PedallingNowhereSlowly
Über Member
Background
I've been back on the bike (cycling regularly) after a decade of lazyness for a couple of weeks shy of a year. Last September I bought an older/cheap used road bike (the Wilier) and started putting some miles in - somewhat ignorant of how road bikes have evolved over the last ten years. The weather turned and I put it away - riding for most the winter on an old hybrid.
Then, early this year I'd bought a Ribble CGR Ti for some longer rides. I'd intended it to be a versatile all-year bike. It is a great bike and has surpassed my expectations - both in terms of comfort and pace. But, there were a couple of quite obvious flaws to this plan. The high gearing and hills made it sub-optimal for carting a great deal of luggage around. And the low spoke count wheels probably aren't ideal for more utiliarian use. And where as I'd planned to use it for longer solo rides and perhaps audax events, I started using it instead for club rides. The CGR even got a few tweaks to make it lighter and faster - although I couldn't bring myself to remove the mudguards.
The thing is, I found the CGR to be absolutely ideal in terms of it's riding position. So I wanted something like that, but with lower end components for winter riding, lower gearing, some sturdy/high-spoke count wheels for carting luggage around and/or towing and essentially to be cheaper, so I was happy leaving it locked up an unattended. I realised the right bike could replace both the Wilier and the old hybrid, both of which were uncomfortable (for different reasons) and the latter of which was proving less than reliable - I broke something every time I rode it.
I thought about buying the Alu CGR with a Tiagra groupset. But ultimately, the gearing was going to be too high. I started looking for alternatives with similar geometry, and found the Felt Broam. After some deliberation it was duly ordered from Merlin Cycles.
Price and Specifications
The Broam 30 GRX has an RRP of £1800 - which is more than what I would be willing to spend on a bike that I might leave locked up in town for a couple of hours at a time. But, reduced to £1150, things started to almost make sense.
The geometery was very close to the CGR - with a generous stack height, a very closely matched reach figure and head/seat tube angles both within half a degree of the CGR. Additionally, it has generous clearances. Finally and most importantly, the bike comes with a full accoutrement of lugs for fitting mudguards, rack, frame bags etc..
The majority of components were Shimano 12 speed GRX. GRX 820 derailleurs, GRX 610 shifters. GRX 400 hydraulic brakes. The latter was a definite plus. The former were not really big selling points for me. The range of gears on offer was far more important than the number of them. And this again is where the Broam scores. A Shimano 105 11-34T cassette allied to an FSA 30/46T chainset gives a good range of low gears, starting out at around 24".
The bike has Felt's own brand Devox wheels and finishing kit. The supplied tyres were a 40 mm Maxiis Re-fuse gravel tyre - marketed as offering high rolling resistance for training.
Unboxing
The bike arrived 10 days to the day after it was ordered. It was well packaged. Final assembly consisted of popping the bike in the stand and inserting the wheels into the frame.
Customisation
Prior to the bike arriving, I joined the "Felt Breed and Broam Owners" face-ache group and searched for peoples comments about the stock wheels. I found out that, at 2.1 kg sans rotors, tape, valves etc.. they were on the heavy side. And a lot of owners reported problems with punctures from the spoke eyelets. And those running tubeless, had difficulty getting them air-tight, despite re-taping them. I've been burned by poor quality stock wheels before - which had left me stranded having exhausted my supply of spare tubes and patches - despite having re-taped the rims with Velox tape. I had no desire to repeat that experience, so I splashed out for some Hunt 4 Seasons Superdura wheels. These come with double-sealed hubs to help prevent water ingress, 32 spokes and a max system weight of 145 kg. And they are currently available with a 25% discount.
For tyres, I wanted something wider than the 28 mm tyres on the CGR for winter riding. I also wanted to account for the fact that an Alu frame would be (marginally) less forgiviing than a Ti frame. I opted for Continental Contact Urban tyres in 35mm guise. At ~500 grams a piece, they are by no means light weight but they are a good chunk less than the equivalent Schwalbe Marathon. Their rolling resistance looks to be near the best in their class. And they still look to provide a fair degree of puncture protection. I picked up a set for quite a reasonable outlay too.
