Felt Z85.

2013

First roadie.

Distance ridden: 8,516km (plus 11,500km on turbo)

The Felt Z85 was my first road bike, bought as a mostly-105 spec from Wiggle. Yeah, I know, I tried to support my LBS, but they genuinely couldn’t get hold of one, so I got one from Wiggle and they did me a bike fit on it. I still think it’s a great looking bike, with the red and white accents nicely setting off the matt black base.

Over time and mileage, things wore out and were generally upgraded, starting with the wheels, then the crankset, then the brakes, so now it’s quite a different beast. The original wheels didn’t last very long at all, being clearly built down to a budget with low spec Felt bearings which disintegrated quite quickly. The Quattros have been far more reliable, having had a bearing replacement and not much else.

The bike spends most of its life on the turbo trainer these days, and has covered more miles in Watopia than it did in the real world. For that reason, it also has a posh saddle.

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Features.

Drivetrain.

The bike originally came with a ‘mostly 105’ setup, some FSA Vero cranks and non-groupset brakes, possibly Tektro items. The chainset was replaced by a 10-speed Ultegra 6750 Hollowtech II item and the brakes also by Ultegra. This has remained pretty much faultless and has outlived the stock items many times over.

Wheels.

Original supplied with Mavic CXP rims on very low-spec Felt hubs, the stock wheels died a fairly early death and were replaced by a Fulcrum Racing Quattro wheelset, mostly because the spoke nipples were anodised red which perfectly matched the rest of the red anodised bits that came as standard on the Z85. These have worn Continental GP or GP GT rubber from the start.

I also had a set of Fulcrum 7s with Continental Four Season tyres for winter use, but they didn’t look as good as the Quattros so predictably saw less action.

Finishing Kit.

The original Felt saddle wasn’t great, and after transitioning through various options, the bike now has one of the most comfortable saddles of the whole fleet, owing to it spending most of its time on the turbo. Its current perch is a Selle Italia SLR SuperFlow which is bearable for as long as i’d want to spend on Zwift in one go anyway.

I originally fitted Shimano 105 5700 SPD pedals, but were later changed for 105 5800 models which had a more angular appearance flowed down from the previous Ultegra models and a far more pleasing action.