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Felt F55X



 
 
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  #21  
Old February 26th 21, 04:54 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Jeff Liebermann
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Posts: 4,018
Default Felt F55X

On Thu, 25 Feb 2021 16:38:37 -0800 (PST), Tom Kunich
wrote:

By the way, I just looked up mineral oil as opposed to DOT 5.1
and it has better properties in all cases. The only difference
appears to be that the DOT brake fluid doesn't absorb as much
moisture which can damage the antilock braking systems on a car.
But mineral oil is almost as good as they claim it to have the
same properties. But DOT5.1 was specifically formulated to
protect the ABS systems on a car. What ABS system do you have
on your bike?


Look again. Wikipedia has a nice description of the differences
between various brake fluid formulation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake_fluid
As I see it:
DOT 2 Castor oil based
DOT 3 Glycol based
DOT 4 Glycol based
DOT 5 Silicone based
DOT 5.1 Glycol based

Cut-n-pasted:
DOT 5.1 is the non-silicone version of DOT 5, defined by
FMVSS 116 as being less than 70% silicone. Above that
threshold makes it DOT 5.
In other words, it's possible to buy DOT 5.1 with both glycol and
silicon oil in the recipe.

In chart at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake_fluid#Boiling_point
note that the "Citroën LHM mineral oil" has about 4 times the
viscosity as the other DOT flavors. It's main advantage is corrosion
resistance and little else.

Also note that
Lack of acceptance of silicone-based fluids led to the
development of DOT 5.1...
For details, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake_fluid#Viscosity

TRW Brake Fluid Brochu
https://www.trwaftermarket.com/globalassets/en/trw_fluid_brochure_en.pdf
(23.6MBytes). Probably more than you wanted to know, but does have
readable graphs and charts with various brake fluid characteristics.
See Pg 8 for DOT 4 vs DOT 5.1 ESP viscosity/temperature graph. Notice
that TRW does not make DOT 5 brake fluid. I would guess(tm) that TRW
is one of the companies that didn't provide "acceptance" for DOT 5
(silicone).

I have no idea why bicycle hydraulic brake system manufacturers would
specify DOT 5.1 except possibly better performance at -40C (-40F).

Actually, a water/antifreeze mix works as well as DOT X:
EB15: Brake Force One H2O disc brake trades mineral oil for water
https://bikerumor.com/2015/08/29/eb15-brake-force-one-h2o-disc-brake-trade-mineral-oil-for-water/
Mo
https://www.google.com/search?q=brake+force+one+hto
Soon, everyone will be riding bicycles with water brakes.

Wow. The Brake Force One H2O video in 3D is really cool looking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeWtoSxu8XY (2:56)
Buy yourself some anaglyph 3D red/blue glasses and try it out. The
cardboard version is fine and works nicely with prescription glasses:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=anaglyph+3d+glasses+cardboard
Soon, everyone will be watching product demonstrations in 3D.



--
Jeff Liebermann
PO Box 272
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Ads
  #22  
Old February 26th 21, 04:32 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Frank Krygowski[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,538
Default Felt F55X

On 2/25/2021 8:40 PM, jbeattie wrote:

The bottom line is that if you're building this for resale, you're looking at a tougher resale than just a real gravel bike with drop bars. You're building a coffee shop racer with flat bars and big tires. Maybe that sells in the Bay Area.


I confess, Tom's constant churning of his fleet puzzles me.

I tend in the opposite direction. I think very heavily before acquiring
something to make really sure that it's something I'll want to keep;
than I tend to keep those things a very long time. That applies to
bikes, cars, my motorcycle, my home, jobs, tools, and more. Heck, I'm
still on my first wife!

Everyone's different, I guess.

--
- Frank Krygowski
  #23  
Old February 26th 21, 06:39 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Tom Kunich[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,196
Default Felt F55X

On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 5:13:33 PM UTC-8, AMuzi wrote:
On 2/25/2021 6:38 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 4:24:44 PM UTC-8, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 11:27:10 AM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 10:10:55 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 2:04:33 PM UTC-8, AMuzi wrote:
On 2/24/2021 2:59 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:
Parts are trickling in slowly. Local parts I can obtained off of Craigs list now are so overpriced that it is out of question to pay $60 for a bolt-on disk. There is a guy that sells Chinese parts that are cheap enough and with the bolts included but he is almost impossible to get him to respond so I gave up. I'm sure he is paying his way through Cal State Hayward with the money but no response, no sale and now it costs as much to get a single disk from eBay as four from him.

