Felt Nine Solo custom project: Part 1.3 UPDATE

Great news! Frame delivery is scheduled for next Wednesday, May 4!!

I've been putting together a build list. So far:

Fork: White Bros. Rock Solid carbon

Stem: FSA OS99

Bars: Not sure yet... I have several alu bars to choose from. May go carbon though

Seatpost: Thomson Elite

Saddle: Selle Italia SLR - leather removed

Hubs: Hope Pro 2 - Tuned, lightened, modified bearings

Spokes: DT Swiss

Rims: Undecided. Have Bontrager Mustangs, may go with Stan's

Tires: Stan's The Crow

Brakes: Avid Juicy Ultimate, lightened

Rotors: Hope floating

Crank: Deciding between custom XTR single or Rotor Agilis XC2

Pics of the parts soon

Felt Nine Solo custom project: Part 1.2 UPDATE

UPDATE:

I just got some progress photos... seems that stripping a powdercoated finish isn't all that easy, thus a short delay. Not a real big deal, as I'm looking out my office window right now and it's pouring rain, so I doubt I'll be hitting any real trails any time soon.

The gang at PPG took it upon themselves to smooth out the welds! Looks slick! They still won't tell me what the actual paint job will look like though.....

Songs to Ride Bikes to. G. Love: Milk and Sugar

C'Mon. It's a song about coffee, how could I NOT like it?

It would be pretty fun to see G. Love playing in a subway someday...

Songs to Ride Bikes to. OK Go, This Too Shall Pass

I'm not one that's normally all that enamored with music videos. However, these guys always have the best, most innovative videos around! Fun stuff

One of my favs: OK Go, This Too Shall Pass

Felt Nine Solo custom project: Part 1.1 UPDATE

UPDATE

So, I just got off the phone with Dan from PPG. Seems the custom paint guys were pretty excited about this project, especially when they learned about Jim Felt's history with motorcycle racing and association with Troy Lee.

He still won't tell me what the frame looks like, but he did say,

"If you EVER sell this frame, I'm buying it! This looks amazing!"

I provided PPG with all the decals and logos they could ever want. According to Dan, "they won't be using those... they're airbrushing the whole frame!"

I'm not sure I'll be able to ride this thing if it looks that nice! I can't wait to see it!

Photos in a couple of days...

Felt Nine Solo custom project: Part 1

The 2011 MTB race season is quickly approaching, so you can imagine how excited I was to get my Felt Nine Solo frame earlier this week! My initial thought was to strip my old SS and just transfer all the parts. Well, I got talking to some of the guys at Felt, and some other friends, and before I knew it I'm getting my frame custom painted and looking to go a little crazy with the build.

So, I figured I'd share the process!

I've been in the cycling industry for 12 years, so I literally have a basement full of parts to use, so I'll be drawing on a lot of my personal stock to complete the build. BUT, most parts will be (or already have been) given a little extra special touch :thumbsup:

Part 1: The Frame - Custom Paint: Here it is in stock form, as seen on our website, and as it sat on my office floor:

*Yes, I get to play my guitar on my lunch break (if it's too nasty to go on a lunch ride...) Working at Felt is pretty sweet!

Our creative dept does a great job of picking out graphics and colors for our bikes, but I'm working on a special project so this frame gets the custom paint treatment!

Just two hours ago my frame was picked up by my good friend Dan Santangelo of PPG paint. He is currently on his way from Buffalo to Pittsburg to PPG's National Training Center, where their custom paint gurus are going to go to town on my frame!

I have NO IDEA what it will look like! Don't know the color, don't know the graphics, don't know a thing!

I'll be updating this as things progess, so keep an eye out! If anyone has any ideas or suggestions for the build, feel free to shout them out!

Cheers, and keep riding!

Songs to Ride Bikes to. Kraftwerk, Tour de France

Kraftwerk is the Godfather of electronic music, and fans of cycling!

This was released in 1983 as a "Soundtrack" to the Tour de France.

Condensed version of the soundtrack:

Live version: