http://www.ambmag.com.au - 75TESTEDRIDINGEXPERIENCE:
Racing since 1989 on
everything from XC to DH
and Trials.
GENERALLY RIDES:
Rocky Mountain Element
999 TO, Norco Sight C1,
BMC SLR01
HEIGHT: 181cm
WEIGHT: 75kg
BIKE TEST TRACK: Gap
Creek, Scribbly GumsBRADLEY BABELseat stay pivot that alters the head angle by
1 degree, and raises the BB by 10mm, but I
didn’t feel the need to play around with this
feature during testing, I was happy with the
handling in the standard position. The Decree
has a threaded bottom bracket too, which
makes for easier home maintenance withoutthe need for specialist shop quality bearing
presses which is a good touch in my opinion.
The frame has good clearance with the
2.5” Minions. I’m not sure how much wider
you could go though and still have some mud
clearance. The cable routing is all internal and
is Di2 compatible. Felt use a pretty neat set up
on the entrance to the frame, and to my liking
also had the brakes routed nicely for the usual
Australian set up of front right, with the rear
lever on the left, the cable entered the frame
on the right side.
The Decree 1 gets the full SRAM and
RockShox treatment spec wise, with an Eagle
XO1 full drive train, Guide brakes with 180mm
front rotor and 160mm out back. I’d prefer to
see 180mm front and back on a bike with a
design like this. Along with the high end drive
train, RockShox provide the squish factor,
with Pike RC forks running the Charger 2 RC
damper that gives you low speed compression
damping, and rebound damping adjustment.
Rather than a standard 3 position lever there
are about 10 clicks of adjustment to fine tune
the feel you want. Our test bike looks like
it’s come with the Super Deluxe RC3 as it
had the 3 position compression adjustment,
rather than the 2 position of the RCT version
which is listed as its spec. Felt have given
the suspension a custom tune with minimal
compression damping, due to the way the
suspension is designed it doesn’t need a lot
of damping control, and this goes to aid in the
sensitivity of the platform.
In the looks department Felt keep the
aesthetics subdued but still with a little flair in
the paint with a nice grey with the pop coming
from the red decals in a gloss finish. The
frame certainly has a super wide front end ofINITIAL IMPRESSIONS
Felt have used a full carbon frame, including
the rocker, and previously mentioned F.A.S.T.
suspension design, Boost axle spacing, with
beefy and wide cross section tubes all-round,
especially up front around the head set. You
can see they were serious about trying to
make a stiff handling bike by the size of the
tubing used. The top tube has good stand over
clearance, but still quite a high effective seat
tube length which may make it a little tricky
sizing wise if you are short in the leg for your
height like I am. With only a 125mm dropper
post in the Medium and Large, at 181 cm tall I
have the dropper almost all the way slammed
down on this size large, even with modest
reach numbers in this size.
The geometry on the Felt Decree isn’t as
progressive as many new bikes, which could
be a good or a bad thing depending on what
you are looking for in your bike. The head
angle is 66.5 degrees, and seat tube angle 73
degrees, with a reach in the large of 436mm,
and a wheel base of 1174mm. This makes for a
capable bike, but nowhere near the numbers of
bikes from brands like Transition and the like.
I found the seating position pretty good, but
the front end could get a little light on steep
climbs, needing me to lean into it some more
to keep it planted and going where I wanted it
too. The chain stays are nice and short at only
428mm, and keep it nice and easy to lift the
front end when needed and snappy on tight
stuff. It doesn’t feel too big or long , but may
lack that high speed stability and confident
handling on the steep and high speed descents
as a result compared to bikes that are longer
and slacker.
There is a flip chip located in the Felt Decree