The headset tool won't arrive for another couple of weeks but since there are four other minor parts that are going to take that long no sense in worrying about it. The BB386 us going to take that long as well and it doesn't matter if the work isn't installed if the crank can't be fitted. The 32 tooth 10 speed cassette came in and I installed that yesterday as the hunchback. since the rear disk hydraulic line was mounted a rather long way it should fit on the 2 cm larger frameset without problem. The say with the front line. It is internal on this fork but was external on the other. So I will have to strip off the bead and cap on the lever end and stick it up from the bottom side. in order to lose the lease fluid and make it easier to bleed afterwards. It appears that flat bar gravel bikes are getting popular so this one should move a lot faster than the Emonda or Modone. The last guy to query about the Emonda must have been a monkey, after exchanges for three days he said th

at he
wouldn't fit the bike. He is three inches shorter than I am but claims his arms are 37" long. Maybe he is measuring from the middle of his back because from shoulder to fingertip my arms are 26".

The tires are 3 mm wider than I would like but there is more than plenty of room with these triangles. It is surprising how easy gravel tires roll on hard surfaces. But gravel bikes have lower gear ratios and the 11/42 high gear isn't going to rush anyone down the road. If I can get this together there is another Felt road bike that I will buy and build into a 10 speed Campy Record. The parts I have look brand new, though I will be looking for a compact two piece crank. That will require a compact front derailleur that will come from the Campy warehouse.

I was standing upright for the first half hour of this morning so I am recovering from that stained back if a lot more slowly than I would like.

I wonder how you tell what sort of hydraulic fluid is in this Avid setup. It could use either Shimano mineral oil or DOT 5.1 which needs replacing every year if that makes any sense. When was the last time you replaced your car brake fluid?

DOT 5.1. Do not substitute another fluid.

Any auto parts store or with a SRAM/Avid label.
By the way, Andrew, Mineral oil is a light petroleum based lubricant derived from petroleum. DOT 5.1 is largely solvents used to lighten the Polyglycols that are used in the fluid. Polyglycols are also derived from petroleum and are a very heavy lubricant. Polyglycols are used mostly in lubricating very high load gear trains and worm gears that carry very heavy loads. It isn't clear to me why you would use this lubricant cut 70% or more by solvents rather than a lighter lubricating oil like mineral oil one such a lightly loaded use such as a bicycle disk brake whose loading is almost nothing. There are sometimes additives that are supposed to slow the evaporation of the solvents from the brake fluid.
Thank you for the cut-and-paste recitation. The bottom line is that your Avid/SRAM system is entirely incompatible with the Shimano system. Just look at the reservoir cap on the Avid brakes. It tells you exactly what you can use, and it is not mineral oil. From SRAM: "DOT 5.1 is the recommended fluid for SRAM hydraulic disc brakes. DO NOT use DOT 5 or mineral oil. These will destroy the brake’s seals and require replacement of the entire brake assembly."
If you want to believe that is cut and paste it only shows you never took any chemistry at all. You make phony claims and then try to back them up with bluster.

By the way, I just looked up mineral oil as opposed to DOT 5.1 and it has better properties in all cases. The only difference appears to be that the DOT brake fluid doesn't absorb as much moisture which can damage the antilock braking systems on a car. But mineral oil is almost as good as they claim it to have the same properties. But DOT5.1 was specifically formulated to protect the ABS systems on a car. What ABS system do you have on your bike?

We saw failures with the Italian made Formula disc system on
Santanas when owners made that assumption and used not-DOT
5.1 fluids in them.

Your average human would look at, taste and smell GM Dextron
and Ford Type F ATF and assume they're pretty much the same
thing. They are pretty much the same thing. But they differ
enough to wreck a slushbox of the other type.


