# Felt, Are You Listening?



## terbennett (Apr 1, 2006)

I've made four different visits to bike shops this year where I have overheard someone walking in asking, "Do you carry Felt?" We, as Felt owners, love your bikes and apparently others desire them too. Three of the four times, I referred them to shops that I knew carried Felt. All two of them responded, " I know they do but they don't have any road bikes in stock." Is this a case of Felt not keep enough in stock or the dealersnot ordering enough? I'm in So. Cal and Felt Bicycles is about 40 minutes from my house. I've even heard a few dealers complain that they get people coming in looking for a Felt road bike and Felt never has any in their warehouse so they have to direct them to another bike. Is this true? I know that Felts been selling out for years but is this just out of fear of having overstock at the end of a model year?


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## pumaking (Nov 29, 2009)

This is very common around this time of the year. April-July are usually the months where low stock or out of stock are highest. This is due to the next MY being readied for dealers. When a customer comes in asking for a bike that we dont have in stock or felt's stock around that time frame, I let them know why is because of the new models coming out.


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## terbennett (Apr 1, 2006)

Okay. Thanks.


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## RickJP (Aug 11, 2011)

The LBS from which I bought my Felt had plenty in stock when I bought mine (8.22.11). The Felt I wanted they didn't have in stock, but they were able to order it for me and it came in within 5 business days.


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## bwbishop (Sep 17, 2011)

My LBS here in Boulder always has plenty in stock, all year long so I am not sure what he issue would be other than poor stocking in the LBS part.


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## terbennett (Apr 1, 2006)

I'm in Southern California. Felt headquarters is here and their bikes sell like crazy down here. When I first started riding Felts years ago, everyone thought that I was a tri guy due to the fact Felt has a huge reputation among the triathlon community. Seems they are a powerhouse in mountain biking and track racing as well. Rarely would I see a Felt road bike on a rider that wasn't a racer. Now, I see Felts everywhere. Their huge in BMX racing too. Maybe it's just that many of the LBSes out here are afraid of ordering more out of fear of having overstock.


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## srenkin (Aug 23, 2011)

I live on the north end of Atlanta, and I visited three Felt dealers in search of an F4 last month. Now, this might be a reflection of the consumers in Atlanta, but two of the dealers only seem to stock Felt tri bikes and Z-series (Z5 and lower). The third dealer had very few F-series (again, F5 and lower).

After speaking with them, I learned that the 2010 model F series didn't impress them (vs the other brands they carry, usually Giant and Specialized) so they didn't order many of the 2011 models. Of course, the frames are completely different - but it seems that they didn't get that memo.

I'm sure the dealer agreement weighs into this as well - perhaps there are minimum order requirements that exceed the amount of inventory that a certain dealer wants to carry. Who knows.


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