Built with love.
Tuned
by a racer.

A bicycle is built to tolerances measured in millimetres. By the time you can feel the difference, you've already paid for it twice — once in performance, then in parts. A 0.75% chain stretch costs a chain to fix; a 1.5% stretch costs a chain plus cassette plus chainrings. The riders who race, or ride a lot, bring bikes in on a schedule. Everyone else brings them in when something hurts.

Chain → cassette → chainring is a chain of consequences. As chain pins wear, the chain "stretches" — pitch increases beyond 12.7mm. A chain at 0.75% stretch is still fine alone, but it has been grinding the cassette teeth into a slightly hooked shape. Drop in a new chain at that stage and it skips on the worn cassette. Now you need both. Catch the chain at 0.5% and the cassette lives another two replacements.

Pads wear in proportion to weight, terrain, and weather. Hydraulic systems need bleeding when fluid gets contaminated or air enters via worn seals. Mechanical needs cable-stretch checks and re-pulls. Pads, callipers, rotors, hoses or cables, levers — every part has a wear schedule. We bleed, replace, and align in pairs (never one side without checking the other).

Pressure changes more than feel — it changes traction, rolling resistance, and how much energy you keep when the road turns up. Modern tubeless setups want roughly 10–15 psi less than clinchers but need sealant refresh every 4–6 months. Tread visible isn't the only signal: cuts, sidewall cracks, and dry rubber ride differently and fail differently.

Headset, front hub, rear hub, bottom bracket, pedals — five places where a 0.1mm worn ball changes how the bike rides. The honest mechanic regreases before replacing; the dishonest one does the opposite. Sealed cartridge bearings get swapped as units. Loose-ball setups need adjustment plus grease. Both fail silently for thousands of kilometres, then noisily for the last few.

A dropout out of true makes every component downstream wrong — the wheel sits crooked, shifting feels off, the brake rubs on one side. Carbon frames need post-crash inspection even if you can't see damage; cracks hide inside layups. Steel and aluminium take crash damage differently but can be checked visually and with alignment tools. Inspect annually anyway — paint cracks at welds usually signal the frame is stressed.