To tell you the truth I don't see any difference between DOT 4.0 and 5.1 maybe the exact thinners are different but it is still something like a ratio of 70% thinners and a heavy grease. 5.0 is a silicon lubricant that has a LOT better heat capacity. But apparently you have to have special seals. Don't know about that.
  #24  
Old February 26th 21, 06:46 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Tom Kunich[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,196
Default Felt F55X

On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 5:40:03 PM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 4:22:54 PM UTC-8, wrote:
On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 11:21:21 AM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 9:56:29 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 1:56:28 PM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 12:59:05 PM UTC-8, wrote:
Parts are trickling in slowly. Local parts I can obtained off of Craigs list now are so overpriced that it is out of question to pay $60 for a bolt-on disk. There is a guy that sells Chinese parts that are cheap enough and with the bolts included but he is almost impossible to get him to respond so I gave up. I'm sure he is paying his way through Cal State Hayward with the money but no response, no sale and now it costs as much to get a single disk from eBay as four from him.

The headset tool won't arrive for another couple of weeks but since there are four other minor parts that are going to take that long no sense in worrying about it. The BB386 us going to take that long as well and it doesn't matter if the work isn't installed if the crank can't be fitted.. The 32 tooth 10 speed cassette came in and I installed that yesterday as the hunchback. since the rear disk hydraulic line was mounted a rather long way it should fit on the 2 cm larger frameset without problem. The say with the front line. It is internal on this fork but was external on the other.. So I will have to strip off the bead and cap on the lever end and stick it up from the bottom side. in order to lose the lease fluid and make it easier to bleed afterwards. It appears that flat bar gravel bikes are getting popular so this one should move a lot faster than the Emonda or Modone. The last guy to query about the Emonda must have been a monkey, after exchanges for three days he said that he wouldn't fit the bike. He is three inches shorter than I am but claims his arms are 37" long. Maybe he is measuring from the middle of his back because from shoulder to fingertip my arms are 26".

The tires are 3 mm wider than I would like but there is more than plenty of room with these triangles. It is surprising how easy gravel tires roll on hard surfaces. But gravel bikes have lower gear ratios and the 11/42 high gear isn't going to rush anyone down the road. If I can get this together there is another Felt road bike that I will buy and build into a 10 speed Campy Record. The parts I have look brand new, though I will be looking for a compact two piece crank. That will require a compact front derailleur that will come from the Campy warehouse.

I was standing upright for the first half hour of this morning so I am recovering from that stained back if a lot more slowly than I would like.

I wonder how you tell what sort of hydraulic fluid is in this Avid setup. It could use either Shimano mineral oil or DOT 5.1 which needs replacing every year if that makes any sense. When was the last time you replaced your car brake fluid?
Six-bolt disc rotors are common as fleas. $20 for a Deore six-bolt of Amazonian. https://tinyurl.com/4nzbb92v What headset tool do you need? It's an integrated HS. Do need a crown seat setting tool? And are you switching to an Avid set up from Shimano? They're not cross-compatible. Avid/SRAM uses DOT fluid, and I'm not sure if the Shimano hose is happy with DOT fluid, and its ID may be incompatible with the Avid brakes as well. The levers definitely take different olives and nuts. Even if you could use the Shimano hose, you'd have to bob the ends, remove the barb, olive and nut, to get it through your frame -- unless it has giant openings. Go get some Avid/SRAM hoses.

BTW, the F55X is not a gravel bike. It is a CX bike. You have a slightly different version of the Redline Conquest you spent so long unloading.

-- Jay Beattie.
I suggest you actually learn to ride before you tell me what is a gravel and what is a CX bike since they handle totally different. You spend most of your time now being disagreeable for no other reason than you are a Democrat that is seeing your world crumble before your eyes and are loath to admit that you were told so, so many times that all you can do is attempt to refute it like a child. "Nuh uh".
WTF are you talking about? The Felt F55X is a CX bike. Google it. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/00...827 344467882

This is not an opinion. I own a CX bike and a gravel bike and am well aware of the differences. The F55X is not marketed as a gravel bike and is geometrically different from a gravel bike. It is a CX bike.

