While it has a tapering, ovalised top tube and flat seatstay design, the Altamira immediately makes it clear it’s no spin-not-stamp softie.
- Highs: Sharp handling and wattage friendly chassis with quality transmission for the money
- Lows: Wheels are heavy and the ride is hard for hammering, not comfy for cruising
- Buy if: You’re looking for an enjoyably punchy performance frameset with good gearing
While the Oval crankset and wheels are an unknown quantity in terms of longevity and the wheels certainly aren’t light, they feel stiff under power and combine with the oversized press-fit bottom bracket to build a proper stand out, stand up sprinter.
The position is racy too, with a long stretch and relatively low front end encouraging tucked elbows and high torque. Unsurprisingly, this meant there was a definite tendency for whoever was testing the Fuji to be the one trying to make every village sign or short, sharp summit top a finish line on the run-in to the big stuff.
When we did get to the big hills its power transfer made it a natural stand-up-and-man-up attacker. Frame and wheel weight meant it didn’t enjoy deliberate jumps in pace or trying to close gaps on serious grades, but if we could keep muscling it then the Fuji could make the softer pedalling feel of several other bikes on test very obvious.
The stiff full carbon fork with its big 1 1/2in bottom bearing keeps things very tight in terms of tracking, with classic 73-degree parallel angles encouraging us to chuck it as hard into corners as we were throwing it at the tops of climbs.
Don’t go too mad, though, as the Hutchinson Equinox tyres set a fairly early limit to what you can get away with in sketchy conditions. If you’re a powerful rider looking to upgrade, though, the frame is definitely good enough to warrant adding top quality tyres and/or deep section wheels.
As you might expect from a bike that feels this driven from foot to floor, there’s an equal and opposite reaction: you definitely know all about whatever road surface you’re riding on.
Turn a big gear and stay light in the saddle and you’ll skim over rough patches with speed intact, but expect things to turn tiring quickly if you can’t stay on top of your game.
This article was originally published in Cycling Plus magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.