Join us as we build some of the first 2007 Felt DA Carbon triathlon bikes.
Here are photos taken as we build the bike. We are doing the assembly now, so you are seeing the photos unfold as we go along.
Let us know your questions if any.
Here is the bottom bracket assembly.
And a rear view of the brake mounting.
Even early on I have to suggest that these dropouts are very cleanly produced and look quite nice.
Here is that head tube we’ve been talking about. An an example of the “cleaner” rear triangle with the missing brake and some nice molding. The cable routing has been a source of interest. As we’ve mentioned it is fully labelled and as idiot-proof as I could imagine. Very nice. We are sizing cables and routing them as we type now.
It really is quite remarkable. The cable routing is very easy and the Zipp wheels and Vuka bars really put the finishing touches on a beautifully constructed frame. The stem adjustment is pretty neat too.
We’re just gluing the tires and finalizing the build right now. More pictures to follow.
Well, we’ll see. There is a lot of hype and a lot of anticipation. Building the bike does give some indication of the mechanical aspects of its design but says nothing about the ride or fit capability.
The jury is still out. There are a number of intersting aspects to the design though and we’re enjoying building it.
We have fitted the rear wheel and we’ve installed the rear cable housings twice for sizing purposes- once to test fit and then remove them and then cut and finish to length, then the installation (going on now).
You can *completely replace the cable and make all adjustments *with the rear wheel in place. It is as easy as the standard configuration. the one exception may be replacing the right side brake pad, which will require rear wheel removal.
General arrangement of the front end, including the “Bayonet” configuration and equipment: This provides a sense of the adjustment and angulation of the stem: The Vukka cockpit melds weld with the top inserting cable routing and is cleaner than other frames I’ve installed Vukkas on since the cables seem neatly tucked out of the boundry layer:
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Tom, it looks like the rear brake cable has to make a reasonably sharp turn once inside the top tube because it inserts vertically rather than horizontally. Or since the brake is low, does it just drop right down and never make a sharp bend? I’ll be curious to hear how smoothly the rear brake operates.
I’m wondering the same thing. I know bento boxes get a lot of crap on ST (a little less now that Swimfan is gone), but I depend on mine for IM races and training.
How is the headtube height compared to a P3C or TTX?
Very low. I think it’s .5 or more cm lower than a P3! And since the top tubes are NOT short, this means that the head tube will be very very low for a given top tube.
But the bigger problem I see is that you are stuck with the stem that appears to not allow the use of spacers. LOTS of people – in fact most – riding P3Cs use 1-3cm of spacers AND an upsloped stem. AND that’s on top of the big tapered spacer that most people don’t think of as a spacer, even though it is! With the Felt DA you can only tilt up that stem.
I predict that very few people will actually fit nicely on this frame.
I doubt the rear brake cable needs to take a sharp turn. Think about where the rear brake actually is on this bike. The cable is going to route through the down tube, not the top tube like most bikes. It doesn’t have to take any sharper of a turn than the front and rear derailleur cables.
Oh, and I don’t need it and can’t really afford it, but I *so *want this frame. Beautiful.
The head tube height we’ve measured on a 56cm DA is 128 millimeters high. For a 56cm Cervelo P3C it measures 126 millimeters high.
The web sites for the respective manufacturers claim 125 for the 56 cm. Felt DA and 125 for the Cervelo P3C.
With the inclusion of the Bayonet assembly and the stem desing on the Felt DA, the DA is about as high as the Cervelo would be with 2 cenitmeters of headset spacers.
The net result is that the Felt DA is higher both in measurement and end result.
