A road trip to remember

This is old news, but as 2009 winds down we thought it appropriate to post a few images from one of the more ambitious adventures taken by fellow Felties this year. When Jake and Eva announced they would be riding from home in Orange County to a Thanksgiving dinner in San Francisco, we thought: You're nuts.

When they added the small detail they would do so on a tandem, with just five days to make the 500-mile trip, we thought: Pshh—good luck!

Well, they did it. Here are a few pics from the road, followed by 5 nuggets of wisdom gained along the way.















5 things we learned while riding 500 miles in 5 days

1. We are crazy for riding up the coast! There was a head wind the whole way!!
2. Keep a tube of chamois butter close at hand
3. Riding on the 101 is not as sketchy as it seems
4. Stopping to stretch is always a good idea
5. How beautiful the California coast is & how lucky we are to live here!

Mafia Racing, West Coast style

The "Family," aka Mafia Racing, has made its way to the West Coast. The Colorado-based, Felt-sponsored team is assembling a West Coast roster to storm the West Coast mountain bike races in 2010.

Felt's own Nick D (above) will be managing Managing Mafia's West Coast joint and would like to hear from anyone interested in joining the team.

Check out the Facebook page, or e-mail Nick at nick@mafiaracing.com.

Commander on the mend

Felt company namesake Jim Felt, aka The Commander, is spending this holiday season recovering from hip surgery. He pulled through surgery with flying colors and is currently dreaming up new ways to make the riders and triathletes who ride Felt bikes even faster in 2010. Those dreams are pretty vivid at the moment, what with the painkillers and all.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Commander!

Your new National Champ!

Garmin-Felt rider Danny Summerhill won the Under-23 CX National Championship race in muddy, snowy Bend, Oregon, Saturday. Cyclingdirt.com interviewed Danny after the race, check it out:

Cycling Videos on CyclingDirt

Beardy Weirdies!

It’s holiday season at Felt, which means one thing: Holiday Beard Growing Contest!

Pretty burly lineup, right? Looks like the second line for the Ottawa Senators, but that’s actually (left to right): Jake representing marketing; Nick and Rich from engineering; Greg from marketing; and graphic designer Jeff.

Hard to say who’s leading here, what do you think? Rich gets extra points for the black eye, which was reportedly sustained in a mosh pit. As far as usefulness, Greg is probably making the most of the facial fur—he’s currently standing in sub-zero temperatures in Bend, Oregon, where he’s manning the Felt booth at cyclo-cross nationals. That thing’s probably pretty gnarly right now, all iced up with snotcicles and such.

Of course the bylaws mandate that any proper Beard Contest will be followed by a Mustache Contest. Gross.

Ball Park Cranks!

Ball Park Cranks Commercial - Felt Bikes from Felt BMX on Vimeo.

Crush It!

The inhabitants of Felt Cubicle Land were both happy and a bit concerned to receive an e-mail this afternoon with the enthusiastic subject line: “Hardcore Bob back on a bike!”

You see, Hardcore Bob (aka Felt graphic designer Bob Thomson) has been out of commission since eating it on a lunch ride a few weeks back. That’s a whole other story in itself, which Bob really ought to tell, but the result was a busted femur, some gnarly metal rods and some screws needed to put Bob back together again. And an empty desk over there where Bob is supposed to sit.

After a few weeks of being laid up at home, Bob dragged his busted body back to the office, sporting a pretty dope pimp cane. His colleagues were both happy to see him and somewhat relieved to know it would be at least a little while before Bob would be back to his usual self, crushing it on the lunch ride.

Then, this.

It looks like Bob might be back sooner than we thought. Crush it!

Jeff Castelaz: ABC News Person of the Week

The story of Jeff Castelaz riding across America to raise money and awareness to fight children's cancer captured a lot of hearts from coast to coast. When Jeff finished his Pablove Across America tour last week, riding home to Los Angeles on his Felt F1, ABC News chose to highlight him as its Person of the Week.

Bravo, Jeff.

Check out the clip right here.