If there’s one nook of the highway world that refuses to calm down, it’s the aero bike class. Simply when it appeared like manufacturers had squeezed each final watt out of truncated tube shapes and absolutely hidden hoses – Increase – that ask adjustments. Now the ask is straightforward, at the least on paper. Make it quick, gentle, and absolutely built-in. Make it match actual riders higher. And don’t make it trip like a punishment.
That, apparently, is the place Felt needs the brand new NEXAR to land.
Meet The New Felt NEXAR
The all-new bike replaces the long-running AR, a platform that has been a part of Felt’s id for the higher a part of twenty years. The identify is brief for “Subsequent AR,” which is about as delicate as a race radio in a quiet breakaway, but it surely will get the purpose throughout. This isn’t a light-weight facelift or a brand new paint job meant to stretch one other mannequin 12 months out of the outdated mildew. Felt is treating the NEXAR like a full reset of its aero highway bike.
NEXAR FRD
Felt says the top-tier NEXAR FRD weighs a claimed 14.2lbs (6.48kg) in a measurement 54. For a contemporary disc-brake aero highway bike with absolutely inner routing and a one-piece cockpit, that’s a severe declare. The flagship body is alleged to weigh 800g in Felt’s premium FRD 12K carbon layup, a determine that used to belong nearly solely to climbing bikes and thoroughly edited construct sheets.
However Felt clearly doesn’t need this bike pigeonholed as a light-weight particular with slippery tube shapes. The corporate says the NEXAR is 5% sooner than the earlier AR and checks inside 4 watts of the quickest competing aero highway bike at 40kph.
Quick Entrance Finish
Based on Felt, the work began the place it normally does on an aero bike: the entrance finish. The model says it centered on slimming the top tube width, cleansing up the highest tube/down tube junction, and bettering airflow within the wake behind the top tube. In plain English, Felt checked out the place the outdated AR was freely giving velocity and went again after it.
The NEXAR nonetheless seems to be like an aero bike ought to: sharp, clean, built-in, and costly in a method that feels intentional. This isn’t presupposed to be a motorbike that wins the wind tunnel and loses the rider after two hours on tough pavement.
Felt NEXAR Geometery
Felt revised the geometry with a barely increased stack, barely shorter attain, a steeper seat tube angle, and a zero-offset seatpost. The thought is to make it simpler for extra riders to carry an environment friendly place while not having circus-level flexibility or a mechanic prepared to spend a day explaining why your slammed stem isn’t doing you any favors. It’s a wise transfer, and it follows the place efficiency match has been heading for some time now: much less hero pose, extra sustainable velocity.
The bike additionally will get clearance for as much as 32mm tires, which in 2026 isn’t actually a luxurious; it’s the baseline. Nonetheless, it issues. If you would like your top-tier race bike to dwell exterior an ideal ribbon of recent asphalt, you want sufficient room for contemporary highway rubber.
Integration
Integration is predictably heavy within the combine. Each NEXAR makes use of a one-piece cockpit, which Felt says weighs 300g or much less. That helps the aero story, clearly, but it surely additionally reinforces the place the NEXAR sits within the lineup. This isn’t a nostalgia-fueled light-weight bike with skinny tubes and exterior cables masquerading as progress.
Let’s Discuss Builds
As for builds, Felt is launching the NEXAR in 4 Shimano-equipped variations. On the prime is the NEXAR FRD with Dura-Ace Di2. Beneath that sits the NEXAR Professional with Ultegra Di2 and an influence meter, adopted by the NEXAR Knowledgeable with Ultegra Di2, and the NEXAR Race with 105 Di2.
The claimed complete-bike weights keep impressively tight throughout the vary. Felt lists the Professional at 7.04kg, the Knowledgeable at 7.53kg, and the Race at 7.96kg.
The highest FRD construct will get a Imaginative and prescient Metron 45 wheelset, 52/36t gearing, an 11-30 cassette, and 28mm Continental GP5000 S TR tires, which looks like the best name for the bike’s supposed rider. Pricing for the highest bike is listed at $12,599, with European pricing at €11,399 and UK pricing at £9,899.
New Possession – Now Barcelona
Since November 2025, Felt has been owned by Florian Burguet and César Rojo, the Spain-based duo who have been already minority shareholders earlier than buying the corporate from Pierer Mobility Group. Felt is now primarily based in Barcelona, and the brand new possession group seems to be greater than only a monetary reshuffle.
Rojo, particularly, brings severe bike-design credibility, with a protracted observe document in high-performance growth and a status for pushing daring, race-focused concepts. That issues, as a result of the NEXAR doesn’t really feel like a placeholder launch or a cautious half-step. It looks like a really deliberate assertion that Felt needs again into the thick of the premium highway dialog.
The timing traces up, too. 2026 marks Felt’s thirty fifth anniversary, and the NEXAR has all the standard flagship-bike tasks. It must look quick, sound quick, {photograph} nicely, and carry sufficient headline numbers to get folks speaking. Most significantly, this re-entry into the market must persuade riders that Felt is not only re-entering the struggle, however doing it with one thing sharp sufficient to matter.
A Crowded Market
The light-weight aero highway bike market is now not a distinct segment overlap phase. It’s the battleground. Each main model needs a motorbike that climbs like a featherweight, cheats the wind like a full aero rig, clears greater tires, matches higher, and nonetheless seems to be like one thing you’d see at The Tour de France.
Will it rewrite the class? No, although it appears the class is pushed each launch cycle. However as a return swing from a model trying to sharpen its edge once more, the NEXAR seems to be like precisely the type of bike Felt wanted to make. It’s quick, very gentle, absolutely built-in, and trendy with out sounding prefer it forgot what riders truly need from a high-end race bike.
In different phrases, the NEXAR isn’t simply Felt’s subsequent AR. It’s Felt making an attempt to remind everybody it nonetheless is aware of learn how to construct a really quick bike. Hopefully, it’s not simply quick on paper.
Feltbikes.com
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