I’ve ordered a Felt IA 1 Frameset, but I’m not confident that I will get it anytime soon given the slow rollout of this bike. I’m funding the purchase of this bike with the sale of my current bike and have a willing buyer. I’m not sure how long he will be willing to wait as next season quickly approaches. Having said all of that, and given I can fit both bikes, which one is better? What will I be gaining and/or losing by switching to a TM01? I’m guessing the BMC is lighter but less aero and and fewer storage options. Is there anything else? Is the Aero I would give up even significant enough to worry about? Has anyone on here owned or tested both bikes?
From the data I’ve seen the IA, Speed Concept, and P5 are currently the cutting edge of aero (maybe Dimond?). I believe everything else is giving up a bit to a lot, TM01 included. Weight doesn’t really matter. I personally would definitely choose IA over TM01.
From what I’ve seen, there is no reliable data on the TM01 at all. How much less aero is it?
I believe there were a couple magazine tests done with a whole variety of bikes. Let me see if I can pull them up. jackmott might be able to find them quicker.
Thanks! I bought my TM01 knowing that the lack of reliable information anywhere on it probably meant that it was slower. But then again, aero had nothing to do with my purchase…I had a perfectly good bike (Shiv TT nosecone). I just bought it because I love that bike!!
Haha. No doubt it’s a great bike. Slowtwitch is all about boiling it down to the grams of drag:P
Just dug up the test via Aeroweenie.com. Tour magazine P5 vs. TM01 HERE.
Looks like it’s about 50g of drag at 30mph and you had better have a disc the TM01!
Any idea how that translates to say, a 5-ish hr IM bike?
0.1 lbs (50 g) of drag (at 30 mph) = 0.5 s/km = 5 W = 0.005 m^2 CdA = 0.0005 Crr
Looks like ~90 seconds according to that test assuming 0 yaw.
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I’d say less than 50 grams, and its really only slower from -5 to 5, everywhere else they are essentially tied. For some slower riders there would be no difference.
Definitely. Although word on the street is that the IA is pretty impressive at yaw. I still haven’t seen any direct comparisons to P5, SC, etc. but haven’t been looking hard either. Maybe someone else has seen them?
Looks like ~90 seconds according to that test assuming 0 yaw.
Sweet. I can deal with a 90 second loss over 112 miles if it means my bike looks awesome.
Sounds like we need a picture of that ride then…
We’re definitely discussing differences at the point end here, but they do matter to some. 20 seconds (50g over 40km) can often shift the results pretty widely over an Olympic distance event, especially something like nationals or worlds. The big picture is about making smart choice consistently whenever the options are presented and the seconds will slowly fall in your favor.
Ah - so that’s 90s per 40k then, not 90s per 112 mi. That is a bigger difference then - about 6:45 as I can tell.
No, 90s per 180km.
0.1 lbs (50 g) of drag (at 30 mph) = 0.5 s/km = 5 W = 0.005 m^2 CdA = 0.0005 Crr
50g drag = 0.5 s/km
0.5*180km=90s
I was referencing Olympic distance racing as a place the seconds quickly amount to big changes. In that case 50g of drag would look like:
0.5*40km=20s
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I’m assuming that is supplied by Felt? Definitely a good reference but I certainly would not take it as law. Would be great to see another independent superbike shootout with Dimond, Felt IA, new SC, etc. included.
Yeah that came straight out of the Felt promo video. I have no idea what they tested on the bike
Thanks for the feedback everyone. It seems that many of you think the IA may be worth the wait. They are both great bikes and I would be fortunate to have either one. I hope my potential buyer on my current bike can hold out. SuperDave, if you are reading this, can you speculate as to when the IA 1 framesets will be delivered?
I’d say less than 50 grams, and its really only slower from -5 to 5, everywhere else they are essentially tied. For some slower riders there would be no difference.
The thing to remember is that the P5 (Shiv TT may be there with it though) is very good at 0 yaw, but the SC and the IA are better than the P5 at anything more than 5 degrees. So while the TM01 is not giving up much time to the P5 at higher yaw, it is giving up time to the IA and the SC. Also remember that Ero claims to get better numbers with riders on a SC than P5s and that is at low yaw also.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. It seems that many of you think the IA may be worth the wait. They are both great bikes and I would be fortunate to have either one. I hope my potential buyer on my current bike can hold out. SuperDave, if you are reading this, can you speculate as to when the IA 1 framesets will be delivered? [/quote
I was in Taiwan for the month of November and the IA1 was among the projects that we completed QA/QC upon and released them. I gave the green light November 12th.
-SD