Felt Dispatch vs Specalized Langster

[DrSquirrel]

Felt Dispatch 2010 - £380 online
Specalized (alloy, black) Langster 2010 - £365 LBS (£360 online, but well worth the fiver from LBS)

Part of me wants the Felt, looks slightly better and has braze-ons(?) on the front fork (ones near the hub) - has both on the rear but so does the Langster. Though this isn't super important, just nice to have at a later date... maybe, dunno


If my LBS (or any others near by) could get the Felt (for the above price) I would probably go for that.



So can't really decide... thoughts?

 

[jay clock]

i now have the Felt on order - will let you know!

 

[puffingbilly]

Felt Dispatch 2010 - £380 online
Specalized (alloy, black) Langster 2010 - £365 LBS (£360 online, but well worth the fiver from LBS)

Part of me wants the Felt, looks slightly better and has braze-ons(?) on the front fork (ones near the hub) - has both on the rear but so does the Langster. Though this isn't super important, just nice to have at a later date... maybe, dunno


If my LBS (or any others near by) could get the Felt (for the above price) I would probably go for that.



So can't really decide... thoughts?

I had a langster but found a fixed with drops in traffic a pain as I spent too long on the hoods, straight bars are much better so I swapped it for a Genisis......

 

[DrSquirrel]

Thanks for the input.

I already ride a drop and don't frequent traffic that much - tend to stay on the hoods a lot too (need to get down more often).

Anyway - drops will come off to be replaced with bullhorns (and bar end brakes), regular drop will be tidied up and kept for possible track use where I can take the horns off with the brakes and cables in one "unit".

 

[Lardyboy]

Bought a Dispatch back in winter 2008/9 as you can read here

 

[Jezston]

Thanks for the input.

I already ride a drop and don't frequent traffic that much - tend to stay on the hoods a lot too (need to get down more often).

Anyway - drops will come off to be replaced with bullhorns (and bar end brakes), regular drop will be tidied up and kept for possible track use where I can take the horns off with the brakes and cables in one "unit".

Maybe the LBS might do you a deal on the bars if they get to keep the shipped ones?

 

[jay clock]

OK, i ordered the Felt and it arrived today from Wiggle. £549 down to £344 (inc the £5 email subscription discount). Beautifully packed, just had to put on pedals and bars (stem in place). Package included free multitool, box of Hi5 nutrition, excellent quality pedal spanner, and the reflectors (saved me taking them off!). It also has a dummy lever hood in case I ever want to remove the rear brake (no current plans!).

Looks stunning. Even my 8 yr old girl called it "awesome" but then they moved on to playing with the box!

Sadly I am off for a long weekend (not really sadly as it is Sardinia and 26 degrees!) so no chance to ride it, and in any case it is tipping down here.

More info to follow next week

Jay

 

[jay clock]

one thing that is not shown on the website is a smoked perspex chainguard!!! kewl!!

 

[DrSquirrel]

Thanks for the info - I've already ordered mine, 54 - which is lucky as they are now sold out... still 10+ 56 frames though.

Same as you 344.99. I saw the multitool+spanner you get - will be nice to have a proper long spanner.

I think (pretty sure) I ordered too late for the Hi5 box.


That explains the "with dummy lever" in the page description previous - people were wondering why because it had 2 brakes. Now we know.


Anyway - mine has been loaded on the van for delivery \o/

 

[DrSquirrel]

Recived my 54 last week.

I also received the chainguard which was poorly fitted and just rubbed everywhere - don't see the need for it unless you're wearing normal trousers and what not - so removed.

39x15 (or 16 free) gearing is a bit easy - hills are pie to climb but decending I am limited to around 25 maybe 30 - the cadence isn't *that* high (120-130ish) its just strange to be following the pedals as you're not pushing to go faster. Going to consider a 13 sprocket to try out on the rear to see how it goes, 39 instead of 42 on the front limits the range I can test out on by using cheap sprockets without the need of the costly chainset etc.

Wiggle included a free pedal spanner and (lifeline) multitool which is handy as I don't have a pedal spanner (use allen keys on the inside instead). Also got the Hi5 "demo" pack.

Build seems okay, is light - the hoods are a bit "thin" and square so not perfectly comfortable (although bars are being replaced with bullhorns/aero bars).


I know its pedantic but weight for the 56cm was supposed to be 8.50kg - removing the pedals (of course) and the included spanner (weighs 120g) the bike was still 8.72kg for my 54cm frame (-0.02kg for the air in the tyres if you want to be super anal). Makes me wonder how Felt weighs their bikes with and without what kit? Spanner/Pedals are an obvious obvious one (oh and the wheel reflectors)...

First image shows the dummy lever so you can remove the rear brake and your front brake (don't see why you couldn't just leave it so it doesn't look mismatched). Strangely though for a bike where they understand the rear brake has a higher chance to come off - the bike has internal cabling through the frame so no cable = hole. Would have been better to use them clips that some others use or just the regular exposed cable under the top tube - then its easy to remove it without having to actually take the cable out of the others.




Bike pic isn't very good sorry - need to take a photo outside or with the proper camera and not the mobile