Felt AR2

shinsplint

Verbal wrote:

I have an AR4 and love the lines of these Felts. Very sexy looking bikes. Bet you have a blast riding it, I know I do mine!

Too right mate. Unfortunately this time of year, and it feels criminal, its on the turbo trainer :roll: ... just can't wait to get out on it again, especially with the EC90sls :P My first full carbon set :P

RowCycle

EKIMIKE wrote:

Whilst i equally hate the 'Wow, nice bike. Looks great' comments repeated like mantra, the bellend's alternatives don't even make sense.

Wow, nice bike. Looks great.

No serious, that's what I think of it.

tremayne

Lovely lovely bike. Simply cannot believe the single negative comment. Well, I can - but I can't, if you get my meaning!

With regard to stiffness (raised I think by Fransjacques) I can't comment from riding one but I have discussed the merits/demerits with one of the technical guys from Slipstream. The discussion came about as I was torn between a F1 or AR. In short, the advice given was that the AR was significantly stiffer and overall a more rigid frame than the F1. I'm pretty sure the team even chose to ride some stages of the TDF on AR bikes. As far as I can remember, it wasn't so popular with 'the guys' on pure account of how incredibly stiff these frames were (coupled with huge day on day mileages). Note - I don't think Felt set about to make a phenominally stiff frame but the extra dimensions and carbon that is the by-product of aero shapes resulted in increased strength/stiffness. As such, and again I haven't ridden - but I seriously doubt that a lack of stiffness would be an issue.

shinsplint

Thanks for your comments guys.

Regarding stiffness and comfort of the frame, I can only compare it to a few other road bikes, all of which were a lot cheaper, but I can say that it is a very comfy ride compared to the others.

I have seen the F1 in my local Felt dealer, and that is one incredible machine. I picked it up and it really weighs practically nothing The AR is very light, but the F1 is something else.

lef

i find it surprising the troll showed a link to a bike with mavic aksiums, hardly an inspiring wheelset. Anyway the Felt looks great!

petemadoc

lef wrote:

i find it surprising the troll showed a link to a bike with mavic aksiums, hardly an inspiring wheelset. Anyway the Felt looks great!

First time I've come across this thread I'm a little disappointed that this plonker pointed towards my bike. Also funny that he slags off shimano then points towards the bike which, guess what, has a rather dull and old 105 groupset.

For the record the Aksiums have since been upgraded.

Edit: forgot to say, the Felt looks sweet mate

napoleond

Lets not forget it was Berk Bonebonce who took the p!ss out of Pokerface's TT bike saying he was making up for a lack of something, like speed etc... (Funnily enough that was a Felt too)

Pokerface is a UCI World TT Champ.

si2k2000

Love the stupid comment. Can't see how you can criticise one of the best group sets on the market. Dura-ace in my experience of using it over the years is pretty much bullet proof and the 7900 looks great colour wise.

Anyway, great looking bike. I was seriously looking at one of these before going to for my Giant. My local LBS is a Giant dealer so got a chance to test ride it and know they will look after it through the years so it made more sense.

shinsplint

Thought i'd update this. Truth be told, the main reason for taking the photos is that i'm considering selling the bike. I'm back into riding in the hills more and i'm tempted by the new Ultegra groupset with a 52/36, and also considering a more traditional shaped frame. Nothing really stands out as yet though :?

Anyway, back to the bike. As of last week i'm now running Easton EA90 SLX wheels with Conti GP4000S, which seem ideal for my riding, they're very light so climb well and feel a bit more forgiving than the Fulcrum Zeros I had.

I'm not the most flexible, hence keeping the spacers in, and I had the bars changed to a compact drop. Changed along with Fizik bar tape, which cleans a lot easier. Also just had full new cables put in (inners and outers). Prefer the black.

Other than Arundel bottle cages, thats about it. Hope you like...

shinsplint

neilhannam

Wonderful looking bike. I ride the bottom of the F range Felt and think it's great, can only imagine what one of these must be like to ride.

declan1

That looks awesome. As I've said with other aero bikes though - it needs deep section wheels. Aero bikes just look wrong without them!

shinsplint

Cheers guys.

Declan, I was a bit apprehensive but actually think it looks ok. The deep EC90SLs did look more suited though. Just not for my riding style at the moment.