-- Jay Beattie.

Jay, they can call it anything they like. A cross bike uses a short wheelbase and a gravel bike a longer. The wheelbase on this thing is 43" A cross bike would be around 39".

Well, sure, they could call it a touring bike, or a road racing bike, but that would be a lie -- and it would undercut the whole idea of building a CX bike. No?

I don't know where the F55X falls in the CX design world, which seems to oscillate back and forth in terms of steering geometry and chain stay length, but it will certainly have a lower stack height, higher BB and less features for use on the road, although some entry level CX bikes will have fender mounts. My CAADX does. The CAADX also has a dreadful, slack HT with lots of fork offset for a really heavy feeling front end on the road. I much prefer the more roadie feel of my Norco Search gravel bike.

The bottom line is that if you're building this for resale, you're looking at a tougher resale than just a real gravel bike with drop bars. You're building a coffee shop racer with flat bars and big tires. Maybe that sells in the Bay Area. Avid hydros also have a bad reputation, or they did. Maybe it has improved.

And depending on what you're going to try to sell if for, you're up again a really great bargain gravel bike -- the Trek Checkpoint ALR. The CF version was Velo News' bicycle of the year. https://www.velonews.com/gear/gravel...eckpoint-sl-5/ I'd get one of those, but I think I've gotten my limit of pro-deals from Trek.

Plus, I already have my Norco Search, which I got on sale from Western Bikeworks for $1500. This one: https://www.norco.com/bike-archives/2017/search-c-105/ With my custom-applied ho-made frame guards: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PhLwf6MRK8TfPAJYA It's a fun bike.


Look Jay, I respect you as a bike rider but please don't tell me what I have. I know the difference between a real CX bike and a gravel bike. Ridley made the mistake of trying to race long wheelbase CX bikes. After they changed to short wheelbases - nearly the same as a road bike - they began winning. It wasn't that they switched to carbon fiber, but because they switched to shorter wheelbase bikes and gained far faster maneuverability. The difference from my older style Ridley and the Redline or Trek Boone CX bike was more than noticeable.
  #25  
Old February 26th 21, 06:54 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Tom Kunich[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,196
Default Felt F55X

On Friday, February 26, 2021 at 7:32:05 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 2/25/2021 8:40 PM, jbeattie wrote:

The bottom line is that if you're building this for resale, you're looking at a tougher resale than just a real gravel bike with drop bars. You're building a coffee shop racer with flat bars and big tires. Maybe that sells in the Bay Area.

I confess, Tom's constant churning of his fleet puzzles me.

I tend in the opposite direction. I think very heavily before acquiring
something to make really sure that it's something I'll want to keep;
than I tend to keep those things a very long time. That applies to
bikes, cars, my motorcycle, my home, jobs, tools, and more. Heck, I'm
still on my first wife!

Everyone's different, I guess.


Frank, I doubt very much that I would have a major carbon fiber failure with the bikes I have. I moved to top of the line bikes to go to "light" only to discover that it makes so little difference in speed that it is foolish to put so much money into it. And in the back of my mind there is ALWAYS the possibility of a catastrophic failure.

So I'm not really "churning" my stable. I bought and am building up the Felt with a disk group I already had. My total cost for this bike sans the parts that I might otherwise be stuck with will be $480. Since complete bikes are far easier to sell, I should be able to sell all of this stuff off that has been on Craigslist for a year.

As for the sales of the carbon fiber bikes, I am just changing back to metal and taking that one worry in the back of my mind off.
  #26  
Old February 26th 21, 07:12 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Frank Krygowski[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,538
Default Felt F55X

On 2/26/2021 12:54 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Friday, February 26, 2021 at 7:32:05 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 2/25/2021 8:40 PM, jbeattie wrote:

The bottom line is that if you're building this for resale, you're looking at a tougher resale than just a real gravel bike with drop bars. You're building a coffee shop racer with flat bars and big tires. Maybe that sells in the Bay Area.

I confess, Tom's constant churning of his fleet puzzles me.

