# FUJI AMERICA



## CavemanJoe (Jul 4, 2022)

What better day than the 4th of July to post this one? It's the 2nd America I've bought in about a year, and that's after decades of wanting ONE. Ronald Reagan had just won the '80 presidential election when this '81 model was made. My other America is the 1976 "Bicentennial America" that I originally posted last year.   I just finished a fairly comprehensive overhaul on the "new" one last week. It has all the original components, but is now rolling along comfortably on a new pair of 700x35s. I am hoping to make it my new "commuter".  I was surprised to find out that these originally sold for nearly $700, plus sales tax and cost of accessories, when new. That was  a "king's ransom" back then. Since it's July 4th I will include a photo of my "Bicentennial America".


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## Eric Amlie (Jul 4, 2022)

Still had chrome "socks" and fork crown.
I was sad when most of the 80's bikes lost those.
Is the crank a Sugino Mighty Tour?


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## CavemanJoe (Jul 5, 2022)

Eric Amlie said:


> Still had chrome "socks" and fork crown.
> I was sad when most of the 80's bikes lost those.
> Is the crank a Sugino Mighty Tour?



It's a Mighty Tour triple.  Less chrome and "unicrown" fork crowns were definitely alot cheaper looking. The older lugged frames also looked nicer.


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## Fritz Katzenjammer (Jul 5, 2022)

Japanese bikes are a particular weakness of mine, especially the tourers.

700 bucks may have been expensive, but it was still a lot less than the equivalent European ride, which were no better and frequently not finished as well.

lovely lugged frames, top quality components and reasonable pricing... what isn’t there to love.

Nice bike!


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## bulldog1935 (Jul 6, 2022)

Blue on blue is stunning - and it's my size.


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## CavemanJoe (Jul 6, 2022)

bulldog1935 said:


> Blue on blue is stunning - and it's my size.



I think the Fuji designers might have had the Dawes Double Blue in mind.


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## CavemanJoe (Jul 6, 2022)

Fritz Katzenjammer said:


> Japanese bikes are a particular weakness of mine, especially the tourers.
> 
> 700 bucks may have been expensive, but it was still a lot less than the equivalent European ride, which were no better and frequently not finished as well.
> 
> ...



They are also very reliable and dependable, as well as easy to work on. They knew what they were doing, and did it right.


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## Fritz Katzenjammer (Jul 7, 2022)

CavemanJoe said:


> They are also very reliable and dependable, as well as easy to work on. They knew what they were doing, and did it right.



 The guys at the bike shop I work at laugh at my old steel bikes, but they keep rolling along working perfectly and smoothly with little fuss. Meanwhile, each day expensive modern stuff rolls through the shop requiring costly repairs and maintenance because some plastic or composite part is cracked and needs replacing.

 We had a wheel in yesterday with carbon spokes which had splintered, it’ll cost enough to repair to buy a complete new wheelset for my Panasonic made Centurion. Except it’ll likely never need them.

 I swear we’re going backwards some times.


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## bulldog1935 (Jul 7, 2022)

@Fritz Katzenjammer
here's a post I made on Bass Resource forum when they were comparing new rods to new bicycles. 


			https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/248809-rod-quality-what-is-the-separator/?do=findComment&comment=2867194


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## Fritz Katzenjammer (Jul 7, 2022)

bulldog1935 said:


> @Fritz Katzenjammer
> here's a post I made on Bass Resource forum when they were comparing new rods to new bicycles.
> 
> 
> https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/248809-rod-quality-what-is-the-separator/?do=findComment&comment=2867194



Well put. Someone updated the driveline on my Centurion back in the 90s and I may improve on that sometime in the future... if it ever wears out.

which is doubtful.


