Last night, I rode down to Auburn with Jim (our team prez and a neighbor of mine) to do the Pacific Raceways race - a weekly training race series at the car-racing track down there. The course is basically down and back the 1/2 mile or so dragstrip. At either end there's a wide connecting road so the course kind of looks like a dumbell or something. The race was kind of boring - a full hour but it was windy enough that no one wanted to do any work. I was the lone Zoka in the Cat 4s. There were a few Byrne guys, some EMDE guys, and a few Wine guys. Not sure what to call the race -- it's kind of like a crit, but without corners.
Anyway, at about 20 minutes in they ring the bell for a prime. Travis remarked that he thought I'd do better riding more aggressively - that I was being over patient and missing opportunities. He's right. So on the back stretch, with about 1/4 of the lap to go, I attacked hard. I got a HUGE gap, to the point, it didn't look like the pack was even going to try to catch me. Unfortunately, it's a long way around the end to the finish, and there's a head wind there. I start sputtering with about 400m to go, and a Byrne guy catches me and I jump on his wheel and he takes the prime. No problem, I jump back in and recover. The rest of the race is pretty uneventful and stayed together until the last lap (did I mention no one wanted to work?). Going for that prime (and another one) was actually good since it gave me a much better idea of exactly when to go on the course. So in the last lap as things strung out I kind of scooted up along the edge to a good sprinting position - which burned some gas. It was a great sprint and I managed to use a bit of Byrne's lead out (team tactics!?! what?!?) and get away from the group. Byrne got a good jump followed by a Garage guy and I took third.
My point is here how much my new Fuji just impresses the hell out of me. It's hard to explain how much more agile and responsive that bike feels compared to my others. It's clear that pretty much everything you put into it ends up as forward motion, versus flex or whatever.
See, late last year, Jim announced that our team was switching bike sponsors from K2 to Fuji. Honestly I was a little ambivelent when I heard this (K2 made nice bikes but I hadn't gotten one of those either), since it's not a brand that many people think of, but several of us bounced our way down to the local Performance to check out some Fujis in the person. To say the least I was very impressed. Their bikes are nice. But I'd only had my Airborne Zeppelin for a year and was very happy with it, but when I saw the offerings we got through our sponsor deal, I couldn't resist. I'm glad I did.
I started racing on a Centurion Accordo (steel, 23lbs) in 1989, I think it cost me $325 which took nearly a full summer of slaving away at various 15-year-old-kid-jobs to scrape together. When I finally joined a team, I upgraded to a Trek 1400 (aluminum, 20 lbs), with 105. I wanted the Ultegra-equipped 1500 so bad but it was out of my price range. The 1400 served me well, esp given I was racing on a shoestring budget. I used to dream of having "race wheels" and was terribly jealous of the other kids on my team who's parents had outfitted them with Dura-Ace equipped Pinarellos.
So the opportunity for the Fuji came along, and there were several good options to choose from, so I sprung for a Team RC. All carbon, 16 lbs, and top-of-the-line Dura Ace equipped. I decided at this point in my life, I deserved a Dura-Ace bike. I gots me a job you know!
It's worked out great. I ride the Airborne for most crits (it actually corners better due to the geometry and is unbreakable, which is nice), and the Fuji for road races, nice weather, etc.
I'm getting all misty-eyed and reminisent here, but my point is how much I'm amazed at the difference with that bike - so I suppose this is a bit of an endorsement. It turns out the higher price tags on these things actually can mean something.