Test: With its gravel-light setup, the Felt Broam 30 combines a lot of comfort for long tours on gravel and asphalt with brisk riding characteristics and smooth running to make them even more pleasant. Sporty gravel riders, commuters, bike packers or anyone who doesn't really want to commit themselves have a relaxed companion for lots of riding fun in the Broam 30.
Felt Broam 30 - The Frame
The heart of the Felt Broam 30 is the so-called SuperLite aluminum frame, which is not just called that, but is actually one of the lightweights in the aluminum gravler sector. This shows itself in a cream-green look with nice design elements including modern lettering. Thumbs up for the color choice, because compared to black and white, it is difficult to see light dirt or dust here, but only marginally and so back to the technology.
When designing it, it was particularly important that the frame, despite its relatively low weight, is very robust, durable and comfortable enough for long rides. For this, the Broom 30 is combined with the UHC Advanced Carbon fork. The heavily looped top tube gives the Felt Gravler a fairly relaxed and upright seating position, which should make for a comfortable ride. Due to the slooping, the rear end is not pulled even lower like in many other models, as this should offer enough flex due to the already low starting point of the top tube and seat tube connection and thus round off a very compact frame. When it comes to comfort, the protruding seat post certainly also plays an important role, as it also contributes to the flex in the seat area in combination with the rear triangle.
With an appealing cable routing, the Felt Broam 30 has a relatively clean look. The eyelets for various bags and holders, such as a third bottle holder on the top tube, also make the Felt Broam 30 a very versatile bike, which should also appeal to bikepacking enthusiasts among gravel riders. Even more versatility is offered by the choice between 700C with up to 45 mm tires and 650B wheels with up to 2,0″ tires, which can both be accommodated in the Broam.
Felt Broam 30 - The Features
How seriously you take the Gravel topic with the Felt Broam 30 can be seen not only from the frame but also from the Gravel-specific Shimano GRX groupset, which is ideal for gravel use thanks to its functionality and setup. The 2×11 groupset comes with 46 or 30 teeth on the chainring and an 11-34 cassette for a wide range and fine gear steps. Of course, the powerful, hydraulic GRX discs are also used, which not only ensure safety on rough ground.
The cockpit components and attachments come from Felt's own brand, Devox, and the stable Adventure 2.1 wheels also come from the company's own brand. These not only offer robustness without any frills, but are also equipped with tubeless and are therefore up-to-date from a technical point of view. The only slightly profiled Maxxis Refuse tires are installed in 40 mm with Max-Shield puncture protection. In addition to the frame and geometry, these probably have the greatest influence on the riding performance of the Felt Broam 30. Because it quickly becomes apparent that the focus should be more on gravel-light and endurance, since you can hardly do really hard things with these tires should visit the premises. However, this setup should be sufficient for normal gravel paths, gravel roads or forest roads. The big advantage is of course the great rolling properties on both gravel and asphalt, which gives the Broam 30 a very snappy character.
Felt Broam 30 - Fast sweeper not only on gravel
Thanks to the high-quality carbon fork in combination with the successful aluminum frame, the Felt Broam 30 not only offers good stiffness values, which we felt particularly when propelling and accelerating, but also very direct and precise handling, which allows us to quickly take corners on technical passages and obstacles and, quite incidentally, offered a certain level of security. The Broam only has its little problems when it comes to really brisk sprinting, since it then seems a bit sluggish, which is perfectly fine for an aluminum frame in this category and price range.
At higher speeds, the great smoothness could put a smile on our faces, as we were able to benefit from the straight-line propulsion of the Felt Broam 30 over long distances and were therefore able to cover kilometers quite quickly. This should definitely please cyclists and fans of longer tours, as it's just easier to ride that way. The rather unprofiled Maxxis tires are certainly not entirely uninvolved, although they don't offer a lot of grip on rough ground, they can convince with first-class rolling properties on normal gravel and of course also asphalt and bring us quickly to our destination. However, if you are looking for real rough gravel fun, you should rather use more profile on the tires and possibly change them.
The appealing comfort and flex, especially of the rear end, is particularly pleasant on long rides, as this, in combination with the relaxed geometry, enables many enjoyable hours in the saddle. As already mentioned, this does not mean that the Felt Broam 30 loses any of its sportiness. Of course, it behaves rather moderately on the drive and takes a certain amount of time to get up to speed. Nevertheless, you can be on the road quickly, especially over long distances, thanks to great propulsion, smooth running and low rolling resistance.