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## CavemanJoe (Jul 7, 2022)

You can also buy a top notch older bike for next to nothing. Many of them have seen little or no use, which wasn't the case with the Fuji Americas that I posted.  Parts and supplies are readily available, and most repairs are fairly simple. Getting a bike with a proper frame size, both seat and top tube having the right length, is the key. The strength of the engine (the rider) is more important than the latest cycling fashion. For most non-competive cyclists, who cares about the latest cycling fashions anyway?


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## bulldog1935 (Jul 8, 2022)

Since I'm cutting and pasting, anyway, I posted this to a friend about marketing v. rebuilding old steel.

The thesis on Steel is Real involves mechanics, dynamics, physiology and ecology.

Steel frames flex, and have an endurance limit - a stress below which they will never crack.  They first built aluminum bikes the same way as steel bikes, and they cracked and failed catastrophically, because aluminum does not have an endurance limit.  They had to change the design philosophy for aluminum bikes, making them more rigid so that if a crack develops, the load is transferred to a different part of the frame, and the crack will stop growing.  Marketing tells you excess rigidity is a bonus.

For this reason (redundant structure), an aluminum bike frame is not significantly lighter than a good steel bike frame.  But it's less expensive to manufacture - and also harsh to ride.  The flex in the steel frame produces a comfortable ride, because the whole bike is a shock absorber.  A good-climbing steel frame also has a natural frequency in the rear triangles that turns your excess pedal energy into pushing the frame forward.  Because of this, a good steel bike feels lighter than it is when you're climbing.

While you can get the same dynamics from carbon and build a lighter bike - half the weight - if you've ever broken a fishing pole, you know carbon composite also has limited safe life, and no warning before it breaks.
100 years of steel bike frames are here to stay, as long as they're protected from corrosion.

10,000,000 aluminum bikes are imported from China and Malaysia into the US every year.
Worldwide, aluminum bikes are throw away.






 Aluminum production is 90% electric power.  In the US, we scrub our power plant flues, turning acid gasses into solid, which is used in high-grade cement.  Acid gas emissions from China and Malaysia electric production has killed 25% of the Great Barrier Reef in our lifetime.  In the PNW, oyster farmers must add caustic to their raw seawater, because the acid content from China and Malaysia pollution is too great to allow oysters to reproduce.  They're allowed to do this by Kyoto Accords as an "emerging 3rd world economy".  We should not buy China **** until they decide to buy our scrubber technology in return.

There are so many Great steel frames out there from the 70s to 90s, most in great condition, and most of those will fit new components.

There's also an N+1 marketing baseline in bicycles - they have to convince you what you own is obsolete, or you won't buy new.
Obviously, I'm unconvinced.
______________________________________________________

Not to totally derail the thread on Fuji, but here are example nice bikes built on old frames that were all purchased for $125 to $150.
SRAM 2-speed auto city bike..................................................................................................Afline 7 built on Miyata-Univega mixte.


 


Both bikes have Shimano dyno hub and Bush-Mueller lamps.  The big ring on the mixte crank has been turned into a bash guard by grinding the teeth away - while a $15 bash guard is kind of a no-brainer, Steve built a rig that dialed a grinder stone into the ring while he turned the crank.

Some photos of my daughter's go-fast, which she built on '86 Team Fuji frame.  19 lbs


 


9sp Ultegra, and the Mighty Comp crank that spent 20 years on my Raleigh.


 



Here's that Fuji again.  When my buddy's daughter needed a bike to pedal into UTSA campus, they went to the local Frankenbike meet and bought an '85 Shogun for $100.  It built into the ultimate sleeper bike that no one would steal.  New Deore brakes, and a new Deore RD worked perfectly with the old 6sp SIS. (The old Exage RD was cracked as lower-grade Shimano tends to do)


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## Tim s (Jul 26, 2022)

Very cool


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## bikerbluz (Jul 27, 2022)

Great information from all of you. These bikes are real bargains right now and I am preaching their accolades to anyone who will listen. I have recently become a big fan of the bar end shifters too. Thanks for the post and comments.


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