I swapped the stock alloy seat post for a carbon flavour one - that which was originally supplied with the CGR Ti. I didn't like the supplied gravel handle bars - not on account of the flare (it was barely noticeable) but on account of the drop shape. There was not much of a vertical drop at all - with the bar looking like it was designed to be held more often on the tops and at the bottom of the drops. I swapped those out for the carbon flavour ones, again originally supplied with the CGR. I have to say this - the quality of Ribble's finishing kit seems to be very good.
Any how, I was also - for completeness - going to swap the stem as well. Mainly on account that I knew the one with the CGR Ti was fairly light - and I wasn't wrong - when I weighed the supplied Devox stem and found it to be 40 grams heavier. Here I hit a hitch. The Devox stem has a convex top cap, which is designed to accomodate the top part of a shim designed to allow further adjustment of the stem's rise and fall. I tried the Ribble top cap with the ribble stem, but the centre bolt bottomed out before it was fully home. No problem - I have the supplied Ribble fork bung. I set about trying to remove the Felt's bung - but it's unconventional. It is unscrewed from the bottom rather than the top. In various parts of the internet, there are suggestions that a 3mm hex should fit, others 4mm and in yet others a torx wrench. Needless to say, the 3mm dropped down below the bung, the 4mm wouldn't engage and none of the torx wrenches would engage. At that, I gave up. The LBS is a Felt dealer, so I'll pay them a visit one day and pick their brains - probably when I'm in there to get some new trail running shoes.
I fitted both wheels with Robert Axle Project thru axles. The front because I just happened to have one in the bits box. The rear was a special purchase which has a fixing on the end for attaching the trailer.
I added some Shimano SPD pedals, with inserts on one side for pedal reflectors, wheel reflectors, front reflector, some 46 mm SKS Bluemels mudguards and a Topeak Supertourist DX MTX rear rack.
The positioning of the rack mount eyelets actually means a non-disc rack will fit and I do have a lighter weight rack which I contemplated fitting instead - but I wanted to use the Topeak MTX trunkbag I already had when I didn't need the extra storage the panniers offer. I suppose less drag from the panniers sticking out on either side trumps the slight weight saving? Also, additional light brackets and a Cateye Reflex Rack rear light were mounted on the Supertourist rack and the lightweight rack was too skinny to accommodate the Cateye Reflex Rack rear light - which importantly is BS6102/3 and StVZO compliant.
I found an new old stock, old model Selle Italia SLR saddle (with TM rails) courtesy of Banana Industries at a very good price.
I re-taped the bars with Prologo Plaintouch bar tape in blue - on account I found some for £cheap. And it happens to go very nicely with the caramel colourway of the frame. The frame and fork have been sticker bombed too to somewhat disguise the bike, when it is left locked up. Pictures to follow in the not-to-distant future.
First Impressions
The colour is nice. It has really grown on me. But, the paint finish seems fragile. It chips very easily away from the eyelets and a dropped wrench had no trouble making a fairly deep scratch on the downtube. It is a shame I damaged the finish before even riding the bike - but given the kind of use the bike is going to get, I'm not too concerned. Contrast that with the Trek District 4 which I bought in May - that's now covered 1200 km and, despite being knocked a few times as I've popped it in and out of the garage, the paint is as yet unblemished.
I've taken the bike for a 30km shake down ride. And aside from a slight tweak to the rear derailleur cable adjustment, it is mechanically spot on. The brakes bedded in nicely. Shifting seems consistent and reliable.
Ergonomically, the shifters feel good in the hand. A bit bulkier perhaps than the Ultegra Di shifters but they seem to fit the shape of my relatively small hands quite well. I've not had to adjust the reach for the levers either.
The position on the bike seems perfect. I took measurements of the CGR and adjusted the saddle position to match. The bike felt familiar from the get go.
