Ride with the Felt Guys & Some

I'll admit, I was a little nervous when I woke up Tuesday morning, all in anticipation of noon. I was invited by the guys who work at Felt headquarters to go on their lunchtime ride with them. Sweet! But, a bunch of guys...who work for a leading bicycle company - could I hang?? It was worth giving it a shot! Come Tuesday, part of me was afraid if I'd be recovered enough to hang on - Sunday I did a 72-mile ride with 6,000 feet of climbing (fast Carol was with me for about 35 miles, great ride) followed by a T-run, had a Monday long run and swam 3,000 yds just hours before the Felt ride. But, thankfully, the ride went great!!


But first, how did little ol' nothing me even get invited on this ride? Kind of random... I've been having problems with my Bayonet system making terrible creaking noises and coming loose. Numerous trips to various bike shops, and the problem still wasn't getting fixed. Frustrating! So, I called Jim Felt, and he was super willing to help. I love that guy, so nice!! He had me go straight over to Felt, which happens to be conveniently located a few minutes from my house in Irvine - no joke, like a 10 minute bike ride away. See....

I met with Felt's senior design engineer Jeff, who was so awesome. Together, he and I took apart the Bayonet piece by piece to find the problem(s). Well, he took it apart and I watched intensely. Sure enough, he found a couple areas where it wasn't assembled correctly, and he corrected the problems. I'm happy to report after about 175 miles of riding since that meeting (last Tuesday), there is no noise and the Bayonet is as tight as can be! It's a complicated system, no doubt, and it just needs to be built correctly.


NOW, I really want to make this point: If anyone is considering a Felt bike, don't let this story have you questioning the quality of Felt bikes and/or the Bayonet. My B2R is an amazing bike and I'm proud to own it. Now that it's dialed in correctly, it's virtually flawless. Not to mention, I've gotten top-of-the-line customer service! Jim Felt runs an excellent business and puts out quality products. How many people (i.e. non-pro, average cyclists) can call up the founder/owner of their bike company and have him bend over backwards to make sure things are OK, and then get to hang out and ride with the guys who freakin designed your bike? Just plain awesome. Inside the Bayonet...

Onto the ride... Anyways, Jim mentioned the guys do lunchtime rides, so I brought up the topic to Jeff and some of the other guys working in the back while the Bayonet was getting fixed, and they totally invited me to join. Of course I accepted the offer! (In my head, though, I was thinking...they'll leave me in the dust.)


So Tuesday I raced home from class, did a quick change and rode over to Felt. A group of us took off, and I was all smiles. Call me lame, but being along on their ride was pretty special for me. The best part, I was totally cool with the pace they were going. No problems keeping up, but I'm sure it was just an easy effort for them. They took me on their Shady Canyon loop in Irvine, which is definitely a ride I'll be doing a lot more of - some rolling hills and partly on a bike trail so minimal lights. Meanwhile, it was great chatting it up with the Felt guys. I mostly rode next to one of the design engineers, Ty, who clearly is an amazing cyclist and super enthusiastic, he just raced in the Dana Point Grand Prix over the weekend and knows his stuff! These guys have dream jobs in my opinion! I definitely plan on sneaking over there during lunchtime a lot more in the future.


I was going to write about a couple other random things that have happened to me in the last week, but I'm exhausted. It's almost 10 p.m., and I haven't stopped since I woke up at 4:30. What a day: Swim, bike, run, morning/night classes and some other stuff...man, I'm beat!

Damn Bees ...and a Surprise

I wasn't even planning or expecting to have a busy/highly eventful holiday season, but somehow things got crazy (including an unexpected purchase, see below). No need to go into the holiday details, everyone surely understands the season of insanity. But I ended the year with an amazing New Year's Eve in my favorite place, San Diego (I swear I should still be living there!), and a classy evening spent aboard the USS Midway. So cool. Catered all-you-can-eat gourmet dinner and open bar -- my date and I took multiple trips to both -- dancing, live band... The on-sea celebration and food/drink indulgence was well-earned... that day I did a solid bike/run brick in the Point Loma/Shelter Island area. For those who live down there, there's a ride by Cabrillo National Monument with one area by the tidepools that's know for doing hill repeats overlooking the ocean. Difficult yet gorgeous!!

