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Long Term Review: Slicing the wind on Fuji’s Transonic 2.1 Aero Road bike

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Transonic 2.1-27

Fuji has a long and well established history, having been around since 1899, and is now run from their U.S. offices in Philadelphia.  Fuji had huge success in the 1970’s competing with the costly European brands by offering a better value for a comparable bike.  They exploded back on the scene in the last decade or so with some impressive appearances in the pro tours and continue to grow their presence and innovation here in the U.S.

Fuji sent us their newly designed Transonic 2.1 aero road bike to beat on and while some of the unsuspecting hidden gems of the Transonic were well thought out, it might be the price that’s most attractive…

Transonic 2.1 Back 4 Transonic 2.1 Front 4

Up until recently, road bikes were, well, road bikes. Now a days, mountain bikes are divided into almost too many categories to count and depending on where you live and ride, you buy a bike that best fits that environment or live by the X = N + 1 theory. Though not near as varying as a mountain bikes, road bikes now have various categories of their own in regards to competitive and enthusiast level road bikes, (eliminating commuter, touring, and tri bikes since they’ve become a category all their own). You initially had what is considered a “standard” road bike, then in the early 2000’s, “comfort/more forgiving” road bikes (that have also seen an innovative push in the last few years) hit the mass market and most recently, “aero” road bikes have become the latest craze for riders to throw on their list of possibilities of road bikes to consider.

Transonic 2.1-22
To maintain a short chain stay as well as to reduce the rear wheel’s exposure to the air-stream, the Transonic’s seat tube is shaped so that the rear wheel can be tucked up and into the frame as much as possible.

The heart of the Transonic 2.1 is its “C5” high modulus carbon frame that has the same features as its more expensive C10 higher modulus siblings. One of the pleasant features is that Fuji designed the Transonic’s frame to be as aero as it is mechanically functional. Sure the internal cable routing, aero seat post with an internal battery, and a knife like fork legs and rear stays are nice, instead of trying to “hide” Shimano’s fantastic direct mount brakes in or under the frame and fork with cable drag at a high risk, Fuji sculpted the frame and fork’s shape to incorporate the traditionally mounted brakes within its aeroness, (if it’s on Bikerumor, it’s a real word) making mechanics’ lives and us making adjustments two minutes before an event, more pleasurable.

Transonic 2.1 Direct Mount Brake 2
Shimano’s ultra gob-stopping direct mount brakes are nicely tucked away behind the Transonic’s seat stays keeping them protected from the wind while making them easily accessible mechanics hanging out of cars in Europe and anyone else needing to make adjustments.

Before going into the rest of the details, one of the greatest features of this bike is where they skimped. That’s right. It’s common knowledge that manufactures will downgrade various “less noticeable” parts on a bike to reduce its cost to remain competitive and profitable.  The items Fuji chose to skimp on are items that I would have likely had a personal preference on. The biggest being the TUBELESS READY wheels, (a benefit I’ll expand on further down).  When buying a higher end road bike, many people either have some nicer wheels lying around, or may prefer to buy some aero wheels that best fit their needs. I cringe when I see a $5,000 bike with a $1,000 set of wheels I don’t want, and the Oval 733 wheels make for some great training wheels. In addition, the seat, *too long for me* stem and bars are almost always swapped out on every road bike I’ve ever had so it would make me feel good to not feel like I’m paying for too much of what I don’t want on this bike. The things they did NOT skimp on was pretty much everything else, and buying an Aero road bike with 11 speed mechanical Shimano Ultegra for $3,549 isn’t a bad deal at all. Buying an aero road bike with 11 speed Ultegra Di2 for $3,549 is almost unheard of leading me to triple check that the price was not a misprint.

Transonic 2.1-25
The Transonic’s massive and well-formed down and seat tube junction give the Fuji an abundance of crank mashing stiffness and stability.

Riding impressions were as I had imagined. A fast stiff bike that delivered as much performance as it did Every. Single. Little. Bump. I am a rider that prefers a pretty solid and stiff frame, but like many other aero bikes on the market, you sacrifice some of the ride quality for the aeroness, (see, its growing on you). However, being a longtime fan of road-tubeless, I was happy to see that the bike was equipped with wheels that are compatible with road-tubeless tires giving the customer the option. I swapped out the wheels for some that I already had set up tubeless (90 psi), and I suddenly had a bike I could enjoy as a daily driver.  Since there was plenty of tire clearance, a heartier 25c tire would help as well.

Transonic 2.1 Seat Binder 2
The seat binder is integrated nicely into the frame and I did not experience any slippage as I have on some similar designs.

Performance being one of the biggest factors when considering an aero road bike over a more conventional road bike, I decided to put this bike to the test against 2 similar non-aero bikes by repetitively ghost riding the bikes down a long descent and measuring their top speeds. I got on the bikes and coasted from a dead stop from the top of a hill numerous times on all bikes, (I used the same wheels and adjusted the stem height on all bikes to make it as fair as possible), and measured the top speed. I then measured the speed after coasting on a section of flat road from 25 mph from one fixed point to another. To my surprise, the Transonic’s consistent championships were won with a wider spread than I had expected.

Aeroness Factor

Aeroness Test

A pretty solid 5+ percent improvement is nothing to gawk at when you consider how close even a 2% difference can be between two similar riders.

Transonic 2.1
The Transonic’s frame is beautifully sculpted from its pointy head tube to its wind slicing stays.

Another surprise was that, by the seat of my pants, I couldn’t say I noticed any out of the ordinary effects of cross winds one might expect to experience on a bike in this category.  In the video below, they go into the design of the frame and how teaming with pro team NetApp-Endura last year on the design brought this model to fruition.  Though aerodynamics was a key feature, the team needed the bike to be laterally stiff and responsive as well as have a stable steering geometry.  The Transonic delivered and despite a little extra chatter on cobbled asphalt going into a turn, so as long as you pushed it with confidence, the bike obeyed.

