Juan Foote

I was doing a bit of research on my frame, looking over geometry figures as compared to other frames. As I was looking I came across the Fuji Altamira, which is an exact duplicate to my Felt F series frame. Aside from the fork leg, the two bikes are identical.

Felt makes the claim that the new F series frame was redesigned for the 11 model based on work they did with professional racing team in the previous season. They are open about the fact that the frames are produced in Taiwan, which is pretty much a standard for many of the manufacturers carbon frames. There is a lot of discussion here about various bike makers using Chinese carbon, some just by selection of existing designs based on quality of build.

I know that Fuji does quite a bit of licensing as far as frame tech and geometry. Does anyone know if this frame is licensed from Felt? Or is Felt just blowing smoke and it just so happened that Fuji happened across the same frame from a bulk Taiwanese supplier?

LowCel 

Fuji is one of the few companies out there that make their own frames, they also make frames for several other companies. I would say that it is more likely that Felt has their frames made by Fuji than Fuji buying from someone else. With that said, Fuji does make the frames to the other companies specs so it isn't like they just make a generic frame and throw someone's name on it.

Juan Foote

Well, that was a part of my question, and thanks for the reply. Where might one find some reading about this?

LowCel 

I have no idea where you will find it in writing, most of this is kept kind of hush hush as far as who is producing what for who. Probably some legal agreements not to disclose that information as well.

I will tell you that I am about 90% sure that my Colnago frameset was made by Giant though.

Juan Foote

Thanks, the reason I ask is that I was told by someone in the industry that Fuji is licensing the Roubaix from Specialized. I was of the impression that Fuji was another among those companies that were owned by a larger parent company, not involved only in cycling. Further reading suggests that is somewhat true, but that Fuji IS Fuji, the camera people among many other things.

Either way, it really doesn't matter, just more a curiosity than anything else. I noted that the Fuji offering is typically more expensive than the Felt as well. I was a bit surprised to find just how many bikes my frame is similar to. I guess there is only so much you can do where it comes to successful road geometry.

ColinL

A lot of frames look similar. I would not be so sure to say they are literally identical unless you have one of each in your hands, in the same size.

LowCel 

Fuji's parent company is Advanced Sports International which owns Fuji, Kestrel, SE Bikes, Breezer, Oval, and Terry. Like you said, they are definitely a bike company.

ColinL

Not true at all. The Fuji Roubaix is an entirely different bike.

It seems like Specialized tried to sue Fuji over the name at one point but I can't find anything useful googling for it.

LowCel 

Specialized will try to sue over anything........regardless, I have always assumed (not the best idea) that both are named for Paris Roubaix.

Juan Foote

Perhaps the licensing is on the name then? In many cases where one big company sues another they find it cheaper just to pay a small licensing fee than to follow through on a costly court case whether in the right or wrong.

himespau 

I believe I read somewhere that the Fuji Roubaix actually used the name first, but that didn't stop Specialized from trying to sue over it because they thought the existence of an entry level road bike with the same name as their higher end bike hurt their bike's value, but it didn't get very far. Again, I just read that on the interwebz, so it should be taken with a grain (or 12) of salt.

abstractform20

i believe Specialized is actually suing the Paris-Roubaix for using the "their" model name, and also because several bushes were found to have red berries...the same color red used on their Roubaix.

eippo1

Fyi, Fuji has licensed from Specialized before. The rear suspension triangle on my Fuji Thrill was licensed from Specialized's FSR technology.

topflightpro

Mountain bike suspension systems are a completely different beast. There are only a couple of good designs and they often are licensed out. Santa Cruz licenses its VPP system to Intense and others, and I think Iron Horse holds the patent on the DW Link system that is used by companies like Giant, though I could have that backward.

Triguy

The Felt F series and Altamira are not the same frame
The F series uses BB30, the Altamira uses BB86
The top tubes have a different shape, the Fuji's narrows more towards the seattube
The geometries are WAY different; Felt size 56 is stack=548, reach=397 / Fuji size 55, stack=579, reach = 388

So for an equivalent reach, the Felt has +3cm less stack.