Handling is stable. The bike feels nimble enough. It seems to climb fairly well, despite the weight of the accessories I've added with no obvious flex. I was able to accelerate quickly to keep up with traffic in a standing start from the lights and it will cruise happily at 20 mph. It's not as sprightly as the CGR and I can't see me doing a fast club ride on it without a good deal of effort. That said, I don't think I'd have any issue at all keeping up with the slow group.
Reviewing the ride on Strava afterwards, it looks like I completed an uphill 1 km segment that I've not ridden anything but a slower bike up - the old hybrid this bike replaced and the Trek District 4. My previous best on that segment was 3 minutes 16 seconds. On the shake down ride, I rode that segment in 2 minutes 31 seconds - with no more effort than usual (I wasn't really aware that was a segment and I was saving my legs for the weekend ride). I was still pretty pleased to be slicing a full 45 seconds off that time.
One day, I may get some power meter pedals and test all my bikes on one of the local segments to see how they stack up.
I spent most of my ride on the larger chain ring, although the difference between the two chain rings means that dropping onto the small one for a red traffic light and changing back to the larger chain ring once I'd got some speed up after the lights changed seemed to work quite well. And I was able to tackle one of my local regular climbs at a much more sedate pace than any of the other bikes I own, save the mountain bike.
With the slightly larger tyres (35 mm versus 28 mm) and the lower tyre pressures (~50 PSI versus ~70 PSI) this bike rivals the CGR Ti for ride comfort over the lumpier asphalt. In fact, I think I'm converted to wider tyres. It actually seems more comfortable than the Trek District 4 which runs 40mm tyres - but I'm skeptical about the stock tyres supplied by Trek with a sneaking suspicion they are heavy and unsupple and I've been running those too at ~50 PSI.
Conclusion
I am optimistic this bike is going to tick all the boxes I wanted it to. It is a good compromise and fits nicely into the fleet. I'd be as happy commuting on it as I would audaxing. I'm delighted with it and despite the extra expenditure on a good set of wheels, I think it is fantastic value. With the changes I've made, I think it is the bike most people need!
Edit: Pictures to follow
I've been back on the bike (cycling regularly) after a decade of lazyness for a couple of weeks shy of a year. Last September I bought an older/cheap used road bike (the Wilier) and started putting some miles in - somewhat ignorant of how road bikes have evolved over the last ten years. The weather turned and I put it away - riding for most the winter on an old hybrid.
Then, early this year I'd bought a Ribble CGR Ti for some longer rides. I'd intended it to be a versatile all-year bike. It is a great bike and has surpassed my expectations - both in terms of comfort and pace. But, there were a couple of quite obvious flaws to this plan. The high gearing and hills made it sub-optimal for carting a great deal of luggage around. And the low spoke count wheels probably aren't ideal for more utiliarian use. And where as I'd planned to use it for longer solo rides and perhaps audax events, I started using it instead for club rides. The CGR even got a few tweaks to make it lighter and faster - although I couldn't bring myself to remove the mudguards.
The thing is, I found the CGR to be absolutely ideal in terms of it's riding position. So I wanted something like that, but with lower end components for winter riding, lower gearing, some sturdy/high-spoke count wheels for carting luggage around and/or towing and essentially to be cheaper, so I was happy leaving it locked up an unattended. I realised the right bike could replace both the Wilier and the old hybrid, both of which were uncomfortable (for different reasons) and the latter of which was proving less than reliable - I broke something every time I rode it.
I thought about buying the Alu CGR with a Tiagra groupset. But ultimately, the gearing was going to be too high. I started looking for alternatives with similar geometry, and found the Felt Broam. After some deliberation it was duly ordered from Merlin Cycles.
Price and Specifications
The Broam 30 GRX has an RRP of £1800 - which is more than what I would be willing to spend on a bike that I might leave locked up in town for a couple of hours at a time. But, reduced to £1150, things started to almost make sense.
The geometery was very close to the CGR - with a generous stack height, a very closely matched reach figure and head/seat tube angles both within half a degree of the CGR. Additionally, it has generous clearances. Finally and most importantly, the bike comes with a full accoutrement of lugs for fitting mudguards, rack, frame bags etc..
