I've had my new felt f40x for about 5 days now, and have put about 110 miles on it so far. It's mostly been commuting, but I did take it out for a 50 mile spin on Sunday.
I decided on a CX bike for a few reasons. First and foremost, it has lower gearing (46/36 front chain rings and an 11-34 cassette) and one of it's main purposes will be attaching a dog trailer and taking the dog with us on days out. And for this reason, as well as improved stopping power in the wet, I also went with hydraulic disc brakes. I'll be using it as a winter commuter, days out with the wife, and a bit of off-roading fun as well. I opted for CX over gravel as I prefer a slightly more aggressive position. Being able to fit wider tyres for improved grip in the wet, as well as being able to run slightly lower pressures is a bonus.
The bike itself is kitted out with a mostly tiagra groupset (only the crankset), and tubeless ready wheels. As they wheels were tubeless ready, I swapped out the schwalbe rapid robs for 35mm hutchinson overides. They are a tyre that is decent for both light offroading/gravel and roads. I also added a set of SKS raceblade pro xl mudguards. I opted for clip on so I can remove them in the summer when I'm less likely to need them.
So onto the bike and how it rides. In a word, it's great. With the exception of the saddle, but my mother-in-law has bought me my preferred saddle as a Christmas gift, so just a few more days of a crap saddle. I'm enjoying the bike immensely and the wider tyres are lush to ride on. I've been having a bit of fun hitting not so great roads, and not being as careful with certain sections of road on my way to work.
The lower gearing and wider tyres are slowing me down slightly, but not as much as I thought they would. It's a bit more work and effort, but I didn't get this bike built for speed. That's what my carbon bike is for, this is more of an all-rounder. I was initially worried about the 34 tooth chainring in the front, even though the bike has lower gearing overall. But, I made it up Burrington Combe into a headwind without running out of gears (still had 1-2 cogs left on the back depending where I was on the climb), which means I might change the chainrings on the summer bike to a 52/36 come summer. We'll see. It was not my fastest climb up Burrington, but it never was going to be yesterday. It was steady and I didn't struggle.
Overall, the F40x is quite a comfortable ride. I've been enjoying it over the past few days, and I'm itching to get it off-road come the new year. I'll also be attaching the dog trailer (without the dog) and searching out some hills to climb with it attached to build my strength.
I decided on a CX bike for a few reasons. First and foremost, it has lower gearing (46/36 front chain rings and an 11-34 cassette) and one of it's main purposes will be attaching a dog trailer and taking the dog with us on days out. And for this reason, as well as improved stopping power in the wet, I also went with hydraulic disc brakes. I'll be using it as a winter commuter, days out with the wife, and a bit of off-roading fun as well. I opted for CX over gravel as I prefer a slightly more aggressive position. Being able to fit wider tyres for improved grip in the wet, as well as being able to run slightly lower pressures is a bonus.
The bike itself is kitted out with a mostly tiagra groupset (only the crankset), and tubeless ready wheels. As they wheels were tubeless ready, I swapped out the schwalbe rapid robs for 35mm hutchinson overides. They are a tyre that is decent for both light offroading/gravel and roads. I also added a set of SKS raceblade pro xl mudguards. I opted for clip on so I can remove them in the summer when I'm less likely to need them.
So onto the bike and how it rides. In a word, it's great. With the exception of the saddle, but my mother-in-law has bought me my preferred saddle as a Christmas gift, so just a few more days of a crap saddle. I'm enjoying the bike immensely and the wider tyres are lush to ride on. I've been having a bit of fun hitting not so great roads, and not being as careful with certain sections of road on my way to work.
The lower gearing and wider tyres are slowing me down slightly, but not as much as I thought they would. It's a bit more work and effort, but I didn't get this bike built for speed. That's what my carbon bike is for, this is more of an all-rounder. I was initially worried about the 34 tooth chainring in the front, even though the bike has lower gearing overall. But, I made it up Burrington Combe into a headwind without running out of gears (still had 1-2 cogs left on the back depending where I was on the climb), which means I might change the chainrings on the summer bike to a 52/36 come summer. We'll see. It was not my fastest climb up Burrington, but it never was going to be yesterday. It was steady and I didn't struggle.
Overall, the F40x is quite a comfortable ride. I've been enjoying it over the past few days, and I'm itching to get it off-road come the new year. I'll also be attaching the dog trailer (without the dog) and searching out some hills to climb with it attached to build my strength.