I tend in the opposite direction. I think very heavily before acquiring
something to make really sure that it's something I'll want to keep;
than I tend to keep those things a very long time. That applies to
bikes, cars, my motorcycle, my home, jobs, tools, and more. Heck, I'm
still on my first wife!

Everyone's different, I guess.


Frank, I doubt very much that I would have a major carbon fiber failure with the bikes I have. I moved to top of the line bikes to go to "light" only to discover that it makes so little difference in speed that it is foolish to put so much money into it. And in the back of my mind there is ALWAYS the possibility of a catastrophic failure.

So I'm not really "churning" my stable.


How many bikes have you bought and sold in the last five or ten years?


--
- Frank Krygowski
  #27  
Old February 26th 21, 07:35 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Tom Kunich[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,196
Default Felt F55X

On Friday, February 26, 2021 at 10:12:06 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 2/26/2021 12:54 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Friday, February 26, 2021 at 7:32:05 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 2/25/2021 8:40 PM, jbeattie wrote:

The bottom line is that if you're building this for resale, you're looking at a tougher resale than just a real gravel bike with drop bars. You're building a coffee shop racer with flat bars and big tires. Maybe that sells in the Bay Area.
I confess, Tom's constant churning of his fleet puzzles me.

I tend in the opposite direction. I think very heavily before acquiring
something to make really sure that it's something I'll want to keep;
than I tend to keep those things a very long time. That applies to
bikes, cars, my motorcycle, my home, jobs, tools, and more. Heck, I'm
still on my first wife!

Everyone's different, I guess.


Frank, I doubt very much that I would have a major carbon fiber failure with the bikes I have. I moved to top of the line bikes to go to "light" only to discover that it makes so little difference in speed that it is foolish to put so much money into it. And in the back of my mind there is ALWAYS the possibility of a catastrophic failure.

So I'm not really "churning" my stable.

How many bikes have you bought and sold in the last five or ten years?


Dozens, but you seem to be ignoring the fact that most of my memories about the riding characteristics of bicycles and even routes was lost in the concussion. Or are you ignoring that on purpose? I went from the good type of steel bikes I could remember from the 1990's and had to build up my knowledge base to the present day before realizing what I really wanted. I had to follow people on group rides because I couldn't remember even being on those roads. In one 50 miler the only thing I could remember was a group of trees. And that was one of the most common rides I did before the concussion.
  #28  
Old February 26th 21, 07:43 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
JBeattie
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5,870
Default Felt F55X

On Friday, February 26, 2021 at 9:46:03 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 5:40:03 PM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 4:22:54 PM UTC-8, wrote:
On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 11:21:21 AM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 9:56:29 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 1:56:28 PM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 12:59:05 PM UTC-8, wrote:
Parts are trickling in slowly. Local parts I can obtained off of Craigs list now are so overpriced that it is out of question to pay $60 for a bolt-on disk. There is a guy that sells Chinese parts that are cheap enough and with the bolts included but he is almost impossible to get him to respond so I gave up. I'm sure he is paying his way through Cal State Hayward with the money but no response, no sale and now it costs as much to get a single disk from eBay as four from him.

The headset tool won't arrive for another couple of weeks but since there are four other minor parts that are going to take that long no sense in worrying about it. The BB386 us going to take that long as well and it doesn't matter if the work isn't installed if the crank can't be fitted. The 32 tooth 10 speed cassette came in and I installed that yesterday as the hunchback. since the rear disk hydraulic line was mounted a rather long way it should fit on the 2 cm larger frameset without problem. The say with the front line. It is internal on this fork but was external on the other. So I will have to strip off the bead and cap on the lever end and stick it up from the bottom side. in order to lose the lease fluid and make it easier to bleed afterwards. It appears that flat bar gravel bikes are getting popular so this one should move a lot faster than the Emonda or Modone. The last guy to query about the Emonda must have been a monkey, after exchanges for three days he said that he wouldn't fit the bike. He is three inches shorter than I am but claims his arms are 37" long. Maybe he is measuring from the middle of his back because from shoulder to fingertip my arms are 26".