In conclusion, I came away impressed. The performance was there, the ride became tolerable with the more supple tubeless tires, and the component selection was excellent considering the price.  The very nit-pick items I found with the Transonic 2.1 were that the 120mm stem that comes with the 58cm frame is a bit on the long side for my proportionate 6’1” frame and the compact cranks. Though it’s what the masses prefer, the wide spread epidemic of compact cranks coming on practically everything now a days including on what I consider a bike for a more serious enthusiast felt out of place. I may not fall into the majority here, but it was something that kept crossing my mind as I kept assuming I was in the small chainring when I wasn’t. However, the most frustrating part of my experience with Fuji’s Transonic 2.1 had nothing to do with the bike but more to do with finding a damn blinky light in my massive collection of blinky lights that would stay in place on the super pointy aero seat post and frame. Eventually I would hit a bump, or with time, the light would slide over and my leg would start brushing it causing me to make old man grumbling sounds…. more than usual.  Still though, Fuji has done an excellent job with the Transonic’s design and putting such a capable bike with an astounding build kit within a customer’s reach for well under the $4,000 mark was a job well done.

Transonic 2.1 Z Fausto
Only Fausto is slightly more stubborn than trying to get a blinky light to stay in place on the Transonic. At least the bike looks good.

FujiBikes.com

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von.kruiser
von.kruiser
8 years ago

Why go through the effort of designing an aero frame but not have aero wheels? Weird… but I guess they assume you’ll buy your own wheelset and a way to keep the cost down. A 55mm profile would be perfect on a bike.

CXisfun
CXisfun
8 years ago

Sorry, but a compact crank is a great choice for the vast majority of riders. In your 50/11 at 100rpm you get nearly 35mph. Surely you aren’t spending TOO much time faster than that? Didn’t think so.

Run a 50/34 and 11/25 to get smaller gaps between gears and plenty of range for just about anyone.

adam
adam
8 years ago

Gonna complain about the bike having a compact…but you have 2 inches spacers and the stem pointed at the moon….good bye aero…hello Fred

Ripnshread
Ripnshread
8 years ago

I liked the feel of this article. Aeroness needs to be given a scale. But your wacky science has to go.

Willy
8 years ago

I have raced (at club level) & trained on a Fuji Transonic 2.1 for several months now. It is simply the best bike I’ve ever owned.
With its large tyre clearance, superb & stable handling, well chosen gear ratios & wide range of riding position adjustments, it can cover every sub-category of road bikes.
I race on the original Oval 733 wheels, but with Schwalbe tubeless tyres. The wheels are aero, stiff & really light. They are a shrewd choice, in keeping with the overall attention to detail in “less noticeable parts”.
Much of the experience of riding a given bike is influenced by personal taste, but this bike can cleverly accommodate quite a variety of tastes.

G
G
8 years ago

That launch video almost put me to sleep. It’s a new aero bike. Make it FAST AND EXCITING!

Antoine
Antoine
8 years ago

I thought shim a no crank where all the same now and the only difference between compact and standard being the chain ring. if you’re one chain ring swap to standard I think it’s fair

Psi Squared
Psi Squared
8 years ago

I’d be real hesitant about claiming an actual “5%” speed gain by the Fuji, especially when the differences between bikes (tires, wheels, inflation pressure,seat position, bars, body position, and etc) and wind were not accounted for.

danielzhong
8 years ago

alloy brake surface carbon wheels??

WannaBeSTi
WannaBeSTi
8 years ago

The Transonic shouldn’t have a traditional 50/34 compact, but a mid-compact (52/36).

Over the last 20 years, I’ve owned a number of carbon, Ti, steel, and aluminum road bikes and my 2015 Altamira is the best all-around bike I’ve owned. If I could afford another road bike, I’d get the Transonic 2.1.

TheKaiser
TheKaiser
8 years ago

@Antoine, if I follow what you are saying then, yes, you have a good point there that new 4 arm asymetrical BCD Shimano cranks are swappable between ring sizes.

@Psi Squared: While you are correct that Trey’s science isn’t bulletproof, if you read the article he does state that he swapped wheels and adjusted the cockpits match in order to make it as fair as possible, so you can cut your list of unaccounted for variables down hugely. Wind is still a biggie, but at least he published the variance between runs which is more than most people will do.

Aaron
Aaron
8 years ago

That is one seriously unattractive frame. The MAMIL saddle and comfort stem don’t help, either.

Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
8 years ago

Compact cranks do not belong on a bike built to go as fast as possible, and if you race the last thing you want is a 50 tooth big ring!

JBikes
JBikes
8 years ago

adam – on spacers and “slam that stem”.
Not everyone’s body is of the same proportion. I have extremely long legs and will routinely have a 6″+ drop to my bars with 30cm of spacers under them. My friend is my same height and rides a similar sized frame with close enough stack and reach measurements. He get’s a good fit with a slammed stem, but when you look at his saddle to bar drop its like 3-4″.
So fit comes first, and to some extent not everyone will be able to “slam that stem” outside of elite athletes or the long of torso, short legged wonders.
I’d love to remove my spacers, but I don’t like any of the bikes with long HT’s for other geometry reasons (and I see no reason to change my bike)

CXisfun
CXisfun
8 years ago

@JBikes: “I see no reason to change my bike”, well, I see a reason to change your bike: your spacer setup is about 26cm beyond the maximum most fork manufacturers recommend.

JBikes
JBikes
8 years ago

Hey what’s a few cm (mm…) among friends 🙂

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