Felt IA, An Australian First!

Last week I bought my IA into River City Cycles to give them an Australian 'first look'. The Felt Australia staff were present too, with this also being their first hands-on look at the new pushy (still not many around!). If you're heading to the Noosa tri in a few weeks, make sure to stop by the Felt expo stand to have a look at the bike for yourself. The photos and text are courtesy of Troy who works at the store...

This truly is a superbike - the level of sophistication and integration is phenomenal.

Building on the firm foundation of the successful Bayonet series, the new Dagger front end incorporates a shielded brake behind the cowl and internal routing for cables.

What the wind sees

The SMP Chrono is a shorter saddle, this may help on UCI compliant bikes to get the hips a bit further forward

Gloss accents along with matte frame finish is a nice touch

This stem is not a production model. An interesting story though - the first basebar was damaged in transit and cracked on the first ride (was a proprietary basebar & stem for the IA). A new proprietary 31.8 stem was required which didn't yet exist. It was Tuesday, and Josh was racing the 'Vegas 70.3 on Sunday. On the phone to Jim Felt, he had a new stem made & fitted 48 hours later 

Side view of the integrated bento box. The whole cover is made from flexible silicone, the height matches the profile of the stem

Quick access is via the cut slit, the port is for a hydration hose that goes into an internal bladder. The bladder is not available yet on production bike

The cavity is voluminous - Josh states he can fit 7 gels in there (without the tube of course) ideal for Ironman distances - no more taping gels to your toptube!

No, FRD is not Frog Racing Design, it's Felt Racing Development, which signifies this is their top tier product utilising TeXtreme 'Spread Tow' carbon fibre

You can see how much shielding there is for the front brake, with very little protrusion into the wind. The cowls are easily removed for access.

A visual characteristic of the layup method of the TeXtreme carbon fibre, is the unique broad weave - very much like a chequered flag. This effect is far more noticeable in natural light. In short, TeXtreme fibres are more ribbon like in their shape (as opposed to rounded like regular fibres are) so they can be packed tighter with less void between them, to yield a stronger composite. More info here: http://www.feltbicycles.com/blog/?p=2812

Neat cable exit point. Needless to say all cabling is internal - mechanical or electric

The rear brake is nestled under the cowl

Westy is like a big kid. Can't blame him - he's passionate about the bikes and Ironman (having raced about 500 of them  ) he's reached legend status

Seatpost simplicity. Bolts attach from each side, into a sliding captive nut plate inside the post, that sandwiches the frame and seatpost together. Large surface area for clamping reduces point loading and potential for overclamping. A clear cover clips into the slot, cut to length once you have your seat height

A bike like this, makes you want to put on a number again... hey boys? Josh won the 5150 in Galveston, Texas, less than two weeks ago. He took the bike with him to the dias, and was hounded by the paparazzi following the medal preso, all fawning over the IA. Not hard to see why