Known for sponsoring world championship and Olympic athletes, Felt Bicycles, the brand behind felt bikes, is a top brand in the elite cycling world. The brand is famous for road bikes, triathlon bikes, triathlon bikes, to name a few. But are felt bikes good?
Felt bikes are good because they are engineered for fast riding. These bikes enjoy a more aerodynamic design, an extra-lightweight frame, and excellent seat post clamping to encourage fast and comfortable cycling.
Felt bicycles target pro riders more, as you can tell them from their stiffer geometries, high-end components, and unique technologies, which offer unrivaled riding experiences.
But like every other bike brand, Felt Bicycles has its shortcomings that’ll share in this post.
But before that, let me help you understand the brand better.
In a rush? Check out the best Felt bicycles on the market below.
5 Best Felt Bikes To Consider
- Feltbikes F85: Best Felt Road Bike
- Felt B14: Best Felt Triathlon Bike
- FX Cyclocross Race Bike: Best Felt Cyclocross Bike
- Felt Redemption 50: Best Felt Mountain Bike
- Breed Gravel Bike: Best Felt Gravel Bike
About Felt Bicycles (Is Felt A Good Bike Brand?)
Jim Felt founded felt Bicycles in 1991 in Irvine, California. But following a legal dispute with its distributor, Answer Product, Felt disappeared from the market only to reappear in 2001 as an independent brand.
Felt Bicycles enjoyed 16 years of production and sponsorship success under the leadership of Jim Felt. But in 2017, Rossignol bought the company, and according to them, Felt’s revenue had reached an impressive $60 million.
Felt Bicycles takes pride in unique bike technologies. Its road bikes, time trial/triathlon, and cyclocross bikes set the standard with unique aerodynamic and super-lightweight carbon-fiber frames.
In 2009, however, the brand recalled most of its models for having faulty steerer tubes. That included their B12 mountain bike, S32 triathlon bike, and a B16 road bike.
The minor setback, however, didn’t derail the brand’s global success.
For so many years, Felt has been sponsoring teams at the world championship and Olympic events.
For example, Felt sponsored Daniel Ryf, the guy who won the Ironman World Championship in 2015 and 2016, and Olympic silver medalist Sarah Kathryn Hammer.
Currently, they sponsor U.S-based ProTeam Rally Cycling. The team races with the Felt aero road bike.
Though all Felt road bikes are assembled in the United States, the brand gets most materials from Asia.
The brand operates on a click-and-collect service model, where you only make an online purchase and wait to receive a fully assembled bike at a recognized dealer.
Are Felt Bikes Good or Not Worth It? (The Good and the Bad)
- The Good
Felt bikes are generally designed for speed. They are the go-for bikes when you want to compete or race for gold, especially their road bikes, triathlon bikes, and cyclocross options.
These bikes are not for casual riding unless you get a gravel, commuter, or fitness bike.
Everything about their design screams speed.
Here are the reasons why felt bikes are suitable for speed riding or racing:
a) An Aerodynamic Approach
Felt takes pride in making the fastest bicycles, and you can tell that from their aerodynamic designs.
Felt road bikes, cyclocross bikes, and triathlon/time-trial bikes are a perfect definition of an aerodynamic design.
These bikes come with drop bars, aero frames, slimmer wheels, and stiffer head tubes, offering them an aerodynamic advantage.
As a result, they are lightning quick and can also cut through the wind drag, thus more efficient.
b) Lightweight Frames
Felt employs high-quality carbon frames on their high-end bikes, which are not just lightweight but equally strong and stable.
The carbon frames have a checkerboard pattern that boasts their toughness and employ a Textrene layer on their inside that prevents snapping due to heavy impact.
c) Unique Technologies
Felt Bicycles’ selling point is their unique technologies. Their full-suspension mountain bikes, for example, employ Equilink Suspension, an isolation suspension that suspends you over the frame when you ride on rough surfaces.
