# Why I won't be racing Felt



## Lagavulin12 (Sep 3, 2009)

After about 2 decades off I'm slowly climbing back in to racing again and this includes upgrading from my 70's vintage bikes (that are still very servicable btw). My preference was to ideally pick one mfr, at least for road, crit, tt bikes. After some research, test rides, and figuring out which models fit where Felt was looking pretty good. I ran in to a couple of problems though.

The more minor problem was that for 2010 the Z isn't offered in Red which would require me to get a frame and do my own build.

The bigger problem though is with Felt LBS's. None of the 3 I've talked to in my area seem to have a clue about fit. While many other shops made it very clear up front that fit was extremely important and that as I progressed with my decision they would spend time making sure I got the right sized frames, stems, etc, and followed up by doing so, the 3 closest shops that carry Felt were nowhere close. 2 suggested the stand over the bar and lift up method. 

The people that work in the Felt shops are extremely nice and numerous are racers themselves. That's all fine and good, but for whatever mfr I choose I need a shop that I have confidence will help me to make the right decisions.

On rides I began informally tabulating what people were riding. Each week there'd be about:

32 Trek
12 Specialized
6 Cannondale
6 Cervello
5 Scott
3 Orbea
3 Giant
3 Bianchi
3 Lightspeed
2 Pinnarello
1 Merckx
1 Look
1 Colnago
1 De Rosa

No Felt. Knowing the the shops that sell these others and the shops that sell Felt I think I know why.


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## Dr. Placebo (May 8, 2007)




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## The Clyde (Jul 13, 2009)

Good for you........


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## MaddSkillz (Mar 13, 2007)

Yeah, Felt must be a horrible bike because the LBS is a horrible shop.


Makes sense to me.


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## Lagavulin12 (Sep 3, 2009)

MaddSkillz said:


> Yeah, Felt must be a horrible bike because the LBS is a horrible shop.
> 
> 
> Makes sense to me.


Yep, that's exactly what I said... Whatever happened to ReadingAndComprehensionSkillz?


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## Lagavulin12 (Sep 3, 2009)

Felt's are great bikes. I really like them. But so are Trek, Orbea, Specialized, and 20 or 30 others. I may even like Felt better than all the others. But, at least for me, I'm buying more than just one bike. The LBS is part of the deal. Even if I like Felt better, it's not enough better to make up for shops that do nothing beyond let me test ride and shops that spend time with me on the bike before any test rides, provide some analysis of my form while I'm riding, make some seat adjustments, and recommend that if I buy X bike that I should try Y stem. One shop took the time to swap out cranks on a bike for me to try.

If I were a seasoned expert perhaps I wouldn't value these LBS services, but for where I'm at right now they're pretty important to me.


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## Superdave3T (May 11, 2009)

Lagavulin12 said:


> After about 2 decades off I'm slowly climbing back in to racing again and this includes upgrading from my 70's vintage bikes (that are still very servicable btw). My preference was to ideally pick one mfr, at least for road, crit, tt bikes. After some research, test rides, and figuring out which models fit where Felt was looking pretty good. I ran in to a couple of problems though.
> 
> The more minor problem was that for 2010 the Z isn't offered in Red which would require me to get a frame and do my own build.
> 
> ...


If you don't mind my asking, where do you live and what Dealers that carry Felt have you visited?


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## Lagavulin12 (Sep 3, 2009)

SuperdaveFelt said:


> If you don't mind my asking, where do you live and what Dealers that carry Felt have you visited?


Mpls/St Paul, MN


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## ameijer (Sep 30, 2009)

I'm looking for my first road bike and am considering different makes/models. Every single bike shop I've been to, has just looked at me, and offered a guess. Sometimes that guess is pretty low, actually, low enough to coincide with the largest bike they've got in the shop. (i'm 6-4 with a 36" inseam). i'm starting to mistrust everyone....


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## terbennett (Apr 1, 2006)

That's interesting. I live in Orange County, California and I know of four shops that carry Felt in my area: Switchback Cyclery in Orange, Sand Canyon Cyclery in Irvine, La Habra Cyclery in La Habra and Main Bikes in Anaheim. Each of these shops stress on fit and they don't just guess. I'm thinking that your situation is a rare case. In fact I don't remember the last time I've even been in a bike shop that didn't focus on fit. Every shop I've been to (even Performance Bike Shop) stress on how important fit is.


