# Daughter's Modern Build On A Vintage Team Fuji



## bulldog1935 (Apr 18, 2016)

This is old news, but a nice bike I never posted here.  This was 3 summers ago, and my daughter's summer project was building herself a go-fast - of course with my help.
Was tempted by and set up a snipe on a beautiful ebay '90s Geliano frame in her size - drop-dead-gorgeous airbrush paintwork is his trademark.  This one was celestial with stars and nebula and deep blue and purple.  But it way outbid our interest and had too much going against it - the Geliano would have needed headset, bottom bracket, seatpost, crankset, front derailleur. We were able to build this Fuji go fast for about $600 less, and able to use at least one cool part I had around - a Mighty Comp (Strada clone) crankset, that had been on my Raleigh from '78 until 2012. (It was the first part I bought on my Raleigh when the original splined crank stripped out in Austin hills).

We paid $150 on ebay for the '86 Team Fuji frame in her size




Came with some nice suntour components, BB, headset, and FD
and included a nice fluted seatpost with yellow paint matching the factory color scheme.



Ishawata quad-butted tubing, nice lugs and chromed fork crown



After all the nice paintwork she did on my Raleigh it was great she was getting to touch up one for her now




Got a great deal on a custom Kinlin wheelset from Hoops, because he was closing out all his skinny rims.
The frame easily spread to 130mm rear dropout spacing



Went with a Miche 9-speed custom Cassette, 13-29t, Shimano Ultegra 6500 derailleurs (ended up having to replace the embossed-cage Suntour Spirit FD with the flat-cage Ultegra to solve clearance issues with the super-low-Q crank and wide new chainline).    Great deal on used Campy Chorus brakes (killer brakes).  Though the frame was not built for the recessed nut brakes, the front was easy to install, and I let the brilliant mechanic at my LBS fish through his hardware to install the rear brake and gave him the BB and headset rebuild business, as well (I already had the correct bridge washer, but the setup needed a special lock washer between the bridge washer and brake).
But here's the final form on the drivetrain, Superbe Pedals with Ale toeclips



And all the air in that beautiful Strada-clone crank screams This is a Go Fast bike.  50/41T on the chainrings:  41T (only made by TA) is the smallest available for 144 bcd;  the 50T Miche big ring solved another clearance/chainline issue (in place of a typical 52T).

The cockpit is Nitto Noodle bars with Tektro girl levers and interruptors (cross brakes) - yellow twine wrap spacers for the interruptors.  Noodle is also the perfect bar for interruptor levers, because it drops away on the ends giving a very natural cross hand position. (the opposite of a Randonneur bar, which rises on the ends)



Microshift bar-ends (our first stab at index and like it.



And it does go fast.




not too far away from the original, and a great-functioning drivetrain for my daughter


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## Dale Alan (Apr 18, 2016)

That is a nice build .Great to see her involved with the process .Congrats to both of you on a fine bike.


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## bulldog1935 (Apr 18, 2016)

thanks Dale.

ps - here's a trick Geliano, but the particular frame we were looking at was even prettier than this  
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nickelbike/sets/72157627084302847/


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## Bikerider007 (May 9, 2016)

Wow @bulldog1935 I apparently have not put my time in here as I missed this. This a cool build and it's so cool your daughter is interested in vintage bikes. She is so focused on the details! Awesome dad and daughter project.


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## bulldog1935 (May 9, 2016)

The thing about it, you can't walk into a shop and buy a bike this cool - everything about the new bike for the same cost would be a lower-grade compromise (the difference is the profit margin).
You also can't buy an equivalent new lugged steel frame alone for what we paid to build this bike.
We stopped at a LBS to pick out her water bottle cages and had the bike on the truck - I remember why we brought the bike, we were also getting brake cable housings cut to length from them.



When I told him what we paid for the frame, the mechanic shook his head and said they could never compete with that.


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## neighbor (Sep 4, 2016)

Very nice


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