I bought a Felt B2 in June this year and made the mistake to do this during a triathlon weekend in SF. Turns out this bike has a problem with the bayonet steering system, the same problem that others have reported here. (see picture: http://s4.tinypic.com/2wcp5co.jpg)
The thing is, my local bike shop here in Houston (I know, that’s where I should have bought the bike in the first place) is really trying to fix it. They first got some re-designed part from Felt that was supposed to solve the problem but apparently it didn’t. Now the Felt representative tells the mechanic that their bikes are racing bikes and not supposed to be used daily… (I have only done 40 miles on it sofar!).
The local bike shop here is really trying and they are now going to send a picture to Felt to try to convince them that there really is an issue, but I must admit I am not very hopeful. This statement about their bikes suggested use tells me they don’t have much faith in their own design.
My question is really this. Who really likes their B2 or DA and has no issues? Or, who had this issue and did get it fixed in the end? And please tell me you ride your Felt B2 or DA every day!!
I know I made a mistake not to buy locally (next time I’ll just walk away when I seen an awesome bike at a place far away from home.), but I still hope I didn’t make a mistake choosing Felt over Cervelo.
IMO, if your account is 100% accurate and the rep said that, then they should be fired. Felt is still a small company; if you have a first hand account of the rep saying that, write Felt a letter.
I have to say, I have a 2007 DA, and have had no issues, and love it. I would think my year and how early it came out of the mold, I would be experiencing problems, but nothing and I ride/race this thing 3-4 days a week. Sorry to hear your troubles, and I know FELT will make it good.
I’d be pretty shocked if Felt was putting out any sort of a sketchy product…
SuperDave works for Felt - you might want to try sending him a PM with a rundown of your issue. It could just be that your well-intentioned bike shop has no idea what it’s doing…
I’ve got a B2 that’s just over a year old now. It’s the first year of the B2, so pre-bayonet fork. Has 5,000+ miles on it now. No issues with the bike, or components ( other than a rear der. cable that needed replacing when the housing cracked, but that’s what I’d expect ).
I ride it 98% of the time (otherwise I’m on my mtn bike, or my backup bike 'cause the B2 is being shipped).
I know others have had issues with the newer bayonet fork, any the seat clamp, but I’ve never had any issues at all. knock on wood
I don’t know how these bikes shiped to the dealers but more of these issues (if they were defects) should have been caught during assembly in the shop. More of this I believe Felt should have “educated” the bike shops about the bikes but these sound like not assembling the bike properly after sales.
My coach had a DA that had to be replaced because the steering had an issue. Our local bike shop/team sponsor got felt to replace the frame with a newer DA frame and fork and now he says it rides perfect.
I’m sorry for your frustration and apparent miscommunication with your dealer on our representatives behalf. Of course the bike is designed to be ridden and trained upon. Now I might suggest if you own a DA or a B2 Pro that a less expensive wheelset to log miles on might be appropriate, but there is no reason that all of your training miles can’t be done on the bike.
As swimfan has pointed out, the assembly is the crucial step. There is a video I made with the assembly instructions detailed on our website. Watch it and learn the assembly procedure: http://feltracing.com/08/display.asp?catid=1535&pageid=418
It is possible that an event mechanic or one unfamiliar with the design could indeed assembly it incorrectly. Following the video and the assembly instructions provided with the frame should provide years of trouble-free performance.
I’ll save you from reports of my own trouble-free use, as I’m sure it will be discounted, but I can honestly say our professional teams and athletes have no such issues with their forks. It is the meticulous attention to detail upon assembly that ensures this trouble-free service.
If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to drop me an email and contact me directly. If you’d like to communicate via slowtwitch publicly, it can take a bit longer for me to respond, but I’ll try to do so.
I know the sales rep for Texas quite well, he’s worked for us for years. I won’t discount what your shop said that he told them, but I can tell you from Felt’s product development and marketing team, the bike is designed to carry Ironman champions through years of training and racing. It is designed to give every advantage to Tour de France riders, while giving them a bike to log all their TT training miles on. It is the bike that Olympians have chosen to represent their country as their best chance for success. It is a bike for your special event, and every mile it takes to reach your goals.
I have had nothing but great results when dealing with Felt. SuperDave has offered help, suggestions, and always followed thru. I think he has to listen to a lot of crap but seems to have a clear vision of the end result-a happy Felt owner. I think that what he’s trying to say, tactfully, is that the steering system was not assembled correctly.
One of the most valuable things that I have learned on SW is that you go to your LBS and make them responsible for your bike selection, fit, and repair. Far less problems.
Thanks for your reply and offer to help. Just to clarify, I bought the bike at Sports Basement in San Francisco and their bike department made a really a good impression on me. I can only assume they have the right skills to assemble correctly.
