# Felt Z5



## tko04 (Jun 26, 2010)

Hey guys....I love this forum.

Anyways, just recently purchased my first road bike. Wanted to get into the sport and get some good exercise out of it. My goal was to spend under $2k and get the best bang for the buck on a carbon frame with at least 105 components....which led me to the Felt Z5.
I loved the bike and put less than 60 miles onto it when the back tire started rubbing. Took it into my LBS...they said the back frame was defective...Felt sent a new frame out. Great service all around from the LBS and Felt. What they ended up doing was giving me a Zc frame with all my orig components/wheels.

Rode it yesterday for the first time...maybe it's me, but the stance on the frame seems more agreessive and more stiff. Has anyone else tried the two different frames? Is it a mind thing or is it really that much more agressive? Is it really that much different than my original Z5 frame? Maybe i need to get some things adjusted. Could it be way too much bike for a first time rider? Is there such a thing?


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## rijn (Jun 23, 2010)

The ZC and Z5 frames have the same geometry. The ZC and Z2 share the same UHM frames and much stiffer than the Z5 frame. I'm waiting for a replacement ZC frameset. Can you send me a few pictures of your bike? The ZC frameset should have came with the 1.2 UHM fork. The weight should be similar to the FC frameset.


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## Camilo (Jun 23, 2007)

Like rijn said, your new frame is an upgrade from the original (at least that's the way it appears in the website descriptions), but the geometry is exactly the same.

It could be that the ZC frame is more stiff, but the feelings you're having are more likely from the fit/setup and really important is tire pressure. It's probably too late, but it's always a good idea to carefully measure the setup of the old bike and adjust the new bike exactly the same as a starting point. The things you can measure and duplicate are saddle position - height and set back from pedal spindle... stem height..... position of the levers on the bar.... angle of the bars. The Park Tool website has some guidelines for this.

Here's what my ZC frame looks like built up. It did indeed come with the 1.2 fork which is a better fork than what was specified in the website and my shop's catalogue (1.3). The weight of the frame was right at the claimed weight, the fork a tiny bit (maybe 1/2 ounce) heavier.










Since this picture, I've replaced the bar tape with reddish, which adds a nice contrast to the monocolor of the entire bike.


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## Superdave3T (May 11, 2009)

rijn said:


> The ZC and Z5 frames have the same geometry. The ZC and Z2 share the same UHM frames and much stiffer than the Z5 frame. I'm waiting for a replacement ZC frameset. Can you send me a few pictures of your bike? The ZC frameset should have came with the 1.2 UHM fork. The weight should be similar to the FC frameset.



Regardless of the grades of carbon, all the the series of bikes are made with the same stifness except the F1 Sprint.

F1 - F5
AR1 - AR5
Z1 - Z6
ZW1 - ZW6
DA - B16

Now of course the ZW series is not made as stiff as the AR for example, but each version within the same line or category is the same.


The Z2 is the same stiffness as the Z6. The ride qulaity may vary significantly depending on how sensitive you are to the differences in material, but the stiffness standards are the same.

-SD


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## tko04 (Jun 26, 2010)

No, they fitted it out with a 1.3 fork. what is the difference between the 1.2 and 1.3? i guess i can't really complain since it was a free upgrade right?


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