Felt Bicycles took the lessons learned about lightweight, stiff carbon construction making their F1 road bikes and applied it to their all-new FX2 carbon cyclocross bike.
The UHC Performance MMC carbon fiber frame uses their InsideOut internal molding (flexible mold with bladder) like the F1, and it shares its mechanical convertible cable routing, so you can run electronic or mech groups and have each look like the frame was made just for it. The FX2 is designed with a tapered headtube, BB30 and 1-piece forged alloy dropouts and derailleur hanger.
It’s new, it’s light and it’s snazzy, but it was almost outshone by their prototype version with hydraulic disc brakes (built up with the new 3T Luteus fork and TRP converter)! Jump past the break for more info and lots of pics on both…
The FX2 will come with Shimano Di2 with the cables run internally. The little grommet you see under the downtube just in front of the wire entry point is where you’d mount the cable stop for a traditional mechanical drivetrain (ie. Dura-Ace). By making them removable, the bike keeps a super clean appearance no matter how you run it.
The Felt CXR fork is a monocoque tapered design and has a cable hanger mount on the crown, but they’ve spec’d the FX2 with mini V-brakes. Felt’s marketing man Doug says it’s because a lot of the pros like the more powerful braking and lower profile they offer versus cantilevers.
This model comes with an FSA Energy BB30 46/36 crankset. The finish is called Matte Carbon and Chartreuse, and the complete bike will retail for $6,499 as shown with their house-brand Devox cockpit. There will also be an FX3 and FX4 as well as a frameset option. Frame weight is 1090g for a 55.
By pulling tech from the F1, this was their quickest concept-to-sample timeframe for a new carbon bike; just under six months. In particular, they used allot of the same tube shapes and had already figured out the mechanical/electrical cable routing.
The FX2 has a Di2 specific seatpost with battery mounts built in and wiring running inside it. The chainstays curve in a slight arc to provide a bit of bump compliance. And oh yes, water bottle mounts, but I didn’t notice any fender mounts.
The obvious question to anyone showing a new or redesigned ‘cross bike at this point is “where’s the disc brake version.” Regardless of your personal opinion on the matter, it’s coming, and I’m excited for it. Bikes like the one above are why.
This cyclocross bike prototype uses the same front triangle mold as the new FX2.
Hydraulic braking is achieved via TRP’s converter contraption, which we’ll cover in more detail in a separate post.
The rear dropouts use an alloy skeleton inside like on their 29er hardtails for the disk brake mount. Unlike the Redline Conquest Pro that’s ready for use with ‘cross wheels on the market now with a 130mm rear axle spacing, this prototype uses 135mm like current mountain bikes. The wheelset on here is a Mavic Crossmax 29er with tires set up tubeless. It felt like it weighed in around 17lbs at most.
At best this is a late 2012 product, probably 2013. They also mentioned that everytime they show a prototype, they show it in this matte carbon with one simple logo on the downtube and everyone loves it. I love it. Feel free to tell Felt that you’d like to see something stealth like this, too.
