Felt recently leaked a tightly cropped image of a new bike undergoing testing and while there wasn't much detail, one thing is certain: the company is finally developing a full-carbon 'cross bike to supplement its long-running all-aluminum and aluminum-carbon models.
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Judging solely by the appearance of the seat cluster, Felt looks to be using the same InsideOut moulding process it uses for its new upper-end F-series road frames. If so, we can expect to see very light frame weights – our guess for the 'cross version would be somewhere right around 1,000g, or about 100g heavier than the mid-range F frame.
Assuming the ride qualities transfer over from the road, too, we can also expect a very lively and supple feel, and extremely high drivetrain and torsional stiffness levels.
Also based on Felt's road design cues, we're putting money on a tapered head tube, full carbon fork and a BB30-compatible bottom bracket.
Felt's leaked image shows the bike with rim brakes and at least for now, non-removable housing stops on the top tube. The rearmost hanger is a bolt-on unit, though, which gives us at least a bit of hope that there will be a disc option as well.
Not surprisingly, Felt was very tight-lipped about the new bike and had little to say.
"That's just one of our Nine mountain bike frames with V-brake bosses – yeah, that's it," said road product manager Dave Koesel. "It’s a mountain bike – I don’t know anything about it. Sorry."
Stay tuned to Cyclingnews for additional details.