I’d been toying with getting a road bike for a year or so….mainly because where I live (Cheshire) there’s lots of good road riding from my door. Far less gravel or MTB.
Anyway, after a thread on here a few months back, people were saying what a good deal the Felt Breed at Merlin Cycles was. They’d had one returned in my size due to a small mark on the head tube…..so not only did I get a further £50 off, but the bike also came built as opposed to ‘boxed’. Absolute bargain at £999.
It arrived literally the day that I left for a month long tour of Europe so it’s maiden ride didn’t happen until today. The plan is to run two wheel sets and sell on my flat bar gravel bike. I’ve got some nice Hunt gravel wheels so will run those with gravel tyres on (need to get another cassette as this is a 2 x 12 setup, prior setup was 1 x 11).
Anyway, first ride today was absolutely awesome: I’m yet again ‘rediscovering’ riding this year after a couple of years of basically zero riding. It’s been sporadic this year, so no great bike fitness as yet. I whacked road tyres on and did 27 miles of mainly flat road and absolutely loved it. Bike feels very fast, first time in 11 years riding drop bars, so a bit of getting comfy on them again will happen hopefully. It’s GRX 2 x 12 and probably the first time in my life that I’ve ever had a bike with more than entry level equipment. The shifting is insanely good. My last road bike was a battered 2004 Specialized Allez with 8 speed Sora, so quite the step up!
Once I’ve got the gravel wheels setup I’ll get it off road and see how I feel about it then (half tempted to keep my flat bar gravel bike as it’s soooo good off-road!).
I’ll pop some pictures below if I can!
Link to bike: https://www.merlincycles.com/felt-breed-30-grx-gravel-bike-boxed-bike-316151.html