We were having too much fun to worry about pics on NYE, but here's a peek at a post-sweaty, dressed up and "silly (aka wine-drinking)" me aboard the Midway...

Now to the damn bees. Despite holiday craze, I still got in my workouts, of course. And on one bike ride, a certain instance really had me going "What the f*@&?" I was cruising at about 20-22 mph, mind lost in my own world, and a freakin bee stuck into my leg. I quickly recognized the tingly sensation and yanked that thing right out and shook it off my glove. Now, normally I'd be freaking out or in shock. But, this isn't new in my book; it was THE THIRD TIME I've been stung while riding in a matter of a year and a half. This incident thankfully wasn't as bad as the first two....

Bee Sting No. 1, summer '07: I'm going downhill close to 30 mph, which is apparently faster than bees go. Next thing I know, one is solidly sticking right into my nose buzzing away! It wasn't like he casually landed on me and pricked me, there was force behind this sting. I was totally discombobulated, in pain, trying to swipe the damn thing away while simultaneously slowing down, stopping and not crashing. I flicked it off but couldn't tell if the stinger was still in me. I laid down the bike (oddly, I take the time to carefully do this as to not "hurt" the Trek) and ran over to two women on the trail. In a frantic way with tears welling in my eyes, I asked them if they saw a stinger in my nose. All clear; I had gotten the bee and stinger out, but not fast enough to escape the side effects. I woke up the next morning and... Oh. My. God. My nose was huge, red and swollen like that of a clown's. Whatever. Sh*t happens. I still went to work and out in public with my Bozo-the-Clown nose... it remainded in that state for a week!

Bee Sting No. 2, summer '08: Once again, going downhill by a group of trees with sweet-smelling white flowers. Beautiful, right? Hell no! Beauty can be deceiving. It was bee paradise. In a blur of events, my bike was thrust onto some grass (not so gracefully this time), my forehead was is stinging and buzzing, and I was running around like a psycho. Yup, bee in the forehead, right between the eyebrows. I got rid of the bee but not the stinger... venom seeping in. So, I found the nearest humans, in this case, a nice-looking teen couple walking a dog. No polite introductions, I just blurted out, "You gotta help me! I think there's a bee stinger in my forehead...it needs to get out, please help!!" (Meanwhile, I recognize the girl, turns out I went to high school with her sister, random.) Despite clearly being weirded out, the girl used her crazy-long acryllic nails to flick the stinger out. Some "thank-yous" and "your-welcomes" ensued and I was on my way, wondering what I've done to piss off the bee gods.

Unlike the first incident, the second time I was stung at the beginning of my ride, and I still wanted to get in miles. So I went home, quickly cleaned it and went back riding. But to this day I get squirmish by those trees... and, oh yea, the swelling that occurred with No. 2 was ridiculous. Check out this deformed face... it continued to worsen. (Can't believe I'm posting this):Ahhh! I'm not necessarily allergic; my doctor said the swelling was so bad because of the area I was stung...not really any fat on the forehead, so the WHOLE FACE SWELLS as a result.

So, me and bees.... we don't really mix well. But even the potential of looking like a cyclops won't stop me. Especially with this news.....

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MY NEW RIDE

Over Christmas I had a lucky turn of events that allowed me to buy one of these from Nytro in Encinitas (see, I'm still a total wanna-be SD resident):

The Felt B2r TTR. I'm in love. I also got a sexy fast Zipp 808 wheelset for racing. Oh man. So stoked. I'll write more on my legit tri-bike shopping experience at Nytro soon. They rock!!