Kristin Armstrong's Felt DA1

We’ll be writing about Felt’s line of 2013 tri bikes over the next week, but before we get to the nuts and bolts, and prices and features, it seemed that a nice way to start might be a look at the gold medal bike ridden in London by Kristin Armstrong.

Felt came out with the DA mold only a couple of years ago, and has since debuted a new mold for its downstream bikes, replacing the groundbreaking mold introduced for the 2007 season that changed the game entirely for this scrappy and innovative American bike brand.

The DA mold has a lot of sexy features and I wrote about it a year ago. While the frame was designed so that electronic shifting would route easily, it accommodates mechanical shifting quite nicely. This primarily 2012 SRAM Red bike is a case in point.

Frameset: Felt DA1:

Group: SRAM RED 2012
Cranks: SRAM 2011 BB30 with SRM Powermeter
Chainrings: Rotor Q-Rings 54/42
K-EDGE Pro Chain Catcher
Aerobars: Zipp VukaBull Basebar with Carbon Race Vuka Shift Extensions
TT Shifters: SRAM 900 TT
Shift Cables: Gore Ride-On Ultra Light
Brake Cables: Gore Ride-on
Front Wheel: Zipp 808 Firecrest Tubular
Rear Wheel: Zipp Super-9 Disc Tubular
Tires: Vittoria Crono 22mm
Saddle: fi'zi:k Ares TT Specific
Pedals/Cleats: Speedplay Nanogram Zero

One thing not noted in the above list of specs is the coatings by Atomic on the drive train. The Rotor rings and SRAM Red cassette were sent off to Atomic for their blast, spray and bake process. The chain, Speedplay pedal bearings and bottom bracket bearings were also subjected to Atomic's magic, which are reputed to add about 1 percent, or more, to the power output of the rider.

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The DA has available a set of one-piece stems in high-rise, medium-rise and flat aspects. Obviously, flat (low) was used here.

Note the lack of tape on the bars.the tire was a Crono CS, the very light, very fast, but less durable choice than Vittoria's CX.

This is the seat post a UCI rule-encumbered rider is obliged to use. The standard seat post is pitched forward, for use in tri. At the terminus of this gallery you'll see a link to Andreas Böcherer's Felt DA. It's got that tri-specific seat post you'll probably want.

Both the male and female gold medal winner used a non-round set of rings. In this case, it's a Rotor Q-Ring set up, 54x42.

The groupkit was SRAM Red, the new 2012 version, with a few minor exceptions. Note how short the chain stay, to get the tire as close as possible to the seat tube.

Our tech editor Greg Kopecky just wrote about valve extenders. The choice here is to protrude the entire presta valve out of the rim, to make sure you can open and close the valve.

Kristin and her husband, mechanic Joe Savola, designed a chain catcher marketed by K-Edge. It's used here, but SRAM's own chain catcher will do the job nicely.

Felt had a lot of bikes in the Olympics, including on the track, and some had custom paint jobs like this.