Bike Check: Dan’s Felt F3X Cyclocross Bicycle
Felt makes great bikes, we’ve profiled a few before, like their aero road AR FRD, Rachel’s TK FRD track machine, Renny’s XC Edict, and classic looking road bike, the F FRD. Every time, we’ve mentioned how much we adore the checkerboard pattern of Felt’s special carbon layup, UHC Advance + TeXtreme. Felt may be a little wordy with wither carbon naming, but the finished product is definitely worth it. It not only looks great, but it’s lighter and stiffer. What a power combo! And now it’s no longer just the FRD edition, UHC Advance + TeXtreme has filtered down into the body of their cyclocross lineup. Like Dan Proulx’s Felt F3X. This is Felt’s Ultegra level ‘cross bike, featuring Shimano’s hydro disc system, double ring Ultegra drivetrain, and a host of other nice bits from 3T, DT Swiss and Prologo.
While parts are parts, and the Felt F3X comes with pretty nice parts, it’s the frame that really ties everything together. Fancier and better informed people than ourselves have mentioned just how good Felt’s carbon manufacturing process is, and that quality has expanded from their road bikes through to their mountain and cross bike lineups. Everyone wins! Remarkably, Felt keeps the price tag in check. Felt’s a bit lower profile than the big red swoosh, which might help keep costs down, but the California based company clearly spends all their extra time not spent glad-handing on making their bikes better. Have a look through to check out details on this one, then watch for it, and Dan, flying by at COTR races all fall.
Matte blue and Red over the TeXtreme looks as sharp as that seat stay junction is smooth
Beefy head tube, carbon fork, and oodles of clearance. Bonus: internal cable routing on the fork
Disc breaks clear out the seat stay area, leaving plenty of clearance and giving the F3X less cluttered look
The Felt F3X sports a through axle disc fork for a strong feeling front end and plenty of control
Through axle out back too, and excellent internal cable routing for discs and rear derailleur
Shimano’s hydro disc hoods look comfy, good for rough COTR courses
Hydro discs for cx, a nice step up from mech discs. Blown out photo, so you don’t blow through corners
Double chainring Shimano Ultegra. Functional, and very euro
A Prologo Nago Evo X8 T2.0 saddle floats above the frame on a 3T seat post
All of this rolls on DT Swiss R24 Classic db wheels with Schwalbe X-One Evo rubber