This week’s Readers Rides comes from Fergus at Ritchey Designs and features his track racing frame. We love seeing the bikes from people within the bike industry and this one is not to be missed! Let’s check it out below.
My first track bike was a third- or fourth-hand mid-80s Fuji Pro I got from John Moody for $150 in 2004. He didn’t want to sell it but was in a tough spot and needed the money. This frame was infamous by messenger standards. By the time I got the Fuji, it had passed through several other couriers. It was the only frame Swerve never broke before he sold it to Mongo (who still asks me about it to this day) and eventually ended up under John’s bed, stripped of paint and in need of a little more than a touch of tender loving care. This is the bike I learned to bomb hills, surf shoulder-width traffic, and eventually race track on.
Since then, I’ve raced on a KHS Aero Track, a Team Edition Raleigh Rush Hour Pro I won at the 2008 NACCC, there was a Giant Omnium Dustin Klein painted for me, multiple LOW// frames when I was sponsored by them, a Masi Coltello, another Giant Omnium I traded a blem P29 for and Danny Holloway’s old Rock Lobster. If they weren’t free/prizes, they were second hand at best. When my last Giant developed a crack in the seat tube, I lamented, searching for another frame. Frankly, I couldn’t afford to buy a new frame, and deals on used bikes were few and far between. Enter the rare $400 Craigslist score.
The parenthesis here is I hate how expensive people make cycling out to be. When I first started track racing, more than a few jeers came my way for bringing my stickered and toe-caged bike to the banks up next to multi-thousand-dollar bikes. It wasn’t until I started doing well people stopped commenting on my bike. Even today, my bike was the cheapest bike in the bunch by a country mile.
Recently at a Hellyer Wednesday race night, a friend was telling a novice rider they didn’t need to spend a lot on a race bike to get started. However, he continued, “when you get to Fergus’ level, you’ll want to spend as much as you can on your bike.” Insert a surprised emoji face here.
Maybe not the backhanded compliment it was meant to be, I was still taken aback. The irony was his handlebars there worth more than I spent on my bike. The perception of cycling having an economic barrier to entry is gross. You can’t preach inclusion while ignoring the obvious $10,000 special elephant in the room. The not-so-subtle moral being the more you spend the faster you’ll be. Blegh.
Yes, I’ve been lucky to get industry deals here and there. I’m lucky to have enough spare income to blow on races where I know I will never see the podium. But by no means was the cost of my bike the limiting factor. Nor should it be for the up-and-coming person who wants to climb categories.
Everything comes full circle (track pun intended) and I’m back on a Fuji. Stripped of paint poorly photographed in a barren room on a hardwood floor was a listing for a raw carbon Fuji Elite- one of my more favorite frames after the Koga Kimera. I took a chance and scooped up the frame almost without hesitation. I knew I couldn’t leave the frame raw, and I’m too cheap to paint it professionally. For $50 in carbon primer, Rustoleum and automotive clear, I managed to make the frame presentable enough to look fast, even if I wasn’t feeling fast.
Is there a line to be drawn between my first Fuji and my last? Sure. Sometimes the perfect bike isn’t found by searching showroom floor but maybe it’s the other way around and it’s waiting to find its perfect owner.
Build Spec
- Frame: Fuji Elite
- Wheels: Zipp 950 disc, Suntour Superbe Pro to Ritchey Apex 88
- Cranks: Superbe Pro w/ Superbe 51t ring
- Saddle: Syncros Belcarra
- Stem: Ritchey WCS 4-Axis 130
- Bars: BBK Jr Drops 36
- Pedals: Ritchey WCS Echelon
We’d like to thank all of you who submitted Readers Rides builds to be shared here at The Radavist. The response has been incredible and we have so many to share over the next few months. Feel free to submit your bike, listing details, components, and other information. You can also include a portrait of yourself with your bike and your Instagram account! Please, shoot landscape-orientation photos, not portrait. Thanks!
