Our
Team
Michael Light
Director / Mobile Mechanic
Mike is the owner/operator of The Rapid Wrench Melbourne. He has been riding bicycles for two decades, and has a passion for his two-wheels that can be seen through the quality and finesse of his servicing.
Mike’s industry involvement
Mike has been involved in the bike industry as his sole-work since 2005. He has worked up from large franchise retailers such as Gold Cross Cycles, to the well known rider-owned bike shops such as Bikes Direct and Pro-Motion Cycles. Mike has also worked for key wholesale bicycling distributors such as BikeSportz Imports and Sheppard Cycles.
This experience has given him a wide base of knowledge both from a technical, trade and services point of view, and also the hands-on. Mike has also had the opportunity to do the SRAM Technical University here in Melbourne, to further develop his advanced mechanics skills.
Riding the world
Mike has been riding bikes since he grew legs. His passion really ignited when he rode the Great Victorian Bike Ride in 2001. Mike has been racing in the Victorian State Downhill Series since 2007 and the Elevation Enduro Series since 2012. Other big events include the Scott 24 Hour in Canberra, 5 months of daily riding in Canada, including the Whistler Bike Park, and also a month of riding and racing in South New Zealand.
Motorcycle adventure touring also took a fancy, with off-road trips taking place in Vietnam, Pakistan, India, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Bali.
Frame Building
Mike recently got in to frame designing and building, which in effect would bring the mechanic skills “full circle.” Being able to design bikes from the ground up, implement unique solutions and technologies, cut and weld tubing, lathe and mill machinery use to make custom parts, and finally realise a full working product is dream come true.
So far the first bike is a Omnium-style cargo bike design, but with a huge twist:
- Heavy duty 1.6mm cromo tubing, massive Bafang Ultra mid drive integrated motor in a fully hand made shell.
- Dual suspension, featuring a Manitou Junit fork, and a rear swingarm borrowed from an Orange Five.
- Integrated Exposure/Magicshine custom lighting in the rear rack and frame, run off the battery, with fast phone charger and switches throughout.
- Dual battery 52v 40ah for an ultra long range.
- A frame designed for all sizes with slack seat post sweep, low seat post collar height, and a massive 240mm dropper post.
- Tested with over 350kg all up weight (305kg loading on board), and tested to pull over 900kg @ 15kmh via a trailer!
Within the first two years of serious riding, Mike had owned more than ten different styles of bikes. Mike quickly became so passionate that he entered the bike industry. GoldCross Cycles was Mikes training ground for 2 years in sales and mechanics. Once Mike’s skills developed, he started receiving requests from friends and family for bicycle servicing at his home workshop.
What started off as just a helpful hand became a real business incentive, as people were quite happy to pay Mike for his expertise. As word of mouth spread, it quickly became a job after hours. The number of return customers and referrals brought Mike a steady stream of work, which would later develop into his own business.
Mike spent a decade doing enduro and downhill mountain bike racing from 2007-2017. Before starting Rapid Wrench he used to commute on a road bike, and currently owns a Specialized Crux gravel.
A few years was spent on an Echo trials bike to learn something different. Mike has a massive soft spot for all things cargo-bikes, with him owning a Bullitt and an Omnium. These bikes let him take his dog on rides, 2-3 adult passengers or kids, a fridge, a couch, other bikes, the sky’s the limit.
He has raced mountain bikes all over the alps of Victoria, in New Zealand, and in Canada BC. Racing is in Mikes blood, with competitive nature thrown into his social rides, team efforts, and solo trail blazing.
Although sometimes the racing lifestyle can become way too serious at times, Mike is just as happy about simply being out in nature, socializing and spreading the good bikely love. His favourite current ride is the electric mountain bike.
Mikes other hobbies also include a huge dose of paragliding, paramotoring, adventure motorcycling, and welding/fabrication/milling and lathe machining.
Since 2017, Mike has gained over 650 hours of paragliding and paramotor flying. Now being a tandem rated paramotor pilot, Mike has flown in a large list of countries including Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam, France, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Turkiye, Austria, Italy, Hawaii, New Zealand, India, and Romania.
Mike riding a step down at Kamloops, British Columbia
