vernonfelton

For f@ck's sake.....

At the risk of quoting both Tina Turner and the Karate Kid theme song... RC, you are, quite simply, the best. Hands down one of the kindest and most thoughtful people I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Wait, a bunch of people have already said that?!? Shit. Okay, let's try this: This crazy mofo builds airplanes in his kitchen. Or maybe his family room. I can't remember which, but it's true. He builds his own damn airplanes and flies them. That right there makes him a superhero in my book. But wait, there's more.... Nobody, I mean nobody, knows how to wrangle wildlife--be it tigers or blue jays---like RC. And, again, I'm not making this shit up. Tigers, donkeys, birds of prey....I can't tell you how many Skype meetings were interrupted by the braying/screetching/howling coming from some wild animal that was occupying RC's "home office". He's like a conservative hippy Dr. Doolittle. Which is to say, yet again, that RC is his own freakily unique animal. And, sure, RC has written a ton of great stories. And, yes, he was one of the few people who inspired me to think that I could get a job that didn't involve wearing a shitty suit and selling crappy health insurance to people who didn't want it, so on a personal level, I owe him a lot. But mainly, RC is the smartest, kindest, and raddest person you could ever hope to meet. I miss working with you, buddy, but look forward to seeing you again, talking shit about rocket ships (of which I know nothing, but of which you are an expert) and chimpanzee sexuality (of which we are both disturbingly well-acquainted with). We'll probably talk about bikes too, but it was always the weird and unexpected corners of your conversations that I loved best. RC, you're a friggin' legend. I'm glad your words will continue to grace PB's digital pages and I look forward to staying up late into the night, talking shit and avoiding deadlines with you again. The beers are on me.

Kudos, Rocky Mountain. That was dope.

Nicely done, James.

Thank you to everyone who has already donated and, to everyone else, I hope you can see it in your hearts to help Colin and his family. I've been privileged to work with Colin and call him a friend. He is absolutely one of the best people on planet earth. Your help is greatly appreciated.

@onemanarmy: I split my time between Bellingham and Morgan Hill. I love rain, mud and trees. I hate traffic and, to be honest, people in general, which means I'm not exactly cut out for living full time in California (well, anywhere south of Humboldt County, at any rate). The company lets me work from home half of each month. No complaints there. Similar drill, in that respect, as working for PB or Bike. It's just a lot of days spent Skyping and looking out my window, but it also means I can wake up and smell the cedars. Sometimes the Internet is useful for things other than watching cats fight with light sabers.

@deserat: I took a marketing job at, you guessed it, Specialized. I do the mountain bike marketing and, at this point, some of the equipment marketing. Since I have a background in helmets, I wound up working on ANGi (nouns and verbs only...the actual science is led by Chris Zenthoefer, the founder of ICEdot) and a team of engineers. I just interview them and translate the engineering geek speak into normal human speak--that's pretty much my entire job at the company. I interview engineers, learn what they aimed to do with a new product, ask uncomfortable questions about what they actually did to achieve those goals and then I just write that down and figure out how to express that in videos. When we have press launches, I now get to yell at the other journalists to "Get in the f@ckin' van!" That's a perk of the job. So, ayup, that's where I've been. I still write for some magazines, but for obvious reasons, I don't do anything related to gear anymore. I just scribble out tone poems about chain wear and bottom brackets. Same ol', same ol', really.

@fattyheadshok: Ah, well, you know...gotta be straight-up, today I'm just responding in an official manner to questions about a product I worked on, but my hope is always to carve aside time to write things that are simply fun and to (if the editors at PB are down with it) stink up the joint with an essay or something completely unrelated to products. I dunno...daisies or rocket launchers or my love for my shoe dryer (it's that time of year in the Pacific Northwest). Thanks for the kind words.

@oxentiel: The cost increase on new Specialized helmets will be between $20 and $30, depending on where in the world you are located. That cost increase is not a result of ANGi, but rather the addition of MIPS, which is now an option on every Specialized helmet. A cost increase of 20 or so bucks is typical, across helmet brands, when they add MIPS to existing helmet models. At this point, ANGi comes attached to Ambush, Ambush Comp and Dissident mountain helmets, right out of the box. The ANGi sensor is also stock on some of our road models, like S-Works Prevail II, Evade II and Propero. In the near future we'll have a grom-sized, ANGi-equipped Shuffle helmet. The $50 quoted in the article is for riders who choose to buy an aftermarket ANGi sensor. You can attach that $50 aftermarket sensor to the helmets we sell that have attachment points designed for the ANGi device, but which aren't equipped, right out of the box, with the sensor. We're calling those lids ANGi-ready helmets, as opposed to ANGi-equipped helmets. Whether you buy a helmet with the ANGi sensor already installed or you simply buy the sensor, the first year subscription to the Ride premium app is free. After that first year of use, the subscription to the app is, indeed, $29.99