The majority of components were Shimano 12 speed GRX. GRX 820 derailleurs, GRX 610 shifters. GRX 400 hydraulic brakes. The latter was a definite plus. The former were not really big selling points for me. The range of gears on offer was far more important than the number of them. And this again is where the Broam scores. A Shimano 105 11-34T cassette allied to an FSA 30/46T chainset gives a good range of low gears, starting out at around 24".
The bike has Felt's own brand Devox wheels and finishing kit. The supplied tyres were a 40 mm Maxiis Re-fuse gravel tyre - marketed as offering high rolling resistance for training.
Unboxing
The bike arrived 10 days to the day after it was ordered. It was well packaged. Final assembly consisted of popping the bike in the stand and inserting the wheels into the frame.
Customisation
Prior to the bike arriving, I joined the "Felt Breed and Broam Owners" face-ache group and searched for peoples comments about the stock wheels. I found out that, at 2.1 kg sans rotors, tape, valves etc.. they were on the heavy side. And a lot of owners reported problems with punctures from the spoke eyelets. And those running tubeless, had difficulty getting them air-tight, despite re-taping them. I've been burned by poor quality stock wheels before - which had left me stranded having exhausted my supply of spare tubes and patches - despite having re-taped the rims with Velox tape. I had no desire to repeat that experience, so I splashed out for some Hunt 4 Seasons Superdura wheels. These come with double-sealed hubs to help prevent water ingress, 32 spokes and a max system weight of 145 kg. And they are currently available with a 25% discount.
For tyres, I wanted something wider than the 28 mm tyres on the CGR for winter riding. I also wanted to account for the fact that an Alu frame would be (marginally) less forgiviing than a Ti frame. I opted for Continental Contact Urban tyres in 35mm guise. At ~500 grams a piece, they are by no means light weight but they are a good chunk less than the equivalent Schwalbe Marathon. Their rolling resistance looks to be near the best in their class. And they still look to provide a fair degree of puncture protection. I picked up a set for quite a reasonable outlay too.
I swapped the stock alloy seat post for a carbon flavour one - that which was originally supplied with the CGR Ti. I didn't like the supplied gravel handle bars - not on account of the flare (it was barely noticeable) but on account of the drop shape. There was not much of a vertical drop at all - with the bar looking like it was designed to be held more often on the tops and at the bottom of the drops. I swapped those out for the carbon flavour ones, again originally supplied with the CGR. I have to say this - the quality of Ribble's finishing kit seems to be very good.
Any how, I was also - for completeness - going to swap the stem as well. Mainly on account that I knew the one with the CGR Ti was fairly light - and I wasn't wrong - when I weighed the supplied Devox stem and found it to be 40 grams heavier. Here I hit a hitch. The Devox stem has a convex top cap, which is designed to accomodate the top part of a shim designed to allow further adjustment of the stem's rise and fall. I tried the Ribble top cap with the ribble stem, but the centre bolt bottomed out before it was fully home. No problem - I have the supplied Ribble fork bung. I set about trying to remove the Felt's bung - but it's unconventional. It is unscrewed from the bottom rather than the top. In various parts of the internet, there are suggestions that a 3mm hex should fit, others 4mm and in yet others a torx wrench. Needless to say, the 3mm dropped down below the bung, the 4mm wouldn't engage and none of the torx wrenches would engage. At that, I gave up. The LBS is a Felt dealer, so I'll pay them a visit one day and pick their brains - probably when I'm in there to get some new trail running shoes.
I fitted both wheels with Robert Axle Project thru axles. The front because I just happened to have one in the bits box. The rear was a special purchase which has a fixing on the end for attaching the trailer.
I added some Shimano SPD pedals, with inserts on one side for pedal reflectors, wheel reflectors, front reflector, some 46 mm SKS Bluemels mudguards and a Topeak Supertourist DX MTX rear rack.
