Felt Cycles?

magicroundabout
magicroundabout Posts: 50
edited January 2008 in Road beginners
Hi guys,

Anyone had any experience with Felt road bikes? After looking around at several road bikes in the £600-700 range I've settled on a Felt Z90 - I can get better spec'ed bikes cheaper, but I'm buying through my work's Cycle to Work scheme so I'm restricted to certain shops.

After a few test rides it seemd to be the most comfy and the most suited to what I'll be doing, out of those that were on offer. But Felts are hardly ever mentioned here - everyone seems to recommend the Giant's to beginners?

Any experience of Felt's out there?

MR

Comments

  • APIII
    APIII Posts: 2,010
    A mate of mine has had a Felt for about 4 months now and he absolutely loves it. It was in the same price range as the one you're looking at, so don't think you'll go far wrong. Anyway, you say you like the ride, which is what counts at the end of the day...
  • richardast
    richardast Posts: 273
    I've got a Felt F80 frame and fork that I built up with 105 kit as my Summer ride and I love it.
    It's an alu frame, like that one, and is a pretty hard ride, but I like it's quite sporty, aggressive position.
    Don't know anything about the Z90 apart from it's a funny looking beast, but I like a traditional frame geometry.
    C+ have reviewed a couple of Felt road bikes recently, one of them being from the Z series, and they were pretty positive, as I recall.
  • Nuggs
    Nuggs Posts: 1,804
    They look great and offer good VFM.

    I had my heart set on a Z35 until I found out that they don't import frames larger than 58cm into the UK :cry:
  • daniel_b
    daniel_b Posts: 11,975
    I have a Felt F70, and I love it to bits, in 2005 it was £800-£900, so probably similar spec to yours.

    Carbon forks and rear stays?

    I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the brand.

    Dan
    Felt F70 05 (Turbo)
    Marin Palisades Trail 91 and 06
    Scott CR1 SL 12
    Cannondale Synapse Adventure 15 & 16 Di2
    Scott Foil 18
  • magicroundabout
    magicroundabout Posts: 50
    Thanks guys - I'm quite happy about that then! Z90 has carbon forks, but not stays. Tiagra rear mech but only Sora shifters, which I've heard aren't so great. Trouble is I ordered the bike before joining the forum here so most of the advice on equipment I got too late. I wish I'd paid the extra for the 105-equipped Z70 now - never mind!

    Still, I've never ridden a bike that cost more than £180 so it should be a fairly dramatic improvement, and what I liked was the relaxed geometry. The other bikes I tried were real "racers", which felt quite hard to ride.

    I'll no doubt be letting you know how I get on.

    Just waiting for my work to send out the voucher to get the bike now...I'm so impatient!!

    Thanks again!

    MR
  • phelim
    phelim Posts: 91
    i have a z90 as a winter bike and is a great bike. felt will be ridden by the slipstream pro team so they will have more exposure.
    pjmcg
  • Mark Alexander
    Mark Alexander Posts: 2,277
    I have a felt F4 and love it. I realise that it's in a higher bracket but the build quality I have tried others the F85 and that was vomfy too. The setup of this is great. highly recommended buy.
    http://twitter.com/mgalex
    www.ogmorevalleywheelers.co.uk

    10TT 24:36 25TT: 57:59 50TT: 2:08:11, 100TT: 4:30:05 12hr 204.... unfinished business
  • gumball3000
    gumball3000 Posts: 14
    My friend has an F55 (I think) road bike and I have a TK2 track bike. Both well built and good to ride. Pound for pound, they have to one of the best brands around at the moment. With Slipstream, they should go from strength to strength.
  • keebo
    keebo Posts: 44
    My Felt F65 is a great bike alu/carbon frame + Ultegra kit. Well made and is for sale!
    54cm frame - £550; what a bargain!!
    Keebo,
    Semper in excreta sumus, solum profundum variat!
  • magicroundabout
    magicroundabout Posts: 50
    NOW you tell me! ;-)

    Still, wrong size and you're not in cycle scheme so it wouldn't have been an option anyway.

    My voucher arrived today so it's off to get the new bike on Saturday!!! :-)

    MR
  • magicroundabout
    magicroundabout Posts: 50
    So, for those that want a laugh, I picked up the new bike in the dreadful weather on Saturday, and tried, slowly and carefully, to ride it home.

    I quite promptly had my first lesson in road bike handling. 25mm slicks don't hold corners well in torrential rain on greasy roads. I can't recommend riding a brand new bike horizontally! Ouch (that's mostly my pride speaking!)

    The bummer is that I think I've put the rear wheel out of true. Not majorly, but it's definitely not straight. Any advice on fixing this? If I ask my LBS to straighten it will it ever be the same?

    You may also see on another thread that I've acquired some surface rust on the chain and cassette - grrr. I've not even had a decent ride and I've wrecked the thing!

    Looking forward to some dry weather. :-(

    MR

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