Felt's new carbon enduro Compulsion spotted at Sea Otter

Felt's new carbon enduro Compulsion spotted at Sea Otter

Enduro bike goes carbon

Russell Eich / Immediate Media

Published: April 24, 2018 at 12:00 pm

Innocently tucked into the back corner of Felt's sizeable Sea Otter tent was a bike that the brand wasn't quite ready to show, the newest Compulsion enduro bike.

So here's a sneak peek before its official announcement in May.

Felt Compulsion highlights

  • Full carbon frame
  • Fits 27.5x2.6in tires
  • 170/165mm front and rear travel
  • Threaded bottom bracket
  • 1x drivetrain only
  • Small, Medium, Large, X-Large sizes
Even with a narrow/wide ring it's nice to see a proper chainguide - Russell Eich / Immediate Media

Give them what they want

Felt claims the decision to craft its latest Compulsion out of carbon was spurred on by current Compulsion riders. The entire frame is carbon, including the rear triangle and the suspension links.

According to Felt, this is the first carbon Equilink bar - Russell Eich / Immediate Media

This latest Compulsion also features the first-ever carbon Equilink for Felt. Previous iterations, even on the shorter travel bikes, were alloy.

According to the brand, it stuck with the pivot on the chainstay because all test riders preferred the suspension action over that of Felt's flexing stays FAST rear end.

A flip chip on the upper link allows 1-degree of head angle and 10mm of bottom bracket height adjustment - Russell Eich / Immediate Media

Enduro boxes checked

As is the norm for enduro rigs today, the dragon's blood red Compulsion features a 170mm fork up front and 165mm of travel out back. There's room for 27.5x 2.6in tires and the rear shock is both metric sized and trunnion mounted.

Felt's full carbon Compulsion features a metric sized, trunnion-mounted shock - Russell Eich / Immediate Media

Felt includes the upper link geometry flip chip that adjusts the bike's head angle by 1-degree and the bottom bracket height by 10mm. Interestingly, for those extremely sensitive or picky shredders, Felt also says it will include a mid chip that splits those numbers.

The rear suspension swings on cartridge bearings throughout, but Felt did note that the Equilink which connects the upper and lower link rotates on Igus bushings. Felt claims the Igus bushings survived a 100,000 cycles test.

Felt's Equilink rear suspension is on board, delivering 165mm of travel - Russell Eich / Immediate Media

Felt Compulsion pricing and availability

Two builds of the Compulsion will be available. Felt did not have pricing, but did say it expects the Compulsion 1 to be available mid-May, with the less expensive Compulsion 3 due to arrive late June.