got a shit-tonne of stuff to sort out as in a few days time we're off to Fort William for an IXS European Downhill Cup race. That's a whole other world of crazy this weekend... so it's kit sorting, bike sorting and prepping this week. Can't wait. lol.

[weeksy]

Stripped fully, cleaned and sorted. Ready for the weekend. There was a bit of a build up in the chainguide jockey wheel, which needed sorting, a couple of bolts needed some loctite on there and just a general clean up. Sadly to get to the chainguide and the bolts, it's cranks and things off, so a little fiddly, but nothing too complex.

20260511_111038 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

20260511_111043 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

20260511_111048 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

20260511_111053 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

[weeksy]

IMG-20260511-WA0000 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

[weeksy]

[Nordboy]

How's he getting on with the Atherton?

[weeksy]

How's he getting on with the Atherton?

Great thanks. Very very happy.

He's in a tough place where he feels like he's lost speed, but he's gained speed, just not as much as some people. But he's beating 3 who were rivals last year pretty regularly as they've not improved by as much as him. Its so so hard for all of them to keep improving, keep pushing and pushing.

I don't think any of his issues are Atherton related though.

[superstu]

Bike looks mint. Random question but do you put some helicopter tape where the Velcro straps on the number board are? I rubbed half a headtube off once with a number board during a very wet event

[weeksy]

Nope, but there are 2 bits on top of bottom clamp. But its pretty soft material.

Its a really easy bike to clean.

Forks are off for service after the weekend with TFtuned and the frame is getting a full bearing replacement by Rotec as I am heading riding lol. Got a lot going on at the moment so someone else can take care of the bird stuff for a day or 3

[superstu]

the frame is getting a full bearing replacement by Rotec

Did I see a few posts back you changed them in mid April? Do they chew through them that quickly? Or is this just erring on the side of caution and making sure everything is 100% mint?

Apologies if I am being dumb

[weeksy]

the frame is getting a full bearing replacement by Rotec

Did I see a few posts back you changed them in mid April? Do they chew through them that quickly? Or is this just erring on the side of caution and making sure everything is 100% mint?

Apologies if I am being dumb

I regreased them. Refilled.

Its been a hard hard winter and we hit all conditions day after day in winter.
The trail bikes very rarely get any, but dh its a different game

[superstu]

Yeah that’s fair weeksy, never had a designated DH bike and it doesn’t get the same amount of abuse.

I went to one of the talks Minaar did around the UK a few years back and he was mentioning how he can tell the slight difference to his bike,

Good luck for the weekend, will keep an eye on here

[weeksy]

So the weekend brings a slightly complicated Fort William trip. Normally we'd hit the road by Thurs for this as there's a couple of hours practice session on Friday. However this week the boy has a Psychology A-level exam until 11am on Fri so we're not leaving until after that, which means 10-11pm arriving at Fort William.. (hopefully). It's going to be a LONG day that's for sure.
We've got 4 rear wheels, 3 front wheels and some spare rims as well... Which i really really hope will last us the weekend. But you never know at this place.
I'm pretty happy that both the boy and the bike are in a good place though, so hopefully we'll go have some fun.

[DirkPitt74]

Good luck this weekend.
Just seen Danny Hart post on FB - looks like a few more grass sections added to the course for this one.