PHILADELPHIA (BRAIN) — Fuji Bikes is revealing its new super light road frame Thursday in Spain, two days prior to the start of the Vuelta a España. The new SL frame will be raced in the Vuelta by the Fuji-sponsored Murphy's Caja Rural-Seguros RGA. The SL frame also is being raced in Colorado this week by the team's Kyle Murphy.
The SL weighs 695 grams, which is 237 grams lighter than Fuji's previous top road frame, the Altamira. It's also 9 percent stiffer in the head tube, 11 percent stiffer in the bottom bracket, and 18 percent stiffer in the fork than the Altamira.
"The SL began with the Altamira foundation and a meticulous examination of where we could improve on an already proven design – specifically where could we save weight. And when every single tenth of a gram matters, smart things happen," said Fuji road marketing manager Stephanie Genuardi.
The frame's technology incliudes Fuji's High Compaction molding, which uses a series of internal molds to eliminate wrinkles and excess resin buildup in high-stress, complex radius bend areas – such as the head tube and bottom bracket – for greater compaction in the carbon layers. Fuji introduced HC on the Altamira in 2013, but for the SL, the seat tube and fork crown now also benefit from the technology.
While the Altamira has eight bonded joints, the SL uses only four to remove redundant material and maximize strength.
The SL's seatstays and chainstays are molded into two, hollowed pieces, including the dropouts. The SL's downtube is octagonal, featuring flattened sections of ultra high-tensile strength carbon that is compromised if not used in flat orientations; the seat tube, top tube, and fork also feature flattened sections of high-tensile strength carbon.\
The fork has a reinforcing rib – a patented technology from Fuji's carbon manufacturer called Reinforced I-Beam or RIB technology – that runs the length of the fork blades, amplifying stiffness for steering precision.
Fuji said handling and ride quality is optimized for all frame sizes with varying carbon layups and tube diameters and two different fork offsets for larger and smaller frames.
The SL will be available globally in October. The series features eight models with parts groups from Shimano 105 to SRAM Red 22. The offerings include a Team Replica model and a frameset.