The tires are 3 mm wider than I would like but there is more than plenty of room with these triangles. It is surprising how easy gravel tires roll on hard surfaces. But gravel bikes have lower gear ratios and the 11/42 high gear isn't going to rush anyone down the road. If I can get this together there is another Felt road bike that I will buy and build into a 10 speed Campy Record. The parts I have look brand new, though I will be looking for a compact two piece crank. That will require a compact front derailleur that will come from the Campy warehouse.

I was standing upright for the first half hour of this morning so I am recovering from that stained back if a lot more slowly than I would like.

I wonder how you tell what sort of hydraulic fluid is in this Avid setup. It could use either Shimano mineral oil or DOT 5.1 which needs replacing every year if that makes any sense. When was the last time you replaced your car brake fluid?
Six-bolt disc rotors are common as fleas. $20 for a Deore six-bolt of Amazonian. https://tinyurl.com/4nzbb92v What headset tool do you need? It's an integrated HS. Do need a crown seat setting tool? And are you switching to an Avid set up from Shimano? They're not cross-compatible. Avid/SRAM uses DOT fluid, and I'm not sure if the Shimano hose is happy with DOT fluid, and its ID may be incompatible with the Avid brakes as well. The levers definitely take different olives and nuts. Even if you could use the Shimano hose, you'd have to bob the ends, remove the barb, olive and nut, to get it through your frame -- unless it has giant openings. Go get some Avid/SRAM hoses.

BTW, the F55X is not a gravel bike. It is a CX bike. You have a slightly different version of the Redline Conquest you spent so long unloading.

-- Jay Beattie.
I suggest you actually learn to ride before you tell me what is a gravel and what is a CX bike since they handle totally different. You spend most of your time now being disagreeable for no other reason than you are a Democrat that is seeing your world crumble before your eyes and are loath to admit that you were told so, so many times that all you can do is attempt to refute it like a child. "Nuh uh".
WTF are you talking about? The Felt F55X is a CX bike. Google it. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/00...827 344467882

This is not an opinion. I own a CX bike and a gravel bike and am well aware of the differences. The F55X is not marketed as a gravel bike and is geometrically different from a gravel bike. It is a CX bike.

-- Jay Beattie.
Jay, they can call it anything they like. A cross bike uses a short wheelbase and a gravel bike a longer. The wheelbase on this thing is 43" A cross bike would be around 39".

Well, sure, they could call it a touring bike, or a road racing bike, but that would be a lie -- and it would undercut the whole idea of building a CX bike. No?

I don't know where the F55X falls in the CX design world, which seems to oscillate back and forth in terms of steering geometry and chain stay length, but it will certainly have a lower stack height, higher BB and less features for use on the road, although some entry level CX bikes will have fender mounts. My CAADX does. The CAADX also has a dreadful, slack HT with lots of fork offset for a really heavy feeling front end on the road. I much prefer the more roadie feel of my Norco Search gravel bike.

The bottom line is that if you're building this for resale, you're looking at a tougher resale than just a real gravel bike with drop bars. You're building a coffee shop racer with flat bars and big tires. Maybe that sells in the Bay Area. Avid hydros also have a bad reputation, or they did. Maybe it has improved.

And depending on what you're going to try to sell if for, you're up again a really great bargain gravel bike -- the Trek Checkpoint ALR. The CF version was Velo News' bicycle of the year. https://www.velonews.com/gear/gravel...eckpoint-sl-5/ I'd get one of those, but I think I've gotten my limit of pro-deals from Trek.

Plus, I already have my Norco Search, which I got on sale from Western Bikeworks for $1500. This one: https://www.norco.com/bike-archives/2017/search-c-105/ With my custom-applied ho-made frame guards: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PhLwf6MRK8TfPAJYA It's a fun bike.

Look Jay, I respect you as a bike rider but please don't tell me what I have. I know the difference between a real CX bike and a gravel bike. Ridley made the mistake of trying to race long wheelbase CX bikes. After they changed to short wheelbases - nearly the same as a road bike - they began winning. It wasn't that they switched to carbon fiber, but because they switched to shorter wheelbase bikes and gained far faster maneuverability. The difference from my older style Ridley and the Redline or Trek Boone CX bike was more than noticeable.