I actually had a look at your video just after I noticed the problem and I know it’s different, but it doesn’t seem to be that complicated. You would hope that this design and associated assembly doesn’t cause so “many” problems. I say “many” here, but I know you tend to get the bad experiences on these forums and that was what I was trying to get at with my post. I really wanted to get an idea whether the majority of Felt owners are happy riders! (The experience of “7summits” having the same issue for 5 months now does worry me…)
If you’re right about incorrect assembly, then I do believe the bayonet system is great from a design point of view but not ready for real world use. My bike must have been assembled wrong twice! Once by Sports Basement which is an authorized Felt dealer that sells a large number of bikes (you should visit their store in the weekend…) and the second time by Bicycle World and Fitness here in Houston at the first repair attempt. This store is also an authorized Felt dealer (I went there for the warranty).
If authorized dealers cannot assemble properly then what hope do I have if I have to take my bike to a repair place near a race site? The last thing that I want is feel like a Ferrari driver on a road trip in rural Texas being constantly afraid of having to go to a mechanic that only works of F150 trucks… (no offense to F150 owners!).
I hope this gets resolved (and to be honest, I am not convinced yet) and when it does I will have to think hard about whether to keep the bike or take a significant loss and go with a proven design (I had to choose between the B2 and the Cervelo P2C).
I’ll wait and see what happens when the store here sends a picture of the frame rubbing to Felt, but if that doesn’t work, I may call on you to get it resolved and get back to my training (riding my mountain bike is fine for commuting, but it’s suboptimal for triathlon training!).
If authorized dealers cannot assemble properly then what hope do I have if I have to take my bike to a repair place near a race site? The last thing that I want is feel like a Ferrari driver on a road trip in rural Texas being constantly afraid of having to go to a mechanic that only works of F150 trucks… (no offense to F150 owners!).
. . .
Dude! You are a Ferrari owner. The Felt is exotic. A easy-maintenance tri bike would have a standard fork, vertical rear dropouts, a round seatpost, a standard-sized and easily replaceable seat clamp, two frame-mounted bottles, and external cables. Don’t even think about exotic braking systems.
The problem is almost no-one wants to buy bikes like that.
Here is a version that comes close:
Only area where it does not meet my trouble-free specs is the seatpost and seat clamp. Good luck with your bike. It sucks to drop that kind of coin on a ride and then to not be able to use it.
I have the same problem with my 2007 DA it rubs on, It does not seem to affect my steering, so I have just left it. Not that this is the solution, but you are not alone in your problem. let me know if you figure out the issue.
I would like to put in a vote for better seat clamps for the Felt aero bikes. The aluminum clamp on my B12 went “bang” two weeks ago. My bike has almost 300 miles, just got it this year. I was just leaving my driveway luckily when it happened. All I did was sit down - it’s not like a hit a pot hole or anything. The local bike shop - which is great to work with - said the same thing happened on a different model which uses the same clamp. I told the shop to order me 3 of the same part in case it happened again. I know there have been more than a few postings about these faulty seat clamps. Luckily, it’s designed so that it’s fairly easy to replace. Unless of course the housing glued to the frame breaks - then I’m probably in deeper trouble. What I really want is to replace it with a better quality part - thicker metal or maybe even steel instead of aluminum. If anyone knows if these exist - let me know. Thanks!
I would like to put in a vote for better seat clamps for the Felt aero bikes. The aluminum clamp on my B12 went “bang” two weeks ago. My bike has almost 300 miles, just got it this year. I was just leaving my driveway luckily when it happened. All I did was sit down - it’s not like a hit a pot hole or anything. The local bike shop - which is great to work with - said the same thing happened on a different model which uses the same clamp. I told the shop to order me 3 of the same part in case it happened again. I know there have been more than a few postings about these faulty seat clamps. Luckily, it’s designed so that it’s fairly easy to replace. Unless of course the housing glued to the frame breaks - then I’m probably in deeper trouble. What I really want is to replace it with a better quality part - thicker metal or maybe even steel instead of aluminum. If anyone knows if these exist - let me know. Thanks!
Any breakage or damage in this area is almost always due to the lack of use of a torque wrench. 45in-lbs applied even to each screw, and you’ll be fine. There are a lot of stories about bad things happening with these seat clamps. There are NONE that I’ve ever heard where the person used a torque wrench during the build.
I have had my seat clamp crack, and a torque wrench has been used since day 1, never over 45 in-lbs/5Nm. The clamp actually says 5-7 Nm on it. I have found as SuperDvae has said, that 2 Nm will actually hold teh post quite well, if you don’t mind the terrible creacking noise.
Also have the headtube issue, hopefully not anymore. We’ll see. The dealer I was just at said he saw someone’s frame that rubbed so much it wass through to the aluminum insert of the head tube.