jsigone

after two months of base mile w/ slicks on my CX fuji altamira. I started getting the itch for another road race geo bike as ROM improved a bit (still far from 100%) and knowing the CX was holding me back in the hills and group decending. i held off so some time because I knew I didn't have range of motion and flexiblity for a race geo bike to replace my old trusty super6.

Requirements of knowing what you want is a MOFO. super6 was 575 ett and 175ht and was rocking slammed stem and wanted lower or negative stem eww. new frame requirments 560-565 ETT and sub 165ht. Narrows out 80% of the bikes in a hurry and the other 10% i can't afford nor want to spend that much in just a frame. After weeks of scouring EBAY or craigslist I had a good streak on ebay frames ending on the same day within hours of each other, figure one had to hit!! Lots of homework on the frames that I had on Deck. Allez smartweld, BMC SL01, Cervelo S2, Fuji SSt 1.0 w/ ISP, Giant TCR with ISP and than the felt F series. Used cannondale prices of overprices and I refuse to pay them.

dust settled & Scored a Felt F4 frameset, same as the F3, F5 and FC. 56ett and 140 ht that 29er hardtail short Had the 105 take offs from the super6 2 yrs ago that I used for a week before switching to SRAM. They still had the clear proective stickers that I had to peal off this morning when I noticed them Kinda weird going back to shimano had enough other parts to get frankenbike on the road, figure I can hot rod it as I go along.

Built it last night & prepped it for it's maiden voyage. 90mile min buy in today if I went out n back. Guess if I was feeling good and threw in some bonus miles to knock off a century. Fit was near spot on, after 10-15 miles my body felt used to the seat drop and longer reach w/ the 120mm stem. I did lowered the seat post 3mm after the club sprint point 45miles in(got 4th) , I can feel my hips rocking when in the drops. Bike road very very smooth on most surfaces, 5700 105's shifted silky smooth but not quick like the force on the CX. Threw on my Conti GP2s on my stans tubeless wheelset and running tubes. Combo felt good and spun up a crap ton faster than the CX. Handling is freaking awesome, I have new sense of encouragement throwing the bike into turns. It's hard to compare the Felt to the Super6 cuz that bike got smashed 6months ago. So I just keep it a blank slate and will go from there. Out of the saddle is just FUN as crap and was making me smile, super responsive and snappy. Club ride group was smaller then norm but doesn't mean its slow, just less places to hide. Even afterwards I still had a 19.7 ave @ mile 85 ish when I turned off the coast and pedal up hill home

One heck of a way to mold my body to fit this new bike, abuse both!!! Shoulders didn't get sore til i hit 104miles.

chaadster

Very nice work all 'round. Kudos!

bigfred 

Nice!

I can only imagine how different that is to the CX rig.

What happened to the Sram take offs from the Crunchondale?

Willbird

So not to be nosy, but what was the price tag of the parts you had to buy ??

:-)

Bill

jsigone

Crunchdale left shifter looks like a Freddy cruger pose ( nightmare on elm st movie). Never checked the alignment of the rear d and hanger. But that group set is still hanging on the bike, which is hanging on the garage wall.

jsigone

Frame set was $547 shipped from NY to Cali
Ultegra braze on front d $44
Fizik bar tape $18
Cable housing from lbs was free
Fix broken spoke in front wheel was free.

That's all I had to buy, everything else was parts I have laying around.

Willbird

That is pretty cool really :-)......I love it when you can put something together from spare parts :-).

brawlo

Nice! I have a '12 model F4 and really love it for the reason's you've highlighted. It's a great race machine and handles my hefty bulk really well, especially when cranking it in a sprint. The super massive downtube has a lot to do with this. My ONLY gripe is how narrow it is between the chainstays. I had to ditch my 25mm tyres

jsigone

Good to here another is on this frame. The Felt f series isn't as popular as the cdale crowd so real reviews harder to find.

I'm running conti gp2 in 23c. Good thing I didn't try 25s for the first ride. I might now have gone very far.

bbeasley

Wow, nice build! Great job piecing this together.

brawlo

I had Conti GP4000 25s on A23 rims. I put around 200km into the bike before I had the rear off to change the cassette. That was when I noticed the rub marks in between the chainstays. Lucky I noticed then and not catastrophically later.

I don't run the A23s any more but do have Kinlin XC279 rims now, so still 23mm rims. The 23mm tyres run close with them too. 25s may run just as wide as my 23s if you put them on 19mm rims and therefore be ok.

jsigone

I have these Stans alpha 400s and 50mm carbon tubulars ( old narrow style) for this bike.

Are you running the kinlin tubeless?

bigfred 

Wait a mintue, aren't those Alpha 400s your "Gravel" rims? :-)

jsigone

YES it's alive!!! They been hanging on the wall hook for only 10 months now

brawlo

No, just running them as standard with tyre liners for added puncture protection. I've read a bit about tubeless and am intrigued, but I need the cost of the tyres to come down yet, and some more race orientated tyres to come onto the market.

