Friday Night Fondriest
from Instragram
Get the retro steel thing sure and the Fondriest is a very nice build, but no love for a quill stem or beating it loose with a mallet to adjust. On a new bike, some things are better left in the past. Campy Athena? It’s like having Ubuntu show up at Hugga HQ. Great another OS/drivetrain to support, ‘cept this one needs its own drivers in the form of special tools. Take a bike with Campy out and you’ll need to update your multitool to include one with a star-shaped driver. Sure it shifts well, as do all modern groups.
To the ride, there’s nothing like steel on the road and the Fondriest SF2 is what you’d expect from high-end, Italian steel.
Lugged steel
Bikes like these are made for when you want to just get out on the bike and not race the light carbon with a number on your back or set your personal best on Strava.
World champ
Fondriest, a former World Champ racer, is best known for Aluminum and Carbon manufacturing. The SF2 is a nod to the past and a bike I’d recommend for the long days. As I’ve written in response to comfort carbon bikes, the original all-day ride material was steel. Just in the Friday night spin I took on the SF2, it rolled along quite nice.
Details
The SF2 is made with Columbus tubing and the MSRP for frame, fork, headset for $2,200.00. It was nice to finally get a ride on the Fondriest too. It’s been here at Hugga HQ since January.