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Ride 2 Recovery

Wed, 1st December

The Ride 2 Recovery is produced by the Fitness Challenge Foundation in partnership with the Military and VA Volunteer Service Office, to benefit Mental and Physical Rehabilitation Programs for our country's wounded veterans that feature cycling as the core activity.

Held in partnership with the Fitness Challenge Foundation, the R2R raises money to support Spinning Recovery Labs and outdoor cycling programs at Military and VA locations around the U.S. to help injured veterans overcome obstacles they face.

One of their recent activities was Ride 2 Recovery Florida Challenge November 15 - 21, 2010. The ride was from McDill AFB in Tampa, FL to USO Mayport in Jacksonville, FL.

Big Cat had the great privilege of being invited to be part of the ride. Mark Egeland was able to meet with Scott Moro and John Wordin from the organization as well as ride on Saturday November 21 from St Augustine to Jacksonville. In addition to Mark, there were 2 other riders with Catrikes (an Expedition and 700), along with several hand cycles and another 200 standard road bikes.

We are grateful for the invitation we received to such a worthy event and happy to have been able to experience and share with all the riders their inspiring stories. It was a great day!

Visit the gallery here to view pictures of the event.

Big Cat 10 Year Anniversary 'Snow Cat' Offer

Sun, 7th November

At Big Cat we're celebrating our 10 year anniversary! We're so excited about having created some of the best recumbent trikes and bikes over the last 10 years that we've got an awesome 'Snow Cat' promotion. Until the end of the year we're offering all Catrikes and Catbikes in White, Blue or Candy Blue will be $200 off their MSRP!

Big Cat invests in new Holland Mechanics wheel building robots

Wed, 3rd November

Through the years, we've built wheels in house by hand. Paulo built them all by himself until the demand became too overwhelming and then it was no longer any fun. He turned to Power On Cycling and Mark built them for us until he could not keep up with demand so we decided to import them complete from Taiwan. Then 2 ½ years ago we sourced them from California and it was a big deal for us that they were being built in the US. After years of dreaming and planning Big Cat is making the leap to build wheels and we are very excited about it! We can perform more work in house, create jobs and have the ability of building the wheels just in time and have total quality control on our products.

Jeff and Chaim unloading crates. We thought zoo animals might be inside!

Moving the new robots safely into the factory.

Do you think he is happy they are finally in our factory? Paulo has been waiting for this a long time...

The robots are capable of programming hundreds of wheels; different sizes, spoke count and lacing patterns. We can also program spoke tension as well as horizontal and vertical tolerances.

Hugo van Steeg from Amsterdam spent a week at Big Cat to provide training for new Holland Mechanics robots.

Here are some videos of Hugo talking about our new robots and of them tensioning and truing wheels.

"R" You Ready?

Tue, 26th October

From now until the end of the year Catrike "R" Series are $200 off their MSRP. That's only $100 more than the standard Shimano bar end configuration! These stock Catrikes are ready to race out of the box or are perfect if you just want a Catrike with more performance. Available in Road, Speed, Expedition and 700 models.

This is a great component upgrade at a minimal cost. Equipped with Sram Rival Compact crank (50-34 tooth chain rings), Rival derailleurs, TT500 bar end shifters and 11-32 10 speed rear cassette make a perfect match with nice gear range. Catrike "R" models have two chain rings instead of 3. This makes chain management a breeze, is lighter and the gear range is close to the standard triple set up (gear chart listed below).

The two colors offered in "R" series are black and graphite. Both come with a high gloss clear coat, candy red tie rod, candy red dust covers and special "R" decals. Of course, you can order an "R" version in any custom Catrike color if you would like to create your own custom "R" version Catrike (custom colors are $100 MSRP for Candy and Sparkle double coat colors and $50 MSRP for solid one coat colors).

Standard Catrikes have triple chain ring w/ 9 speed cassette and "R" Catrikes have double chain ring w/ 10 speed cassette.

Model	Standard	"R"
700	25"-128" gear range	28"-123" gear range
Expedition	24"-123" gear range	27"-118" gear range
Speed	20"-99" gear range	22"-96" gear range
Road	19"-94" gear range	21"-91" gear range

Breast Cancer Awareness

Mon, 18th October

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Big Cat is offering all Catrikes and Catbikes powder coated in Pink (or Aqua) free color upgrade until the end of 2010. For every Pink or Aqua sale Big Cat will donate $50 to a local breast cancer foundation to be used for free mammograms for uninsured or underinsured women who need this procedure that can save their lives.

Below you can see a sample of the Aqua color that is also available with this offer!

Contact your Catrike dealer and order your Breast Cancer Awareness Catrike to receive your custom Catrike and we will make a donation to Libby's Legacy Breast Cancer Foundation http://www.libbyslegacy.org/

Congratulations Rafael Giraldo

Tuesday, 17th August

Big Cat HPV gives their congratulations to Rafael Giraldo who has completed his latest tour.

A Tour of Discovery Inspiring Young Minds

The tour was called "Ride for the Republic"
It started in Bar Harbor, ME and finished in Weston, FL
It lasted from June 14, to August 15, 2010
The tour's aim was to Cycle Through the Original 13 States of the Union
In total the tour was 2,930 Miles over 63 Days of Touring

Visit his site at www.tourofdiscovery.com

In Memory of Lucinda Chandler

Wednesday, 28th July

We will always remember and honor Lucinda. Many of us met her at our Catrike Factory Tour and heard incredible stories of some of her life challenges and crossing the United States on her beautiful Pink Catrike Road. She will always be an inspiration to us and we will never forget her bright smile and friendliness to everyone. She never seemed to let difficult things slow her down or keep her from fulfilling dreams.

