First Look: Felt Decree

Torbole, located at the head of Lake Garda in Italy, was the location where Felt chose to launch their new trail bike platform. Renowned for its treacherous rock slabs, rolling 'baby head' sized stones and usually great weather, it's is one of the most popular destinations for the German-speaking mountain biker. Greeted by unrelenting rain, we headed down to the hotel lobby to take a first look at the all-new Decree, Felt's 140mm travel trail bike which uses flex stays and promises impressive weight to stiffness figures

The Decree will come in four complete builds and two frameset options. The cheapest Decree 30 bike sees an alloy front triangle, whereas varying grades of carbon fiber are found across other models. Starting at $3499 for the 30, big bank balances can head all the way to $9999 for the Decree FRD (Felt Racing Development) which boasts top-level RockShox Pike and Debonair damping, SRAM XX1 and Guide Ultimates, an Easton carbon cockpit and a DT Swiss XMC 1200 wheelset. This abundance of carbon allows the bike to come in at a claimed weight of 24.07 pounds for a large size.


Details

Felt haven't jumped on board with all the modern trends as there is no Boost, Plus or Press-Fit to be seen. Instead, there's 12x142mm rear hub spacing, a 73mm BSA threaded bottom bracket and an internal top and external lower headset. There's internal routing for all cables, including stealth or external dropper posts and the cable port under the bottom bracket also doubles as a Shimano Di2 battery holder. A replaceable derailleur hangar, ISCG tabs and a removable, high front derailleur mount. Carbon fiber grades vary across the range, with the top of the line models using 'UHC Ultimate + TeXtreme' carbon fibre, the chequerboard weave allows fewer layers of fiber to be used while maintaining strength.









As mentioned earlier, geometry tastes come down to a number of factors and the same is true for cockpit setups. Going into 2016, I think the 740mm handlebar on a trail bike is too narrow for the XL size I was riding; at least a wider bar could be cut down if necessary. The 70mm stem could be shorter as well, especially since the bike's reach number is long enough that a stem measuring 50mm or shorter could comfortably be run without any issues.

Climbing certainly 'felt' efficient, and the bike does sit around the sag point well when pedalling with minimal bobbing. Perhaps one disadvantage of this is I like to use the different compression modes on a shock to help the bike sit higher when climbing in order to move my weight further forwards between the wheels and put my hips more over the bottom bracket. With the FAST suspension, whichever compression mode you choose you still sit at 30% sag. This could also make setup a little more complicated, as a changing of shock pressure can't be easily regulated by reading the sag figure, and will need to be set more by feel and trial and error.

The Decree was lively and responsive out on the trail, and could easily be maneuvered around when quick direction changes were required. Support from the rear shock was good for a 140mm bike along with the compression, but going from my usual Solo Air Pike with 3 or 4 Bottomless Tokens to a Dual Air system made it feel like the air spring had been replaced by a small blancmange, although now that Bottomless Tokens are available for the Dual Air this would be a simple issue to fix. One thing we did notice was the shock would never extend to full travel under its own force, so it loses a few millimeters of travel from the outset. Also, with all the shock pressure released, or with the shock removed completely, the travel seems to have some friction, but was hard to tell if this was from the pressure in the stays, or the large amount of rotation at the top shock mount

Overall, the Decree seems to fit in nicely between the Virtue and the Compulsion, a light and stiff trail bike that's available in a wide range of sizes and parts kit, but we need to put in more saddle and setup time to give a solid opinion on the ride characteristics.

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