Felt, US women’s team pursuit chase gold on a wicked new track bike

Written by Trey Richardson May 20, 2016

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No, that picture is not backwards. Felt is once again teaming up with the U.S. women’s team pursuit after making history with a silver medal at the 2012 Olympic games which was the greatest achievement by a U.S. track racing team ever. Now they want it all!

Felt teamed up with HED, FSA and others to create the Felt TA FRD (Track Aero | Felt Racing Development). Check out the video to see how they came up with this Olympic weapon and why they went south-paw with the drivetrain…

Felt spills the juicy details on how they along with HED & FSA came up with the TA FRD’s design and proprietary components. And when you see why they stuck the drivetrain on the opposite side, the competition will probably say, “why didn’t we think of that”?

FeltBicycles.com

Trey Richardson

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john

6 years ago

And the UCI outlaws left side drivetrains in 3…2,,,1,,,

anonymous

6 years ago

Reply to john

Of they start going the other direction.

If your crank doesn’t have airfoil profiles and a threaded GXP/Campy bottom bracket you can do this simply by swapping pedal axles and threadlocking the pedals, and just flipping things.

Iceman

6 years ago

Remember “Project 96” ?? They never learn

Mick

6 years ago

Reply to Iceman

Sure do… but do you actually have a point (?)…or are you just reminiscing?

Huffytoss

6 years ago

Reply to Mick

The project was a disaster. The no top tube design was proven to be slower than the Lotus’s, but the designer still pushed it through despite everyone telling him it was a bad design.

SuperDave

6 years ago

Reply to Iceman

The GT Superbike was a superior machine, unfortunately the team rode the Boone position instead of the now outlawed Superman position.

David R.

6 years ago

Very cool.

nightfend

6 years ago

There was nothing wrong with project 96 bikes. At the time they were probably the most aero bikes out there. But just because you have a fast bike doesn’t guarantee a gold medal. You still need the athlete.

The new Felt looks great, btw.

Brent

6 years ago

Reply to nightfend

Nightfend,
I was about to say this bike triggered a lot of contreversy… when in absolute it didn’t. There was a consensus among the Engineers of winning bikes (Look and Mavic for what I know) that the bike had a lot of troubles, the stiffness was one and if I remember properly there was some questions on the bike sizes.

Quick web search still has traces of the poor feed-backs
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-08-04/sports/9608040319_1_national-coaching-director-medals-bronze

Tri3z71

6 years ago

Pardon my ignorance, but I’ve wondered why the drivetrain is on the right side? Is there a UCI standard that say’s it must be on that side? So if a company wanted to do a left side, could they?

John

6 years ago

Reply to Tri3z71

UCI approval only matters if you are racing in UCI-sanctioned events.

For example, triathletes compete under a separate set of rules under a different sanctioning body, many times riding triathlon bikes that aren’t UCI-legal.