Felt IA

So, I placed the order yesterday for my new bike, an upgrade for my 2008 Trek Equinox 7 bought off @yetidamo and seeing as I haven't "built*" a bike for a good few years, thought I'd create a thread as it should be pretty decent when its finished - admittedly not very fixed or singlespeed so please accept my apologies!

Frame: Felt IA 1 Framekit - 51cm
Groupset: Shimano Ultegra Di2 (165mm 52x36 Chainset, 11-28 cassette, Ultegra satellite shifers and ultegra brake/shifters, Felt integrated brakes)
Saddle: ISM Adamo Racing
Tyres: Continental GP4000s 23mm
Tubes: Michelin Latex -more because I have them lying about...
Bar Tape: Fizik Microtex - thinking Yellow as my club kit is black and yellow, although I may just go all black to keep the stealth look
Wheels: TBC -Will probably borrow a Hed3 off a mate, and use an RS10 with a Raltech Wheel cover until I can save up for a set of FLOs
Hydration - xlab gorilla ziptied behind saddle + something between the arms
Pedals - Garmin Vector

I'm interested to see what it weighs but more interested to get it out for a race!

Delivery into the UK is expected on the 16th Feb, and my LBS has all the groupset bits either in stock or on order to arrive this week so as soon as they get it they can start building.

Now if someone would actually buy my Brompton I'd have the last bit of cash in place...

First race outing will be 7th March...

Spoke to the bike shop and it might be ready by Friday, I've binned off any plans for colour on this, and ordered all black GP4000s and some black lizard skins tape.

Just as well that both my Brompton and Trek Equinox sold over the weekend!

Wheels for now will be my mavic aksiums with latex inners and GP4000s which should make them feel a lot nicer than the vittoria rubino 28mms that I've had on them all winter on my road bike.

need to formulate a plan for wheels longer term, but hopefully the next Flo order might bring something more suitable!

wiggle delivery has arrived, need to put wheels and tyres together and drop them off at the shop so they can start building when the bike arrives..

Tempted to get a new Adamo Attack as well as the scruffy blue one I have actually looks ok on my road bike...

I'd look at Swissside as wheel option as well .. esp hadron

This above else, is the frameset I am currently lusting after. My size too.

The seatpost is a boat anchor. But its really Nice to use, and the battery holder is very neat. If felt did half as good a job on this as they did on my AR. It'll be amazing.

@amey Will take a look at those - although I seem to recall they only come in relatively shallow?

@Smallfurry not too worried about weight for this given its intended usage, but it certainly looks robust! if mine looks half as mean as yours I'll be very happy.

Cheers. Still working on mine. Needed the oval rail clamps for the seatpost, and a longer stem. Have a few cabling bits to tidy too. The textreme looks seriously bling. I love it. So I wouldnt worry about adding colour elsewhere. This will look far more bat-bike-esque than mine. You'll love it, I bet.

I demand pics BTW.

Even if my attempts at few tri's this year gets me hooked. I'll never be able to justify one. Nearly all the tri's up here involve mainly climbing and descending for the bike leg. PLus there doesnt seem to be the TT culture you have in the UK.

Dropped of final bits at the LBS yesterday, all on track for completion by Friday, they had an IA2 in ginormous size that i took a quick look at but kind of ignored as I want to enjoy taking in the details of my one once i have it, so will post pictures when I have it in my grubby mitts.

Need to work out what I'm doing with mounting a Garmin on it, but will wait till I've actually seen it in the flesh. I have a variety of out front mounts that I can try and the Zipp Vuka BTA cage looks like quite a neat solution of having both accessible drinks and Garmin mount, but then I will have a behind the seat bottle and I'm not going over middle distance this year so shouldn't need more than one bottle.

Have ordered a black Adamo, as I cant stand the idea of a mismatched saddle on this bike...

I've literally done nothing of any importance today - too excited to concentrate.

annoyingly no word from bike shop today to confirm if the frame arrived, so I've just emailed them, they have my measurements so should be able to get it close to the right setup, although they don't have a saddle or pedals to put on as I needed both to train with this week - lthough ive now bought a new saddle for this bike to make it match and match and more importantly allow room to tuck a cage and bottle behind the seat!

The last bike i 'built' was a bob Jackson with a chris king headset (lush) a campag record crankset together with a set of bontrager Aeolus wheels. I feel like this is a fitting next step (apart from the wheels which are temp/training wheels)

grrrr frame still sat in the distributors.

new saddle has arrived though so theres some progress!

What saddle rail bottle-cage clamp (I don't know the proper term) are you using Ed?

I was all excited then too...

Bottle dicussion instead?...
I would have thought saddle mounted bottles are more suited to long distance. Easier to swap out for full bottle etc. For anything requiring less than 1ltr water. The idea of having it right infront of you appeals. But I Guess thats personal.

ive got an xlab carbon wing, but its a bit bulky for shorter distances, and hold 2 bottles which I don't need, so I'll be taking a gorilla cage off it and zip tying under the saddle to make it nice and tucked in.

from what I understand having a bottle nicely placed there actually improves aeros.

the between the arms one is better for drinking particularly if it has a straw, I didn't have room for one on my old bike though, and until I actually get this bike I wont know on this one!

I Guess anything thats behind you. Yet not adding to Your frontal profile can give good Aeros. Even the last guy on a pursuit Train has to work harder because theres noone behind him*. The BTA is meant to be able to improve Aeros too. By filling the gap between Your elbows. I dont think theres much in it.

(*This is my excuse for wheelsucking in races. I'm making them faster!)

I can see the logic in the between the arms bottle, at this rate I’ll be carrying two empty bottles for a sprint triathlon. I’d like to get the Zipp Vuka BTA mount, as it looks like a really neat bit of kit, but a cable tied bottle cage with a garmin mount would be a cheaper and lighter option! I’ve also seen some talk about people using bladder from the shiv in the down tube storage container, although that then means I lose out on the ability to carry food and spares..

That sounds neat. Surely theres enough room in that Down tube to pack for a week in the Sahara!

Pics or ban.

lol, if it wasn't in a flipping box somewhere between Felt's german depot and my local bike shop it there would be pictures of it.

GRRRRRRRR due in at the shop tomorrow - my parents are coming over for dinner so I probably cant get away with picking it up on the way home and definitely cant spend the evening playing with it :(

soon....

Bike is being built at the moment, hoping to have it done by the end of the day but they described it as fiddly...

expect terrible grainy pictures taken in the dark if so!

The internal Routing should be pretty striaght forward. The way the battery hangs Down helps too..

If I told my parents I had a New bike arriving they'd automatically buy take out on the the way to me........

ha they brought dinner with them, but it wasn't ready so it was a moot point!

I was a little sceptical about taking a whole day to put a DI2 bike together, but its the first time they've done a di2 build on the IA (or a complete IA build I think, thankfully they have an IA2 in the shop for comparison!), so I guess they are taking their time, and the brakes/headset look horrendous!

even sooner