Whereas they received’t hit shops till early 2024, Felt Bicycles despatched over a couple of sneak peeks of their revised racing and endurance street bikes.
The FR is their all-arounder race bike, made for climbing, descending, and hammering on the highest stage – assume stage racer versus crits. The VR is the on a regular basis bike for many riders, mixing efficiency with long-distance consolation. For 2024, each bikes get higher at their respective video games after they launch in February.
2024 Felt FR
The Felt FR maintains its racy character however introduces extra aerodynamic efforts that can assist you save a couple of watts. The mostly-internal routing begins with the handlebar with cables coming out close to the stem, the place they run right into a channel beneath it, then via the headset and into the body.
This lets Felt maintain the bar and stem separate to make it simpler to put in and repair…and swap bar and stem sizes to customise the match and swap in any private favorites…for the bar, at the least. Any aftermarket stem should work with the routing via the headset.
General, the bike has sharper, straighter traces and corners than earlier than.
Later in 2024, they’ve an ultralight, sub-700g model coming, too. Whereas they received’t say something greater than that it makes use of a “particular layup”, Felt was one of many first manufacturers to completely embrace TeXtreme fibers and create some very gentle but robust frames with it, so it’ll be attention-grabbing to see what they’ve up their tight, aero jersey sleeves.
2024 Felt VR
I’ve ridden the VR over time, and it’s a superb bike. For 2024, it follows developments by growing tire clearance to 700×38, permitting it to go into “quick gravel” territory with out giving up something that’s made it a terrific all-road endurance bike.
They add a brand new vibration-damping system on the seatpost collar to easy tough roads. Primarily based on the slim seatpost proven with a thicker than essential seat tube, we’re guessing there’s an elastomer sleeve in there (or related).
Up entrance, it will get the identical aero two-piece bar & stem combo because the FR, too. It seems to be like the highest tube bag mounts go away, which is a bummer, however possibly these are pre-production fashions with out the entire bells and whistles proven.
The seatstays meet the seat tube decrease than earlier than, which ought to assist in general compliance, working properly with the seatpost methods and bigger tires to make it a quick and cozy bike.