The positioning of the rack mount eyelets actually means a non-disc rack will fit and I do have a lighter weight rack which I contemplated fitting instead - but I wanted to use the Topeak MTX trunkbag I already had when I didn't need the extra storage the panniers offer. I suppose less drag from the panniers sticking out on either side trumps the slight weight saving? Also, additional light brackets and a Cateye Reflex Rack rear light were mounted on the Supertourist rack and the lightweight rack was too skinny to accommodate the Cateye Reflex Rack rear light - which importantly is BS6102/3 and StVZO compliant.
I found an new old stock, old model Selle Italia SLR saddle (with TM rails) courtesy of Banana Industries at a very good price.
I re-taped the bars with Prologo Plaintouch bar tape in blue - on account I found some for £cheap. And it happens to go very nicely with the caramel colourway of the frame. The frame and fork have been sticker bombed too to somewhat disguise the bike, when it is left locked up. Pictures to follow in the not-to-distant future.
First Impressions
The colour is nice. It has really grown on me. But, the paint finish seems fragile. It chips very easily away from the eyelets and a dropped wrench had no trouble making a fairly deep scratch on the downtube. It is a shame I damaged the finish before even riding the bike - but given the kind of use the bike is going to get, I'm not too concerned. Contrast that with the Trek District 4 which I bought in May - that's now covered 1200 km and, despite being knocked a few times as I've popped it in and out of the garage, the paint is as yet unblemished.
I've taken the bike for a 30km shake down ride. And aside from a slight tweak to the rear derailleur cable adjustment, it is mechanically spot on. The brakes bedded in nicely. Shifting seems consistent and reliable.
Ergonomically, the shifters feel good in the hand. A bit bulkier perhaps than the Ultegra Di shifters but they seem to fit the shape of my relatively small hands quite well. I've not had to adjust the reach for the levers either.
The position on the bike seems perfect. I took measurements of the CGR and adjusted the saddle position to match. The bike felt familiar from the get go.
Handling is stable. The bike feels nimble enough. It seems to climb fairly well, despite the weight of the accessories I've added with no obvious flex. I was able to accelerate quickly to keep up with traffic in a standing start from the lights and it will cruise happily at 20 mph. It's not as sprightly as the CGR and I can't see me doing a fast club ride on it without a good deal of effort. That said, I don't think I'd have any issue at all keeping up with the slow group.
Reviewing the ride on Strava afterwards, it looks like I completed an uphill 1 km segment that I've not ridden anything but a slower bike up - the old hybrid this bike replaced and the Trek District 4. My previous best on that segment was 3 minutes 16 seconds. On the shake down ride, I rode that segment in 2 minutes 31 seconds - with no more effort than usual (I wasn't really aware that was a segment and I was saving my legs for the weekend ride). I was still pretty pleased to be slicing a full 45 seconds off that time.
One day, I may get some power meter pedals and test all my bikes on one of the local segments to see how they stack up.
I spent most of my ride on the larger chain ring, although the difference between the two chain rings means that dropping onto the small one for a red traffic light and changing back to the larger chain ring once I'd got some speed up after the lights changed seemed to work quite well. And I was able to tackle one of my local regular climbs at a much more sedate pace than any of the other bikes I own, save the mountain bike.
With the slightly larger tyres (35 mm versus 28 mm) and the lower tyre pressures (~50 PSI versus ~70 PSI) this bike rivals the CGR Ti for ride comfort over the lumpier asphalt. In fact, I think I'm converted to wider tyres. It actually seems more comfortable than the Trek District 4 which runs 40mm tyres - but I'm skeptical about the stock tyres supplied by Trek with a sneaking suspicion they are heavy and unsupple and I've been running those too at ~50 PSI.
Conclusion
I am optimistic this bike is going to tick all the boxes I wanted it to. It is a good compromise and fits nicely into the fleet. I'd be as happy commuting on it as I would audaxing. I'm delighted with it and despite the extra expenditure on a good set of wheels, I think it is fantastic value. With the changes I've made, I think it is the bike most people need!
Edit: Pictures to follow
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Looks a pretty decent bike, even in stock trim. Why the Broam over the Breed (which is a bit cheaper?). I'd guess frame clearance and fixings, Felt's info is somewhat lacking...
