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New bike: Felt IA vs. BMC TM01 vs. P5

beuercbeuerc
in General Training Discussions

I need a new bike.  Does anyone have any thoughts on the Felt IA vs. BMC TM01 vs. Cervelo P5?  I'm highly deficient on bike knowledge, so any help is appreciated, thanks!

Comments

  • Dino SartiDino Sarti
    P5. Game over. Done deal.

    If it won't break the bank, go Di2. On a TT bike, it makes a huge difference.
  • John WithrowJohn Withrow
    I also love my P5! And I believe that Di2 is a game changer and probably a bigger benefit on a TT bike than the latest and greatest frame. With all that said, the new Felt IA looks pretty sick and is a well thought out bike. It looks like they "stole" a lot of the best design cues from each of the other superbikes (Shiv, P5, Trek SC) and put them together into 1 bike. But I know you can get a brand new Di2 equipped P5 now for under $8k (maybe a lot under depending on how good your relationship is with your LBS or if you find the right deal). Good luck even getting your hands on the brand new top of the line IA and even if you do, $13k seems a bit high. Especially given how much I love my P5...
  • GMAN 19030GMAN 19030

    The new Felt IA is off the charts expensive with Di2 (did I read $14,000?).  The BMC TM01 is also brutally expensive with Di2 as they jacked the price up last year by 15%.



    The new Trek SC 9-series and P5 are a little less expensive.  The P5 loses a lot of points for it's Di2 build due to the absence of shifters on the brakes.  Piss poor job by Cervelo, IMO.



    If I were buying a new bike right now and wanted to not completely break the bank I would get a Trek Speed Concept 7-series Project One with Ultegra Di2.  $6000. http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/proj...ept7series



    The 9-series SC gets slightly better carbon but costs nearly $2,000 more.  Otherwise they're basically identical.  Full disclosure: I have a new Trek SC 9-series.

  • Dino SartiDino Sarti
    Fair points regarding the P5 brake shifters. While it was a fun project, it is VERY strange that P5 owners are FORCED to hack the their systems to get shifting on the brakes.... But, the bike is radical! Truth be told, all the SUPER BIKES are pretty radical.

    That being said, I have just never been a fan of the Felt brand. I don't even know why.... Weird.
  • Robert SaboRobert Sabo
    Did you get a proper bike fit first to let you know that those were appropriate frames for you? Just asking before you spend that much.
  • tgarsontgarson
    As others have said, I think the Felt IA is going to be a killer bike at some point in the future but I can't see purchasing one now. They simply aren't producing enough of them, so the ones that they do have are mind-numbingly expensive. 14k for a bike, for real?

    Felt is very good at trickling-down there technology to their more afordable models so I'm sure we'll see some derivative of the IA being offered at far more competitive prices within a year or two, until then that's a really tough sell.

    For the TM01, I think it's a killer bike, but I just can't see that bike being faster than the new Speed Concept. And if it's not faster, why should you pay more?

    Don't think you can really go wrong with a new SC or a P5, and I really like Bob's idea of doing Ui2 on the SC 7.0.

    Also, if it were me, I'd be keeping an awfully big eye out on the new P3, Cervelo already announced a Ui2 spec build is coming soon. Frame is very close aerodynamically to P5, easier to work on, still comes with Magura and electronic shifting.
  • GMAN 19030GMAN 19030

    Posted By Robert Sabo on 22 Oct 2013 10:57 AM


    Did you get a proper bike fit first to let you know that those were appropriate frames for you? Just asking before you spend that much.

    Robert,

    IMO, the fit first mantra is starting to be a thing of the past as all the big name bike manufacturers have moved their fits to a more middle ground.  The days of Long/Low or Tall/Narrow are more or less a thing of the past.  They realized they can sell more bikes to more people if they fall within the middle of the bell curve as opposed to being an outlier.  Felt and Cervelo were notoriously long and low bikes that fit the longer torso individuals well but didn't fit the longer leg/shorter torso crowd worth a damn.  The new Cervelos now have some of the most conservative coordinates of all the super bikes.

    I haven't seen much about the Felt IA's integrated bar/stem combinations (nobody has) so I can't comment on that bike specifically but the Cervelo P5, BMC TM01, Trek SC, and to a lesser degree the Specialized Shiv, have a lot of permutations and combinations when it comes to bar/stem configs that you'd be hard pressed to find someone that couldn't fit well on any of those bikes.

    That's my long way of saying these new bikes will fit just about everyone.  The question is no longer "What bike will fit me best?"  The question now becomes "What bar/stem config and saddle/saddle position on whatever bike will fit me best?"

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