Miller2

How do the Felt bikes stack up against the usual suspects? Is the Felt F80 a good 1st road bike?

SDRider

I bought one back in August. A 2005 Felt F65, I paid $899 for it and I think it was a hell of a bargain at that price.

That said, the wheels are pretty bad. I put about 100 miles on them and started having trouble with the freehub. Had that replaced but wasn't happy with the fact that they are so flexible so I bought a stiffer, lighter and stronger wheelset. I also replaced the brakes with Dura-Ace 7700 (9spd brakes from 2004) that I picked up on ebay for about $100. I got a great deal on a Dura-Ace 7800 crankset so I upgraded that too. I'm very happy with the bike now and have put 1,000 miles on it since August.

If you get the Felt F80 and have any interest in upgrading components I would start with the wheels. That's the best upgrade you could make. In fact, if you only make one upgrade I would make it the wheels.

Point

Test road one, liked the ride and fit, but the ones my LBS had left me cold. Seems every one they had the welds looked pretty crude.

SDRider

This is my bike. I guess the welds do look a little crude but that was about as important to me as whether or not it had reflectors on the wheels.

furiousferret

I have a Felt F65 (2005) I've had no problems with it. The F80's are nice bikes, that's actually what I was going to get but I got a good deal on the F65. There really aren't any knocks on the F80 at all (like the wheels of the F65 which is a common complaint)

slacker_express

While not the same bike, I almost picked up a leftover '05 F2C a couple of weeks ago. Nice enough bike. While the bling factor is certainly higher than the "lowly" Cannondale R1000 I ended up getting, I just couldn't get the fit right. The only thing that really bothered me was the brakes. Pretty awful IMHO. While I would have sucked it up and changed them out, I wasn't happy with thinking I needed to do that after plunking down >$2k for a bike. It was hard not to get caught up in the looks of the bike, but I've lived with bike that didn't quite fit for too long, which made the choice easier.

Miller2

Thanks for the feedback guys. I have the opportunity to purchase one brand new at such a killer deal I cant pass it up. Even though it is mail order I think I'm going to go for it.

Mr. Solo

I got the 2004 F45 on discount last August and 2K miles later I have no complaints thus far. Before that I rode a steel Bridgestone, classic geometry, so thats my only basis for comparison.

I find the F45 sturdy yet lightweight and responsive. The velomax circuit wheelset is very nice for me.

I don't race or anything, but I can hold my own and thanks to this forum I have turned from my OCP ways

Mr. Solo

Yeah mine was mail order too, but I saw some other geometries in other bike stores and liked what i saw.

TnDiamondback

lovin my F90!

socalrider

Felt the company has a pretty good rep.. I had some questions so I decided to call them and ask directly.. To my amazemement, an actual person answered the phone and directed me to there sales department and they spent about 10 minutes giving me all the details of the different models they had and tried to fit it to what kind of riding I would be doing.. A friend of mine who bought an F55 had the same exact experience with them..