On the other hand, their triathlon bikes are known for their Bayonet Forks, which give them a stiffer and more aerodynamic design, thus faster.
Meanwhile, Felt race bikes are known for employing the Felt Racing Development ‘FRD’ Technology that boosts your endurance and performance when racing fast.
There is also carbon fiber technology, which Felt employs to guarantee stronger, lighter, more stable, and shock-dampening carbon frames.
Felt also employs computation fluid dynamic (CFD), a computer modeling technology that makes the most aerodynamic frames.
d) Great Seatpost Clamping System
Felt bike seat posts employ a unique clamping system that improves your sitting comfort and reduces your weight on the bike. That allows you to ride more comfortably without exerting too much weight on the seat.
And considering that the frame is carbon, the seat post clamping system improves the frame’s durability.
- The Bad
One concern that most customers have concerning Felt bicycles is their geometries. These bikes are built for pro riders. So, it takes time for less experienced riders to get accustomed to bike handling.
That means that Felt bikes are not a beginner choice. Even their casual options (fitness, commuter, and gravel bikes) take time to learn to handle.
The other downside is that Felt has stopped making several bike categories such as mountain, fat, and BMX bicycles.
So, whatever is available in the market today is likely to be an older model, which may not match the newest models by other leading bike brands.
Felt Bike Ranges (Felt Bikes Review)
Felt sells a variety of bike types, which include:
- Road bikes
- Time-trial/triathlon bikes
- Cyclocross bikes
- Gravel/Adventure bikes
- Mountain bikes
1. Are Felt Road Bikes Good?
Felt road bicycles fall under the following categories:
- Endurance road bikes
- Performance road bikes
- Fitness road bikes
- Commuter road bikes
Felt endurance road bikes come with a more relaxed geometry that makes them best for casual riding. They enjoy a lightweight frame and powerful disc brakes with incredible stopping power.
Felt performance road bikes are engineered for fast-speed racing, thanks to their aero bars, extra-lightweight frames, and slimmer aerodynamic wheels.
Felt fitness and commuter road bicycles, on the other hand, are what their name is suggesting. They are best for fitness and commuting reasons, respectively. They are generally the most affordable of the bunch.
Overall, Felt road bicycles are good because of their lightweight and aerodynamic geometries that make them best for racing. Their disc brakes and drivetrain are high-end, and most of them come with carbon fiber frames.
They also come with tubeless-ready wheels, as it’s the case with the Feltbikes F85.
2. Are Felt Mountain Bikes Good?
Felt hasn’t enjoyed much success in the mountain bike sector as in the road bike sector. In 2009, for example, the brand recalled their Felt B12 mountain bike for having unsafe steerer tubes.
And early this year, Felt Bicycles stopped producing newer MTBs, which means we’ll have to rely on existing models from now on. But overall, the existing MTBs are decent.
They feature high-end hydraulic disc brakes, lightweight frames, and robust wheels. One thing that sets them apart, however, is their unique suspensions.
While most of their hardtails enjoy Rockshox suspension, their full-suspension enjoy the Equilink Suspension, which I mentioned earlier, that smoothly cushions your bumpy rides.
Overall, no bike promises a much comforter and high-end experience than the Felt Redemption 50.
3. Are Felt Gravel Bikes Good?
Felt gravel bicycles, sometimes known as adventure bikes, are for those who want to tackle the off-road at fast speed. So, if you’re going to ride fast on gravel, these are the bikes to consider.
Felt gravel bicycles mostly come with drop bars to put you in a low-lying, aerodynamic position, which offers you leverage when riding fast and against the wind.
Expectedly, they come with disc brakes that guarantee sure stopping power on technical surfaces.
Their wheels are more robust, and so are their frames.
Construction-wise, they are a lighter and faster version of mountain bikes.
Felt is known for its Breed Gravel Bike.
