Fuji's Altamira 2.0 Ultegra
Recently a customer came in concerned about the rear end of the Altamira. They like the idea of of the comfort, but didn’t want to sacrifice any integrity.
Personally, I ride an Altamira. I’m 6’2″ around 165lbs. I have a background of BMX, Mountain riding and bike shop mechanic, so needless to say I’m an aggressive rider who expects a lot from the bike.
One route that I frequently ride is route 40 west to Ridge rd. There are several spots that have large pot holes, chip and seal and rail road tracks. I don’t let up for anything, so coming back into Zanesville I murder the tracks at about 40mph. The rear end has held.
Now we’re finished with my own personal review. Let’s compare the general theory/construction between the Fuji Altamira and the Cannondale Synapse.
Both bikes are in the same category and seek to offer the rider the same benefits (Efficient and Comfort).
Zanesville Ohio, three sixty bike shop, 241 market street 43701 297 8580
Cannondale hypes up the Smart Save System. They don’t go into depth about the system, but judging from photos it’s a formed chain stay to reduce longitudinal stiffness and wimpy seat post. Cannondale claims that “SAVE PLUS’ rear stays feature a flattened area that can deflect vertically to absorb road buzz and shock while the increased width resists side-to-side and torsional flex.”, the torsional flex part is true, but it’s impact has to be minor. Where the stay meets the bottom bracket they are reverted back to increase lateral stiffness. The part of absorption of road buzz is straight sales pitch, that’s the reason carbon is used period. If you strike metal, it rings, carbon doesn’t.
It’s true that the shape will allow more flex and allow more comfort, but the seat stays seem to be perfectly normal, which will increase lateral stiffness. As far as the seat post goes, I don’t know. I don’t know if it is a good idea to thin it out at the top. I’m thinking this would provide comfort, but I think it would be a negative in high cadence pedaling. I would worry about torsion strength and long term durability.
Fuji Takes a different approach. They maintain large stiff chain stays, oversize down tube, inch and a half lower head tube. This makes the bottom half of the bike stiff and efficient. Where the comfort comes in is the razor thin seat stays. These give enough flex for cracks in the road and such.
Fuji uses C4 carbon, which is smaller strands and allows Fuji to use more of it. Cannondale doesn’t list there carbon.
There are a number of differences, and we can explain them all. At the end of the day, we selected Fuji for a reason.
