Felt F85X Flatbar Bike

I had been riding a used 2013 Cannondale Quick SL3 as my commuter/camping bike for about 5 years. The bike has been perfect, but I'm lazy and don't clean it often and had managed to wear through the brake tracks on 2 sets of wheels and didn't want to buy a third. My new commute also takes me through Rock Creek Park at night and I wanted better brakes for wet weather and almost hitting deer a few times.

I had been looking at building up what I wanted which was pretty much just a nice flatbar commuter/bikepacking setup with hydraulic brakes, but buying all the parts and putting it together would have come in at north of $2,500 and since this is a bike I lock on the street sometimes I didn't want to spend that.

When I built this bike there was surprisingly a very low number of off the shelf bikes for "I want a 1X drivetrain, hydraulic brakes, flat bars, and frame mounts for a rear rack" so I hunted for something that was close and then planned to swap parts. I found a Felt F85X CX bike on Craigslist which was really close to what I wanted and really liked the color (Snozberry). I picked it up and replaced the following on it ending up with exactly what I wanted for around $1,000.

Original Bike

Parts All Swapped Out

Build Details

• Swapped on a rando MTB flatbar from the bike coop and ended up cutting it down several times until my shoulders stopped hurting riding it.
• Went with orange Ergon GA3 Grips. These have a nice little lip to better rest your palms on than typical MTB grips.
• The drivetrain is 11 Speed Shimano SLX which is absolutely the way to go for a simple cheap 1X conversion on any bike. Running a Wolftooth 44T chainring upfront to a 42T cassette in the back. This gearing works great for me in the city, but for long distance touring with a fully loaded bike, I'd probably want to go down to a 40T in the front. This also has the 1X specific Wolftooth chainring bolts in blingy orange.
  • My only complaint is that on higher tier Shimano shifters like XT or XTR you can press the upshift lever forward and it will shift up 2 gears in a single press. The SLX shifter lets you press forward the same way, but only gets you 1 gear instead of 2. This is really nice when you hit a downhill and want to crank real hard.
• Continental 32MM Gatorskin Hardshells Tires have been bombproof for me. I don't think I've gotten a flat on them in 5 years of city riding as long as they're changed out when they are worn down.
• Fabric Scoop Sport saddle cause it's cheap, durable, and well padded. I run Fizik Antares saddles on my other two racier bikes, and tried one on this bike, but it didn't work for more upright riding and horrible DC roads.
• Shimano MT520 brakes which are an interesting new option from Shimano. They are 4 piston brakes with great stopping power for cheap, but aren't part of the other higher teir Shimano MTB parts lines because they seem to be made more to target the e-bike market. I run Maguras on my mountain bike which I really like, but are finicky to get working right and I wanted something dead simple reliable on this bike that was easy to service if I was ever out on a long trip. I also went with Shimano XT Ice-Tech Rotors which are higher end than probably anything else on this bike, but well worth it in terms of stopping power.
  • I had a ton of trouble with the rear brake which ended up being contaminated or glazed over pads. I ended up getting these cheapo Gekors ceramic pads which work really well for dirt cheap compared to the Shimano D02S pads that came with the MT520s.
• PDW Sodapop Fenders since I wanted something light without additional bracing and was OK if they weren't the best fenders for blocking water.
• Funn Mamba Pedals SPD compatible pedals. I've ridden these for a while and they are some of the only 1/2 clip pedals that are actually decent on the non clip side with proper metal pins. I really dig these since sometimes I'll take the bike on a quick spin to the hardware store, but other times I'll want to ride it all day, and then ride to a bar in flip flops.
• Bontrager RL Bottle Cages
• Bontrager Back Rack. These are nice and wide and the adjustment to mount to the seat stays is easier than most other racks.
• PZ Racing Anti-Theft Skewers. These are great, but don't seem to be available for sale anymore. I honestly don't care about thru-axle vs QR axle performance on this bike and I'd rather my wheels not get stolen. These skewers have a nice little key sized tool to take them off which I always keep on my keychain.
• The Blue/Black blob on the seat tube is for a Thule Ride Along rear seat mount which has been great for hauling my kiddos. This thing blocks a water bottle on the seat tube so I run a Wolf Tooth B-Rad adapter to move the bottle cage lower.

The bike is pretty settled in now the way I want it. The only thing I may swap is some 27.5" tubeless wheels onto it with some wide trendy gravel tires for smooth rolling on gravel races/rides, but it doesn't really make sense since 95% of my riding is just in DC on pavement.