The only flats I've had in about 5 years of running the liners are a piece of car tyre wire bead that worked its way through the liner to cause a slow leak, and a piece of glass cutting the sidewall of the tyre that would have caused a tubeless to fail anyway.

jsigone

Bike came down with a fever....upgradeitis fever. A week with the 5700 series 105 drive train got swapped out for SRAM Force awesomeness. Shifters & rear D for now, shaved a claimed 290 grams. Cranks of some sort to follow soon. Eyeing slk or rotors....

bigfred 

Something with a Powwweeerrrrrrr spider?

chasm54

Just seen this thread. Nice job. Looks like the motivation problems are a thing of the past, eh?

Interested in how quickly you've gone from 105 5700 series to SRAM Force. Make a comparison for me?

jsigone

something compatible w/ a stages pwoer meter even if I have to miss match one cf and one alum. Or I'll get a G3 hub and build another Stans A400 on it.


Yah i think I had a good mental block in Sept about riding. I wasn't seeing progress and everything still hurt like heck (shoulder, lungs n legs). New bike helps my mojo since I'm faster on this bike

Shimano 5700 series to Force....Feels like deja vu! My super6 came with the 105s and I was also quick to rip them off for Rivals in a week or 2, stored them away for 2 yrs and tried them again for this build. My CX bike has Force as well.

5700 shifts super silky smooth...but slow. What I mean by slow. To shift the rear D to go down the cog into harder gears. I have to move the small paddle about 1 inch than another .8" to complete the shift. Not so much a problem when on the hoods at average pass or slightly sprinted but still on the hoods. The problem is in the drops at moving 25+ on flats or even more magnified when decending at 40+. AND I can only click one gear at a time. Seemly I have to modify my grip and twist my hand inwards to get those higher gear clicks in the drops. No way to quickly cover the brakes in such manner either. Now 5700 climbing or going slower is it's highlight. Moving the brake shifter sideways to shift only requires 1/4" to start the engagement and maybe another 1/4" to shift one gear. Move it more and there are 2 and 3 gear dumps to go SLOWER. But even smoother and faster than the smaller lever. I've read this is still the same case with the Dura Ace 7900 as well and not addressed until the way more expensive 9000 series. I guess 11/10spd Di2 in either models would eliminate this handicap since there are just buttons, but I like mechanical shifters....cables and all.

My brain is wired opposite. Like a sports car in mind, I want less effort/faster throws to go faster and don't mind longer throw to go slower. Sram Force is setup w/ this in mind with their double tap. First set of engagements will move the chain down the cassette. push past that and goes into engaging the chain to go up. Both allows for gear dumps if desired. Force takes 1/4" slack to get to the engagement click, and completes the shift in less than 1/8". Hold it there and it will dump the chain down the cassette if you wish. Not only does it take less effort to shift to go faster. you can pull the shifter back to the bars inside you pointer finger knuckle and can shift with small movements of that finger while clinching to the bars while ramping up the speed. Great for decending or a sprint. Force shifters and D i have on my CX bikes seems well refined vs the Rival I had on the smashed super6. The slack to the shiftpoint is less by a bit and over all shifting seems a tad more fluid than rival

Hoods vs hoods. Though very similar, Surprisingly I'd say that the 5700 feels a bit better on two long rides I put on it (110 & 41). better contoured edges. Body size/dia is about the same for my hands. Transitions from hoods to bars is smooth on both shifters. The 105's never gave me numb hands. Brake levers, 105s win here. nicely shaped tips and finger groves and good brake modulation/ control.

If Shimano shifted like SRAM and was similar weight. I'd still be on the boat. SRAM force also dropped over 1/2 pound for the inner weight weenie within me. Doesn't hurt that I got the Force stuff from an Elite CX racer on our team for a deal I couldn't pass up "take my money!!"

chasm54

Thanks, that's enlightening. Now I'm not racing and jra with a bit of TT-ing thrown in I think I'll stick with Shimano, but it's nice to know the pluses and minuses. And I'm glad you've got your mojo back. Puts me in mind of a box of frogs.

bigfred 

Have you considered 4iiiis Precission? They're talking as though it may be compatible with some carbon cranks. I'm curious if it needs to go as close to the BB as I've seen. If that's the case, I probably can't fit one to my Andels. But, if it could go a bit closer to the pedal spindle, I have flat realestate to spare.

It looks like we're about to enter the golden age of Powermeters, with prices about to fall below the $500 mark:-)

jsigone

That power meter might be a sound alternative to the stages PM. Would be great to mount it on carbon cranks. I'm looking forward to the age of more affordable PMs. The competition should help lower the price oppose to pioneers cornering and milking the market share.

Good thing about crank sets I'm looking at, they hold their value on the used market and should be easy to flip if needed. I'd like the pm upgrade before early next yr.

jsigone

I'm still trying to find those frogs.....