Defining the character of a bike company isn't easy. There are engineers, assemblers, sales guys and marketing stooges, people who talk in numbers and people who speak of wheels in motion with the blazing eyes of zealots. In the case of Santa Cruz, there's a pretty broad clash of cultures and ideas and lifestyles that collide in the same space on a daily basis. And, for almost as long as this company has been in existence, every single one of those widely diverse people have stopped every day to scratch the offered belly of Driver 8.

Driver 8 - 130 pounds of fur-shedding, food stealing, dead thing rolling, fire engine howling Malamut/wolf - came into the Santa Cruz cannery as a rescue pup at the age of 8 months when his person, Willie K Bullion, was still working for Bontrager Cycles and SCB was just a one shed operation at the cannery entrance (Willie would like to point out that he got Driver 8 the day that Adri Van Der Poel won the World Cyclocross Championship - February 3rd, 1996). He (Driver 8, not Willie) became known as the Mascot of the then Bontrager race team, and fast developed a reputation for his ability to shed fur and vomit massive piles of dog food. But the girls all loved him...

He has been an icon of this neighborhood, and of this company, for eleven years. If you've ever shown up here, you've probably pet him. Or had him steal your lunch. If you've ever found some dog hair in your Santa Cruz soft goods, or stuck to your new frame, it came from Driver.

Every single one of us lost a good friend when Driver 8 passed away two weeks ago. Dogspeed, Driver 8, may there be plentiful dead seals to roll in, and lots of red meat, wherever you are.