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## The Clyde (Jul 13, 2009)

I've had nothing but great experiences with my Felt LBS (The Bike Shop in Glen Ellyn -Chicagoland area). 

They even took the specs of the bike frame I wanted (from the Felt website), which they didn't have in stock yet, and set up their fitting bike to make sure it was the size that fit me so we could order the right frame. (I was deciding between a 56 and a 58).

Nothing but A+ service in my book.


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## westekBike (Aug 10, 2009)

Lagavulin12 said:


> No Felt. Knowing the the shops that sell these others and the shops that sell Felt I think I know why.


My initial reaction in reading your post was similar to some previous folks, until I re-read it and thought about my own experiences, which just happen to be the opposite.

I bought a Felt in large part because I found a local LBS that did put as much priority on fit as I did. I was looking at Specialized, Trek, Cannondale, etc. for a first road bike. The bikes were great and I am sure I would have been happy with one of them too. The shops that sold them didn't care about fit either. Just so happens, the LBS I found didn't sell those brands and did sell Felt. I trusted them, their fit process, and their feedback (and loved the Z85 I did get from an aesthetic perspective) and ended up where I did and I am pleased. Perhaps if the other LBS's I visited that sold the other brands (like the Felt-selling LBS's you mentioned) gave a crap, things may have gone differently? So, I guess I'll just say, I do feel your pain. 

In my situation though, many bikes may have been a good fit for me because I am just an avid rec rider. If you are racing or looking to, wouldn't it be important to try to make the Felt work despite the LBS experience if the Felt is indeed the right choice for your racing needs? You can get a good fit at a shop you trust and use the measurements to find the right Felt for you, if you truly want a Felt. No? Just a thought.

With regards to the color preference, well, I guess that can't be helped. Good luck in your search and it's a shame you're situation with LBS is what it is.


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## mjse (Aug 22, 2008)

Why bother wasting your time and ours writing such a ridicules post…:17:


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## Superdave3T (May 11, 2009)

Lagavulin12 said:


> Mpls/St Paul, MN


Have you been to Gear West?


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## ping771 (Apr 10, 2006)

mjse said:


> Why bother wasting your time and ours writing such a ridicules post…:17:


Why bother responding to the original poster when you can't spell the word "ridiculous"?


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## Lagavulin12 (Sep 3, 2009)

SuperdaveFelt said:


> Have you been to Gear West?


No. They're a ways out but perhaps worth the drive.


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## Lagavulin12 (Sep 3, 2009)

mjse said:


> Why bother wasting your time and ours writing such a ridicules post…:17:


Cyclists are such a warm and welcoming bunch...

Well, I did it for a couple of reasons. The biggest perhaps is to share with Dave my experience and why he might be loosing my revenue and perhaps others. I run a business that similarly relies on others for sales. I have 28 very small service centers in Amsterdam. With over 400 other similar service centers we partially rely on the concierge's in hotels to recommend us to their guests. The concierge's are to us like bike shops are to Felt. A good bike shop recommends a good bike and a good concierge recommends a good service center. If a concierge makes a good recommendation then they get a commission.

Some of the concierge's weren't giving any regard to fit. They’d just say go here or go there and often the client didn’t get a good fit and walked away. The people working in the service centers mentioned this to me and so we began working with the concierge’s on proper fit. How to evaluate clients and what questions to ask. We then had the concierge’s learn about each of the service centers. Now when clients ask for a recommendation the concierge’s can do a much better job of insuring a proper fit. The servicers are happier because they're getting more clients, the concierge’s are happier because they’re getting more commissions, and the clients are much much happier with how things are ending.


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## Lagavulin12 (Sep 3, 2009)

westekBike said:


> My initial reaction....


I think that when it comes down to it the differences between Felt, Trek, Orbea, etc are pretty small and, at least for me, any could be made to work about as well as the others. So for me, similar to you, I think it comes down to price and LBS.


