We work very hard to maintain our level of technical expertise.

The cycle industry is always changing with improvements and developments coming thick and fast.

One of the ways we have to keep our skills and knowledge in tip-top condition is our regular “spokespersons meetings”. These take place every six weeks or so and cover a wide range of training topics.

Last week we had two tyre experts in from Schwalbe to talk through their new range and answer our questions about different tyres in different conditions. They sell tyres across the UK and they journeyed all the way from their national base. Actually we're their closest shop because they are based in Telford.

Schwalbe are bringing out some amazing new downhill, cross country, road and touring tyres to add to their existing, extremely comprehensive range.

They left us with some very useful tools which allow us to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of the different tyres throughout the range. Pop in to the shop and see if you can get a drawing pin all the way through the tread on a Marathon Plus tyre. We took a few pictures.