A Tip or Two for Ballidu
Your fitness is probably set, but your bike can still make or break race day. Here are the final tyre-pressure, drivetrain and comfort checks worth making before Ballidu Gravel.
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Your fitness is probably set, but your bike can still make or break race day. Here are the final tyre-pressure, drivetrain and comfort checks worth making before Ballidu Gravel.
After chatting to a bunch of AMFLOW owners on the trails around Perth, a clear pattern has emerged: lighter riders are happy with the stock suspension, while heavier riders may need a more tailored setup.
Bearing life is governed by load. For bicycle wheel bearings, small increases in equivalent load can have a disproportionately large effect on bearing life.
NOW we’re talking my language! MTB racing! The 2026 Karri Cup MTB race is fast approaching – running across the weekend of 17-19th April. Split into two variants a 50…
Over the course of a challenging gravel ride (or race) your bike is a system that either supports you or sabotages you. Gravel riding rewards preparation, not guesswork.…
Even from all the way over here in Perth, there is an audible buzz throughout January before the Tour Down Under rolls into Adelaide. We spend days fine-tuning race…
This blog entry is mostly anecdotal, with some obvious scientific shortcomings in terms of my two ‘tests’ – but lots of engineering and physics references to support (or…
There’s been something in the water lately. We’ve had more crashed bikes come through the workshop in the last 3 months than we’ve had the previous 3 years. Some involve…
Every spring, after all the charity cycling events (and Tour of Margaret River- though not from 2025 onwards!) – we see a steady influx of triathletes getting ready for…
Today was a good day to ride a bike. One of those rides that reminds me why I still love this sport so much. It’s Sunday the 21st September, 2025. The weather here in…
Almost every MTB brand (save for the very small number of boutique outfits who outright reject carbon manufacturing) offers multiple versions of each model, with Carbon…
What’s Happening With Intense Cycles & YT Industries? If you’re plugged into the MTB world (and I know you are!), you’ve probably seen the headlines: big names like…
Shopping for a second hand bike? It’s easy to pay too much for something if you don’t really know what you’re looking for or what questions to ask. Treat the following…
I’ll admit it: I love a good bike tech debate. There’s something about cycling’s endless appetite for “innovation” that keeps the workshop chats interesting, and nothing…
I carved out a 2-and-a-bit day trip down to Margaret River and Cowaramup for my birthday weekend, planning to stay a couple nights at a friends house and do nothing…
It’s almost been 12 months since we teamed up with Canyon Bicycles as their Authorised Service Partner here in WA, so what have we learned? Willing to go the extra mile.…
On the 8th May, 2025, white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine chapel, heralding the arrival of my new bike, the 2024 Norco Optic C2 MX. Out of the Box I had…
Those of you who are familiar with the way we work will immediately recognize that this is satire. No one is on blast here, and we’re grateful for everyone who gets in…
The Local Spokesman is an Authorised Service Partner for Canyon Bicycles in Western Australia TLS is the first official Service Partner for Canyon Bikes in Western…
Different customer profiles are an endless source of entertainment here at TLS. We thrive on being able to identify different rider priorities and apply those findings…
I’m prone to the occasional bout of nostalgia, usually when a customer drops off an old bike that I remember fondly or have otherwise attached significant historical…
I’ve installed (and removed) countless tyre inserts/ rim protectors for customers who specifically requested it over the years, but was never tempted to run them myself.…
At the time of writing, it’s the 3rd of March 2024, just under 6 weeks out from this years edition of SeVen Gravel Race – and riders have already been talking about it…
Perth Mountain Bikers, this one’s for you: With the steady increase in the amount of shops + riders sending us their suspension jobs, it was time to split that work off…
For the first time in a decade, I moved away from Maxxis tyres to try something else on my daily hardtail – I had a new set of wheels on their way to me and the rubber…
Disc brakes on bikes, particularly the newer generation of road bikes, cop a lot of flack for various reasons (some of it is justified…) but on the whole they are…
Every now and then, after the roller door and the sun have both gone down, I like to type out some thoughts about workshop life. The vast majority of them never make it…
As a young, penniless teenager one of my favourite things to do was walk around in bike shops looking at everything I couldn’t afford. Of course back in those days you…
We’ve been around for a while now. We have a strong customer base and a steady stream of new riders rolling in through the workshop door here at TLS-HQ. Those who are…
It’s been an awesome year. How could it not be? We play with bikes for a living! BUT……and trust me, it’s a big but……my efforts are no longer anywhere NEAR as visible as…
The Situation I rode and raced dual suspension bikes for 14 years straight. Downhill, to cross country, to enduro. Multiple bikes, across several major generations of…
Well….ok. It’s not really a review. A genuine review of the year would be 10,000 words long and utterly, utterly boring. So…..I’ve picked out a couple of insights and…
Bearings might just be the most benign, uninteresting part of a bike to the casual observer. You can’t see them, and unless they’re completely seized or so worn out they…
A guide to setting up your MTB Suspension! The following is an attempt to enlighten people who might be relatively new to mountain biking. Bear in mind that there is no…
What does the future look like for cyclists? Although this is 100% speculative, and based only on personal experience and opinion, I think a fair few of the developments…
Norco Sight A1 Review I’ve spent most of the last decade riding Giant. 2013 and 2017 Reign 1 – both were the top specced aluminium models at the time (I was on an Anthem…
F rom the 1st of March 2011 to the 28th of April 2017 I was “employee 1” in a fledgling backup monitoring and management company called Probax (originally we were…
