Thoughts on Felt bikes
 

I am in the market for a cheapish road/gravel bike to use during the unpredictable Wisconsin springs. This bike will be ridden in the salt and slush so, I don't want to spend a bunch of money. Shopping my local dealers, I came across a Felt Broam. It comes with crap components but seems to have a decent aluminum frame with a BSA bottom bracket. At 1000.00, it seems like a good deal. What do you guys think? I know nothing about Felt...

Some discussion here:
https://www.bikeforums.net/cyclocros...breed-etc.html

I'm not aware of any negative feedback on Felt, & have an older 'Breed' SSCX bike that I'm happy with.

I haven’t heard anything bad about felts but they’re also not super popular. Seem like a company that makes at least half-decent bikes. I know one teammate who races an old felt and one very popular youtuber (norcal cycling) who races at the cat 1 level with a felt. I’d consider their bikes for sure.

About the Felt Broam 60: the brakes are “dual piston” which is much nicer than the old kind of brakes that have one moving piston and one stationary one. You’ll want to upgrade to compressionless brake housing if you can’t lock the brakes before bottoming out your lever - so maybe save some room for that in your budget.

Some people are sensitive to front shifting quality and I’m not sure how great FSA is. Unfortunately there aren’t any gravel-oriented Shimano 8 speed cranks out there. So the closest thing you’ve got is claris 50/34. Not the biggest deal in the world ofc. I wouldn’t call R2000 “crap”

Seems like the geo is “adventure” oriented so closer to a touring bike than a fat tire road bike. Might feel a bit sluggish in terms of handling but it’s really not a big deal.

I've been happy with my Felt, wouldn't hesitate to buy one if it checks all of your boxes. Definitely not as much brand recognition, but they tend to be thoughtfully designed frames/forks and good value as complete bikes.

Felt
 

I have a 2016 Z4 disc and I’ve been pleased with it other than the first crank that came on it being defective. A lot of the people I ride with have Felt bikes as well and are pretty happy with them.

I also have a Felt. F55. I love it!!

I had a Felt F55x Al cross bike. Was well made had it quite a while before I sold it for something new. Unless they have gone down hill since then, they are top-notch IMO.

Probably opinions specific to the Broam coujld be sought in the cx and gravel subforum.

For road bikes, Felt rocks. My Felt F3 was for many years, a dream machine.

I have an F40x. Brilliant tiagra equipped bike I use for winter riding and commuting as well as gravel and off-road. Not as lively as my road bike, but it's a CX bike, so.... I've upgraded wheels and swapped to a 46/30 chainset. No complaints from me.

Sorry about the necrobump.

What happened to Felt? Seems like they were all the rage from about 2007 to 2012 or so. I'm about to pull the trigger on a new 2018 VR5 at the LBS for about $1,100 off listing price. Decent compliment of componentry and geometry that suits my urban riding. I have a before-hours test ride set up for Wednesday morning. Trying to find information on the bike, or even the VR series, beyond a few published reviews from the big sites (which I greet with skepticism) has been difficult. I realize Felt is not Trek (especially here in WI) but the silence is audible.

Felts are great; I'm not sure what happened to them. Ten years ago, as mentioned, they were quite popular in tri and road cycling. They're still big in the tri world, but have disappeared from the road world as near as I can tell, at least in terms of mindshare. Funnily enough, in that decade, Cervelo road bikes went from being viewed as only for the tri geek training rides to popular with roadies.

Obviously the success wouldn't have happened without the brain trust, engineering, and manufacturing that goes into making a good bike, but I think a lot of the responsibility for that surge of success lies with a guy named Dave Koesel who was the road brand manager from '05 to '16. I think the path to today's relative silence is due to a combination of three-ish things; bigger brands applying pressure at LBS's, Felt's refusal to do direct to consumer sales (where a lot of value-minded consumers are inclined to shop), and mostly just Felt being a financially small company and not putting their bikes under pro teams or sending review bikes out left and right. While the road bikes they're making today seem every bit as good as previous years, the company *feels* directionless and the odds of being able to test ride a given model is slim, which is asking a lot of consumers in a marketplace that's even more competitive than it was when Felt were at their best.

Small aside- typing this up, I remembered a few years ago that Felt announced they were switching away from "new" bikes every year (I forget exactly how they branded it) and would only put out new models when there was a meaningful redesign or updated groupset, that sort of thing. Great for retailers, good for consumers IMO, only bad for people that like to buy leftovers on sale. Completely ignored by the industry and rolled over by the market, and they're back to model years with minimal changes and different paint under the new ownership.

UPDATE: The 2018 VR5 has been delivered from the warehouse to my LBS (which is more like RegionalBS). My test ride is tomorrow morning before the shop opens. I'm a little concerned about the standover height. I seem to always fall between sizes on bikes with a sloping top tube. Hopefully, this time tomorrow I'll be posting a New Bike Day.

The best thing about getting a $2,600 bike for $1,500 is there a lot of left over money for wheels. My wife doesn't see it that way but I'll keep making my case.

Appreciate the acknowledgement. We had a great team for a while there at Felt.

-SD

I was at TPC on Saturday and an IA rolled through. Still stunning.