The world is not the same without her but is a better place because of her incredible life.

We will miss you Lucinda!!!

A letter from Lucinda's Daughter

Hello all,

Thank you for the kind words regarding my mother, Lucinda. We are devastated to have lost such a wonderful and beautiful light in our lives and it means a great deal to see how much my mother has impacted so many people.

As David's post mentions, my mother was admitted to the hospital while visiting Philadelphia. She'd been her typical, active self - no problems - and had a wonderful time touring the city with her significant other, Ken. She unexpectedly collapsed while crossing the street and was admitted to the hospital where she ended up going into cardiac arrest (numerous times) and was later diagnosed with heart failure, likely caused by a virus.

The surgeons installed devices (Ventricular Assist Devices) that helped her heart to function. She was on a heart transplant list but things became complicated after her blood results revealed a very high number of antibodies (common in women who've had many children) and it became clear that it would be more difficult to find an appropriate donor heart for her as a result. Without going into too much detail, more recently there was talk that, amazingly, my mother's own heart was recovering (something the doctors originally believed not to be likely) and that she might not need a transplant after all. Obviously, this was an incredible moment for us - the miracle we had been hoping for as we were concerned about the ways in which a heart transplant would impact my mom's lifestyle.

Things weren't easy; there were ups and downs and, at times, it was a roller-coaster ride, but she fought through! The devices, while they were helping her heart to operate, carry their own risks (clots, strokes, etc.) and we had been getting increasingly antsy over the past few weeks to "get things going" as some of these risks became reality. Roughly two weeks ago, she suffered a stroke (this was the second one - the first was much earlier on in her hospital stay) and was in the process of recovering as this stroke was larger than the previous one. Despite the setbacks, my mother continued to show her amazing strength and was determined to recover.

Unfortunately, late Tuesday night, the stroke converted to a hemorrhage, a very large one with life-threatening implications. Just as we did when she entered the hospital in May, the entire family ventured down to Philadelphia again to visit with my mother, this time to say good-bye.

I stayed down in Philadelphia nearly the entire time my mom was there - the few times I left, Ken stayed with her - and my brother, Sonny, as well. In addition, my other family members came down periodically for visits. It makes me feel comforted to know that she was never alone.

It is truly amazing to know that my mother had such an impact on her family, friends, members of the recumbent cycling world, and other individuals that have had the privilege of meeting her. She lived a very full life and she loved to bring fun and joy to others - my siblings and I benefitted from her love of travel and the exciting adventures we had as a family. My mother was an incredible woman and words cannot describe, fully, how much she means to my family and me.

My best,

Christina Chandler

Big Cat HPV News

Tuesday, 8th June

We are proud to announce a new member to our team. Jeff Eubinag has joined our company as Big Cat's Supply Chain and Production Manager.

Jeff is a great guy with a degree in Biology and several years in sales. He has followed his passion with 8 years of experience in manufacturing, fabrication and quality control. He is also trained in our manufacturing system, lean manufacturing. He started at Big Cat a few weeks ago and is already a great addition to our team.

This addition will allow us to further increase our efficiencies, improve our existing products and allow us to focus on developing new products and sustain our growth.

The Fast Bunch

Tuesday, 4th March

Big Cat is proud to announce our new model configurations. Want an all out speed machine? We now have the Race configuration that upgrades your trike to smooth running Durano tires and a high end 10 speed SRAM groupset! This configuration is available for the Road, Speed, Expedition and 700!

Team FARA in the Race Across America

Monday, 3rd March

Kyle Bryant has a condition called Friedreich's ataxia. Friedreich's ataxia is an genetic disorder that causes progressive damage to the nervous system. He and his team mates have decided to ride in the Race Across America in support of 'Ride Ataxia' an initiative to raise funds for finding a cure. Kyle rides a Catrike 700, and while preparing for the race, Kyle contacted us about spare parts. We were pleased to assist Kyle with his needs in support of his cause. Please watch his video and help support his cause.

Please visit these links and find out how you can do your part to help

Spring News @ Big Cat

Monday, 26th April

Big Cat has again invested in the company with another new Miller Syncrowave 250 DX welder for Sherri and her protégés. This will give us a total of 4 welders working in line to increase pace and reduce cycle time as well as expand capacity based on our growth in demand.

We have also purchased another Ecolina Super Bender with indexing table that is dedicated for Musashi handlebars. This has a polymer pressure die to avoid scratching tubes. Every Catrike part has a dedicated bender for precision and accuracy so we can avoid die changes and set up time. That acquisition is also in response to the strong demand we have for our first Catbike.

We continue to invest in our Company to manufacture in the USA with high quality products and good value always working on innovative ways to improve quality and production.

Florida Challenge HPRA HPV Racing 2010

Tuesday, 13th April

A big congratulations to the following winners and everyone who participated!

Marc Tauss - 1st Place Stock Class
Jorge Borrelli - 1st Place Trikes Class
Stasia Haferkorn - 1st Place Womens Trike Class

To view our photos from the event click here - flickr, to view the complete results click here

Big Cat Rally 2010

Wednesday, 12th March

This years rally was held on March 6th & 7th, it was the 6th year of running this event! Thank you to all those who attended and helped to make it a great and fun experience! To view photos of the event click here - flickr.

Catbike Musashi Released

Friday, 22nd January

Our first Catbike the Musashi is here! Check out the release video below!

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