Originally Posted by sstorkel

It appears that you're comparing apples to oranges. While the Felt Z5 has a few 105 components, it also has quite a few that aren't 105: an FSA crank, FSA bottom bracket and "dual pivot caliper brakes" which may or may not be 105. The comparable bike from Specialized is the $2100 Specialized Roubaix SL4 Sport, not the $2600 Specialized Roubaix SL4 Elite.

Back before I bought my Cervelo RS, I looked at the Felt Z2, the Specialized Roubaix Expert, Giant Defy Advanced, and a few others. Of the bikes I test-rode, the Felt Z-series was the plushest. The frame did a fantastic job of damping minor imperfections in the road surface. Unfortunately, that made is fairly difficult to feel what was happening under the tires in situations where traction may have been less than perfect. The Z-series bike also felt slower and heavier than all the others that I test rode. That's not to say that it was slow or heavy by any means, but in that group it felt like it was at the back of the pack. The Specialized Roubaix Expert, in particular, seemed to accelerate much faster than the Z2.