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## Lagavulin12 (Sep 3, 2009)

The Clyde said:


> I've had nothing but great experiences with my Felt LBS....


Overall the Felt LBS's are good shops. I've bought stuff from 2 of them a number of times and like the shops and the people. Fit just doesn't seem to be their thing.


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## Kemmelberg (Dec 27, 2005)

*Not much Felt presence in Mpls./St. Paul*

The OP is correct in that the better shops in the Twin Cities do not carry Felts. Gear West specializes in bikes for triathlons. It's really too bad that Felt doesn't have a bigger presence here.


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## MontyCrisco (Sep 21, 2008)

Ultimately the OP's point is valid: you buy the bike shop just as much as you buy the bike. Otherwise, you might as well save your money and buy a used bike. 

That said, Felt makes a big deal of not selling bikes online and insisting on only dealing with brick and mortar shops so buyers can get properly fitted and set up. So it's too bad the OP's local shops are not carrying the flag for the company - if his experiences are typical, Felt will have to work harder to be sure they're working with the right shops.


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## mtnbikej (Jul 28, 2005)

terbennett said:


> That's interesting. I live in Orange County, California and I know of four shops that carry Felt in my area: Switchback Cyclery in Orange, Sand Canyon Cyclery in Irvine, La Habra Cyclery in La Habra and Main Bikes in Anaheim. Each of these shops stress on fit and they don't just guess. I'm thinking that your situation is a rare case. In fact I don't remember the last time I've even been in a bike shop that didn't focus on fit. Every shop I've been to (even Performance Bike Shop) stress on how important fit is.



I guess we see more Felt's around here because the corp. office is only 10 miles away.


J @ Switchback


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## Ovid77 (Sep 16, 2009)

i think fit is important and i guess i made one big error. i went to a LBS, decieded on AR4, bought it and go for the ride, never look back. LBS did a fitting on the bike for me and some minor changes. All is well. I feel that one should just go with your guts and ride alot. The body will do some adjustment to the bike too overtime

Ride: Felt AR4 / 51
Heigh: 5.7 Feet
Weight: 182 pounds


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## tderamo (Oct 29, 2009)

*Reason to buy a Felt*

FELT like my old Schwinn Varsity from the 80's. Man I loved that bike.


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## ArmyStrong86 (Apr 24, 2009)

I recently read that Felt was partnering with Retul to have their fit training and system for their dealers. Sounded like a great idea as long as the people can also help apply the art to the Retul science of proper fitting. Perhaps your dealers are getting it soon and worth another visit.
http://blogs.bikemag.com/industry-news/felt-bicycles-partners-with-retul-bike-fit-systems/


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## Lagavulin12 (Sep 3, 2009)

ArmyStrong86 said:


> I recently read that Felt was partnering with Retul ...


Good find! This will only be of value though if the shop already knows the fit is important and make fit and customer service a priority. At least 2 of the shops I visited are so oblivious to these two issues that I think they would view Retul as *only* a marketing tool and put no effort in to actually caring about their customers. AND, in my opinion anyway, fit is critical to customer service when talking about upper end bikes so a shop that puts no effort in to doing a really good job with fit is not providing good customer service even if other areas of their operation are excellent.

I did visit one shop that SuperDave recommended who has a Retul and they were very up front that it was only a tool and that they could get me 95% of the way there without the cost of Retul and that I should only spend the money if I desired that last 5%. For shops that already value customer service and know the importance of fit this could be a good deal for them and us.


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## lamazion (Sep 11, 2004)

I haven't been to Gear West and I can't think of another shop in the Twin Cities that carries Felt ... must not be a big shop. Which actually makes the OP concerns even more valid. There are several big shops in the area, the "little guy" needs to do something special to stand out. I would think good fit and follow-up after the sale would be how the small shop could win.


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## terbennett (Apr 1, 2006)

lamazion said:


> I haven't been to Gear West and I can't think of another shop in the Twin Cities that carries Felt ... must not be a big shop. Which actually makes the OP concerns even more valid. There are several big shops in the area, the "little guy" needs to do something special to stand out. I would think good fit and follow-up after the sale would be how the small shop could win.



...or their lack of customer service is a big reason why they are still a little shop.


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