4. Are Felt Triathlon Bikes Good?
Felt triathlon bikes are all about speed. They come equipped with the most aerodynamic, triathlon-specific handlebars and feature stronger armrests to encourage fast riding.
Their deep-section wheels and carbon fiber frames make it easy to ride fast and are part of the reason why these bikes are among the most priced.
The bikes also employ advanced technologies such as the Felt Racing Development (FRD) technology to offer you aerodynamic leverage.
They feature high-quality disc brakes that are ever responsive and feature fast-rolling tires and high-end drivetrains.
No triathlon bike exemplifies that better than the Felt B14.
5. Are Felt Cyclocross Bikes Good?
Felt Cyclocross bikes are built to take on everything you lay on their path. Whether it’s mad, gravel, sand, or grass, you can take it all with a Felt cyclocross bike.
These bikes are lightweight for easy pedaling and carrying over obstacles, making them reliable choices for cyclocross racing.
Their drop bars and stiffer head tubes offer you an aerodynamic advantage when racing or riding against the wind.
Plus, they come with powerful and more efficient disc brakes, and their frames are more robust to take on aggressive usage.
Many pro riders use Felt cyclocross bikes for their training and competition, and there is no better recommendation than the FX Cyclocross Race Bike.
6. Other Felt Bicycles
Other bicycles that Felt Bicycles currently make include:
- Felt track bikes
- Felt electric bikes
Important Note
Note that Felt stopped making a few bikes, which are top sellers on the market.
As I mentioned, they stopped making mountain bikes earlier this year. They also stopped making fat bikes in 2014. The two bike types are, however, still top-sellers.
It’s unclear exactly when Felt stopped making Felt cruiser bikes and BMX, but there are no longer newer models. Felt recalled most of their cruiser bikes in 2009 when customers complained about failing brakes.
FAQs
1. Is Felt A Good Bicycle Brand?
Felt Bicycles has built a fantastic reputation for being a high-end brand. The company sponsors world-class athletes, some of who have worn podium places using Felt bikes.
So, as far as brand success is concerned, Felt Bicycles has a good name.
Moreover, the bikes are high-end in build and high performers on tracks.
2. Where Are Felt Bikes Made?
Felt Bicycles get most materials from Asia, but the final assembly is done in California, U.S.A.
3. Are Felt Bikes Any Good?
Felt bikes are aerodynamic, lightweight, and comfortable to ride, making them best for racing. The bikes employ high-end frames, disc brakes, and drivetrain components, making them a good choice for pro riders.
4. Which Is Better Felt Or Specialized?
Felt generally makes pro-level bikes with better specs and more high-end frames than Specialized. Though Specialized has some decent bikes for pro riders, Felt bikes are better for competitive racing.
5. What Happened To Felt Bikes?
Though Felt Bicycles founder Jim Felt is no longer at its helm after giving it 25 of his hardworking life, the brand is still active.
Felt bikes are still among the best pro-level racer bikes.
6. Is Trek Better Than Felt?
It’s hard to claim that Trek is better than Felt or vice versa as both bike brands employ the most high-end components.
What’s clear is that felt bikes have a more aggressive geometry that makes them better racers. Trek, in contrast, has a more aerodynamic design, which makes them better for cheating the wind.
7. Why Did Felt Stop Making Mountain Bikes?
Since the beginning of 2021, Felt has resolved to focus on performance race bikes. That includes their road bikes and triathlon bikes. So, they decided not to make newer mountain bikes.
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Are Felt Bikes Good? Concluding Thought:
In as far as bike manufacturing and specialization is concerned, Felt Bicycles rule the race bike sector. Their road bikes, triathlon bikes, and cyclocross bikes are unmatched on a pro-riding level.
Their gravel bikes are not bad either for casual riders. And even though their mountain bikes, fat bikes, and BMX are going out of the market, they are still a top contender for anyone who wants a high-end option.
So, there is no doubt that Felt bikes are good.