All I am saying is that the F55X is a CX bike with whatever attributes Felt has given it. You can call it whatever you want, but it is not Felt's gravel bike. https://feltbicycles.com/products/breed-gravel-bike The CX bike has way less BB drop, shorter stack height, higher stand-over, steeper HT with less fork offset, flat underside of the TT for shouldering the bike, etc., etc. The current FX CX bike actually has a longer wheelbase than the gravel bike, which is interesting. You can market it as a gravel bike, but that will be suspect to serious buyers who will do just what I did, "hey, that's Felt's CX bike, not its gravel bike." An old man contradicting the company's advertising and calling it a gravel bike will not comfort buyers.


-- Jay Beattie.
  #29  
Old February 26th 21, 07:45 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
AMuzi
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 13,447
Default Felt F55X

On 2/26/2021 12:12 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 2/26/2021 12:54 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Friday, February 26, 2021 at 7:32:05 AM UTC-8, Frank
Krygowski wrote:
On 2/25/2021 8:40 PM, jbeattie wrote:

The bottom line is that if you're building this for
resale, you're looking at a tougher resale than just a
real gravel bike with drop bars. You're building a
coffee shop racer with flat bars and big tires. Maybe
that sells in the Bay Area.
I confess, Tom's constant churning of his fleet puzzles me.

I tend in the opposite direction. I think very heavily
before acquiring
something to make really sure that it's something I'll
want to keep;
than I tend to keep those things a very long time. That
applies to
bikes, cars, my motorcycle, my home, jobs, tools, and
more. Heck, I'm
still on my first wife!

Everyone's different, I guess.


Frank, I doubt very much that I would have a major carbon
fiber failure with the bikes I have. I moved to top of the
line bikes to go to "light" only to discover that it makes
so little difference in speed that it is foolish to put so
much money into it. And in the back of my mind there is
ALWAYS the possibility of a catastrophic failure.

So I'm not really "churning" my stable.


How many bikes have you bought and sold in the last five or
ten years?


Personally, zero. I've ridden my very favorite bike for 49
years now. That said, I flipped my 'nice' road bike frame
for a new one every year for many years. Both approaches are
fine.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971


  #30  
Old February 26th 21, 08:17 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Frank Krygowski[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,538
Default Felt F55X

On 2/26/2021 1:45 PM, AMuzi wrote:
On 2/26/2021 12:12 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 2/26/2021 12:54 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Friday, February 26, 2021 at 7:32:05 AM UTC-8, Frank
Krygowski wrote:
On 2/25/2021 8:40 PM, jbeattie wrote:

The bottom line is that if you're building this for
resale, you're looking at a tougher resale than just a
real gravel bike with drop bars. You're building a
coffee shop racer with flat bars and big tires. Maybe
that sells in the Bay Area.
I confess, Tom's constant churning of his fleet puzzles me.

I tend in the opposite direction. I think very heavily
before acquiring
something to make really sure that it's something I'll
want to keep;
than I tend to keep those things a very long time. That
applies to
bikes, cars, my motorcycle, my home, jobs, tools, and
more. Heck, I'm
still on my first wife!

Everyone's different, I guess.

Frank, I doubt very much that I would have a major carbon
fiber failure with the bikes I have. I moved to top of the
line bikes to go to "light" only to discover that it makes
so little difference in speed that it is foolish to put so
much money into it. And in the back of my mind there is
ALWAYS the possibility of a catastrophic failure.

So I'm not really "churning" my stable.


How many bikes have you bought and sold in the last five or
ten years?


Personally, zero. I've ridden my very favorite bike for 49 years now.
That said, I flipped my 'nice' road bike frame for a new one every year
for many years. Both approaches are fine.


There's no law against Tom buying and selling his "dozens" of bikes in
five or ten years. And there's no law against a new bike every year,
especially if a person is a bike shop professional.

But Tom's compulsion seems like an addiction, like he's desperately
searching for contentment or validation or ... something.

I've known a couple individuals with persistent depression, whose
(unsuccessful) coping mechanism was compulsive shopping. It's a fairly
common syndrome.

--
- Frank Krygowski
 




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