Felt Bicycles Introduces the “Nine Series” 29″ers
January 23rd, 2007 by Guitar TedFelt Bicycles, who showed some 29″ers at InterBike this past Fall, have now formally introduced the three bike series.
The series includes two geared hardtails and one single speed hardtail. The names of the models are The Nine Pro, The Nine Elite, and The Nine Solo. Interesting spec details include Avid hydraulic brakes, Maxxis Ignitor tires, and integrated headsets across the line. Also interesting is Felt’s geometry featuring a half degree steeper head tube angle than what we normally see at 72.5 degrees and a bit lower bottom bracket. Check out their web page for more information
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I was in the process of getting a custom frame with the same numbers as Felt. I was thinking that those numbers would lend to a fast handling 29er with an 80mm fork, but if you ran a 100mm fork, it would not affect the steering too much. I like the numbers.
I thought I would have seen carbon seat stays from Felt. It gives their RXC bikes a nice little bouce in the rear.
BearSquirrel: I think that if Felt sells a decent amount of these bikes, you might see an investment into that sort of thing. It could also be said that a 29″er doesn’t need that extra “bounce” since the wheelsize already smooths out alot of the trail for you.
I was fairly excited when I viewed these at Interbike and even more so after discussing them with Andy to the point that my partner just kind of shook his head and walked off!
Note: if you want carbon stays, there is the Van Dessel Jersey Devil. Seat tube is a bit steep at 74 throughout the sizes, but they are varying their head angles between 71.5-72.5 per M-L sizes.
Could be they come out of the same builder.
I really hope that they NEVER come out with a Virtue 9er. Lateral Flex-orama!
A 1ยบ steeper STA just feels like a 1/2″ longer top tube. Slide seat back on seatpost, done.
Sliding your seat back can effectively raise your saddle if you go too far and can it throw off your fit as it relates to your knees - unless you fiddle with everything else accordingly.
I would imagine a really steep HA will still feel steep even if you move further away from it. Your weight will be over the back end a little more, but it should still steer fast. I’d think it would be more like hanging on instead having weight closer to the front end influencing the steering. I’ve done this with steeper road bikes and it’s just odd, better to adjust to the new HA, IMHO. Anyway this is just my .02 cents. The bikes look pretty cool - both the Felts and Van Dessel. I got to see them at ‘cross nationals last month. The Jersey Devil looked really promising.
I own a nine solo and have enjoyed it…When its not in the shop. Let me explain…The nine solo uses a Eccentric bottom bracket for chain adjustment, this is a much prefered system compared to vertical dropouts. The problem is Felt uses a much outdated and poorly designed/thought out EBB. The EBB, at least in my case, has seized twice while attempting to adjust chain tension for different sized cog. I hopefully have overcome this problem by using an only slightly less dated wedge style EBB (one-off, as after market EBBs dont fit the BB shell of the nine solo) but i had to change over to Isis drive instead of the outboard bearings. As I am not a heavy rider this shouldn’t be a problem. The felt nine solo is a great bike, my only wish is that Felt would have spent more design time focused on an EBB on par with the rest of the bike (Bushnell comes to mind).
I love mine to bits; some of the OEM parts were a bit cheesey, but it’s a great frame. Can’t understand where the previous poster was going wrong with the EBB, as it’s just a set screw design - mines never seized and it gets very wet and muddy where I ride.