Maybe a little too late, but Felt is owned by Pierer Mobility, who is in severe financial straits. Their annual report was due last week and they postponed reporting them. Expected loss is 1.2 billion euros.
I would expect Felt to either be wound down or best case, spun off in the near future. Either way, I would operate as if you bought a bike without a warranty.
Stumbled across this titanium manufacturer in a facebook post today. Theyāre out of Portugal. Price doesnāt seem that out of line, rated clearance for 2.2ās and all the other bells and whistles Iād find amongst their competitors. Solid geometry stack/reach as well.
Well there goes the new bike day excitement!
Just kidding, in all seriousness, it doesnāt bother me much. I donāt keep my bikes more than a year or two and havenāt ever ran into warranty issues (knock on wood). Worst case scenario, something goes wrong on the frameset and its an excuse to buy a crux framesetā¦if they ever update it!
That brand actually has a pretty interesting background. They were operating originally in Russia, where theyāve been making frames for a long time. After the invasion of Ukraine and with the questionable direction of the country they decided to leave and moved their operation to Portugal. Iāve seen their work at Eurobike and it looks really good
Iād build it and ride it hard ASAP, make sure everything is in order. Worst case, you can maybe get the shop to get a different frameset at cost if thereās any issues.
Looks to check nearly every box I can think of. They ship to the US as well.
I have a nice new bike, and the Dark Matter looks pretty sweet. Trying to figure out if thereās a box it doesnāt check? Geometry maybe? Doesnāt look all that different than my MOG with the exception of being a little longer on both ends.
I rolled in this morning from a weekend race in Kansas and fedex dropped this off about an hour later. To get it built quickly, Iām stealing the transmission RD off my XC bike and Rival shifters/brakes off my Checkpoint. Iāll buy the new Force shifters once they are released. Iām still waiting on new āwideā crank arms/spindle to arrive for my Quarg spider and still debating the seat post. Iām been on isospeed so long that Iām kind of spoiled with rear compliance, so thinking I might order a Ergon post.
Would love to see āin-progressā build pics - vicarious new bike day!
I have this as well, just did Traka 200 with it. Nothing bad to say, definitely makes a difference to rear-end compliance.
Interesting! I wonder how it compares with the suspension and Ergon-style options.
Pretty much done, just waiting on a socket to properly torque the BB before I do a real ride. Also, I probably need the zero offset version of that Ergon seatpost. A teammate had an offset version he was getting rid of and it works, but the seat is pushed way forward. Fit is set up just like my Checkpoint. Weight is almost identical to my checkpoint at just under 23lbs with pedals and cages. Happy with that given the suspension up front. Got lucky that I can share a fleet of chains with my XC MTB, same chain sizing for 42/44 ring on the Lauf as I have with a 38 on my Epic. Iāll miss the downtube storage on the checkpoint, so will need to figure that out. My biggest goals were getting proper tire clearance and more compliance and those boxes are certainly checked.
Iām curious how this rides compared to your Checkpoint with the slacker seat tube and headtube angles. Maybe the zero offset seatpost might balance it out.
I did a ~30 mile demo ride on gravel before buying it, so have a pretty good feel. Super stable on fast/chuky downhill, which was my big concern with the higher bottom bracket. Steering not as quick as the checkpoint, but I honestly donāt understand why people seem to desire that attribute in a gravel race bike. The seat tube angle is technically almost the same as the checkpoint, but is slacker in practical terms with the way they did it. Since the seat tube joins the bottom bracket āaheadā of the BB centerline, the effective STA gets slacker as you raise the saddle. Makes the math tricky when figuring out what seat post you need. I kind wish they had just stated the actual angle of the seat tube and then noted how far forward of the BB it starts, but I get why they did it. I measure the actual seat tube angle at about 70.5 (vs. the stated 72.4). While it creates some confusion when comparing bikes and getting the fit right, the design has some clear advantages. Great tire clearance even with short 425mm chainstays. And you basically get the added compliance of a 70.5 degree seat post, but with the fore/aft placement of a 72.x (depending on seat height). Their stock bikes actually ship with zero offset posts, which sounds crazy with a 70.5 seat tube. Hereās a pic that shows the weird seat tube geometry and why the stated angle isnāt the real angle.
How do you like the Transmission set up on the Lauf vs Eagle AXS on your Checkpoint? Seems people generally are happy with Transmission but say its shifts slower, so I was wondering if thatās anything you noticed.
Iāve been racing/riding on Transmission on my XC bike since last May, so Iāve got some time on it. Iām a fan. Not revolutionary, but I like the shifting better than Eagle. You can shift at any point under any amount of load and it just works. I never realized how much I timed my shifts to pedal strokes/force until coming back to regular AXS Eagle after months on transmission. The āslow shiftingā people talk about is when you want to blow quickly through the cassette from bigger cogs to little cogs. It wonāt dump the entire cassette at once, basically goes though each gear (so takes a couple seconds to get from biggest to smallest). It was a little annoying at first, but itās a non-issue in my opinion. I also like the UDH interface and I tested the durability in a race last year going down at high speed on the drivetrain side. RD looks like someone hit it with a belt sander, but it never missed a beat and I continued racing (my hip still shows the belt sander marks to this day). I wouldnāt spend the $ upgrading from old AXS to transmission if itās working fine, but my RD and cassettes were getting really old and I like having all my bikes on common drivetrains when possible.
I wasnāt going to entertain buying a new gravel rig this year as I was hoping a new Revolt would drop at some point, but that seems unlikely.
So, I found a barely used 2022 Revolt for about 1K nearby. I have the 2020 but the idea of being able to safely run 50s, 2.1s is very appealing. Donāt care about UDH or frame storage. I do care about clearance and the option to run 2.1s at some point.
Also the sizing for the newer gen (22-25), small is basically the previous gen medium which I have dialed fit wise.
Itās either than or a Seigla
Speed holes
Like dimples but faster
The forward bolt is a hex head, not a socket capā¦ So a small(likely 8mm) wrench would get in there, or its as simple as loosening the rear bolt a couple turns, removing tension from the cradle, and then use your finger to turn the front bolt either direction, and use the rear bolt to re-tension everythingā¦ Specializedās Alpinist and SL8 seat posts use a similar layout, with small holes drilled in the tapered head, but you donāt torque them down via those holes, you do as above, and use a paper clip or 2mm hex key, and leave the final torque and clamping force to the rear bolt.
