01/03/18
Woke up to news that the race on Sunday has been cancelled due to adverse weather conditions and the fact that we have a red weather warning for the next 2 days even though we have about 1mm of snow at the moment. Because of this I have cancelled my hotel and we will have to find something else to do for the weekend. Pretty glad really as my bike if far from being 100% at the moment and I haven been able to ride it for 2 weeks. I put my 20″ Yess up for sale yesterday as I need the money to buy dome new hubs for the Curtis as all of the options that I have (Stealth, Onyx and Profile are all £500 or more a set.
I heard today that a new sprag for my rear Onyx hub is £90 so I have ordered it to get the dialled back in race condition ready for the next race on the 18th of this month. Hopefully once this is done the bike will be OK for the rest of the season until the Curtis is ready to ride.
I can’t see myself riding any time soon as the weather is really bad so I am going to organise my bikes and try and get them sold. To clear some space in the shed for the new Dialled StayStrong and the Curtis once it is built up and also to get some money back in to the bank to pay for everything.
Bought new Stealth 20mm Hubs today with custom axles for my Curtis bike. They will be posted tomorrow so hopefully by the end of the month I will have them built up and I will finally be able to ride my Curtis. Can’t wait.
20/03/18
Hubs arrived this morning so will take them to Crucial probably Thursday to get them built up. Can’t wait.
22/03/18
Took the hubs to Crucial this afternoon to get built up. I also bought some higher bars for the dialled StayStrong as the ones on it are too low for me.
I have the day off tomorrow so I am going to go to Bristol and practice the first straight ready to race on Sunday.
I can’t wait as I haven’t been able to ride much at all this month as the weather has been really crap and also all the tracks near me have been having work done so couldn’t be ridden.
23/03/18
Had a really good days riding today. Got to Bristol track by 7.30 this morning and got 4 hours in on the first straight and got it as good as I could get it as the second jump is way too big to do anything really.
My friend from the club has Fridays off now and he met me at the track about 9.30 as well and we swapped ideas of how to get through the straight quickly and what looked smoother.
After Bristol we popped over to Bath to check out the new first jump and remodelled last straight. We were allowed to ride both and both are really good.
I had to leave at 15.00 to pick up my son from school and get ready to go to Matt’s training in Trowbridge. I took the dialled StayStrong to have a play on and really loved it feels much better now it has higher bars on it. It is definitely going to be my pumptrack/play bike from now on. I just need to get the rear wheel moved back a little as the wheel is too close to the frame when pushed right forwards as it is now. I also want to get some chain tensioners on it as well as the wheel seems to shift a bit when I peddle.
24/03/18
Had a rest from riding today as my legs were sore from all of the riding yesterday. I went to the track in the morning and helped out a bit with the tidying up after the work had finished and then stayed on the sofa for the rest of the day.
25/03/18
Did the last Bristol series race today. My legs were hanging and I almost didn’t race but I decided to try it and it payed off as I got 1st,2nd,1st and won the final easily. Not bad seeing I had no legs.
Wasn’t really comfortable with the first straight at all today because out of the gate you hit it really quickly and everyone was pretty much bunched up which made it pretty sketchy. My manuals were really sketchy but looking at photos from the day I had actually managed to get a bikes length in front of the next fastest guy so my training paid off apart from the aching legs as I was much more relaxed than everyone else.
I gated really well all day only hitting the gate once in my second moto and as there is no way to make up lost ground easily I came second in that moto.
To top it all off I finished the series in 4th even though I missed a couple of races due to injury.
Feeling pretty good about how the off season has panned out my fitness has got much better and I am definitely much faster than I was this time last year.
26/03/18
Woke up early to go to the track but I decided to rest instead as my legs are still really sore and I need them back to normal by Wednesday as I am going to be riding loads at the end of the week.
27/03/18
Had the day in bed with a sore throat and temperature so didn’t do anything except watch TV and buy some stuff on ebay and facebook. I bought a frame and cranks to build up a bike for my Son to go with the answer wheels and pure seat that I picked up from my friend at the weekend. Once the bike is built I will post some pictures online. I bought a Haro Race lite expert xl frame from ebay and some shimano 170mm cranks off of a facebook group as well. I am going to use all of the parts off of my Yess 20″ to build it up and then sell the Yess Frame if I can. I also have a dialled pro frame that needs painting coming so I will get that powder coated in the next couple of months and keep it in the shed ready for when my Son out grows his new Haro frame.
28/03/18
Still feeling crappy and also the weather is pretty bad so going to have another rest day. I am going to strip down the Yess 20″ ready for the Haro Frame’s arrival and get the tyres on the new wheels and also a cog on the back wheel. I may also pop into Crucial to drop off my Frame ready to be built up when the wheels are built.
29/03/18
Went to Leckhampton pump track this morning with a friend and his boys but it was raining so we went to http://www.flyupdownhill.co.uk/flyup-417-project/ and played on the indoor pump track and then on the indoor dirt jumps. It was really fun and most of all dry which made it even better.
Didn’t go to well with the dirt jumping but I managed to jump the first jump by the end of the session which was cool. I need to do something on the Dialled Staystrong as the back tyre is too big for the frame really. I am going to try out my 20×1.75 Tioga Power blocks on it to make it a bit more race like and probably much lighter too. This should sort out the issue with the tyre hitting the frame too.
I am going to Crucial tomorrow to pick up my back wheel which has had a new sprag put in it which will hopefully resolve the slipping issue. I have decided to stay on 41×18 gearing for now as I liked it much better out of the gate and it is halfway between my old gearing of 37×16 and the 36×16 gearing that I have to run on the Curtis so it makes sense to drop a it lower now so that I am not totally shocked when I start riding the Curtis.
I have decided to take a bit longer to build up the Curtis as I don’t want to start using it until June or July really as the races in April and May are both renowned for being Muddy and wet so the last thing I want to do is wreck the bearings in the hubs after one or 2 races.