Sometime last fall, right before the Labor Day bike-camping-appendectomy fiasco, I saw a posting on craigslist for a nice tall old Fuji for $75. I drove the few miles from work, which is far enough away from Boston that the guy probably wasn’t going to get the most bites. He went out to the backyard and pulled this gorgeous bike out from under a tarp — he said it had been in the garage until recently when he started renovating his place. This was the bike he had bought when he decided to ride across the US! Everything was original, even the tires, both of which were flat and worn. Before I had it, this link was all I knew…
The bike sat in my basement as winter arrived and I tried to decide what to do with it. I had originally wanted a beater bike, but this baby was clearly too nice for that, so I opted to clean it and build it back up as another road bike. I added indestructible Schwalbe Marathon tires (27″), one of my Brooks saddles and then wrapped up the moustache bars I had lying around to make this a pretty stylin’ ride. Adding the fenders was the most difficult, as the tires are very big. They don’t rub, but it’s fairly tight in there, and if it became a problem, i would need to either get narrower tires (which subsequently means less overall diameter), 700c wheels or skip the fenders.
I realized that this could be a new longer distance road bike and was curious how it handled with weight in the front — something my other bikes haven’t handled that well. I took the front low riders off of Karen’s bike, grabbed some panniers and set them up. I needed some weight, so I grabbed two half-full paint cans and threw them in. The Fuji handled fantastically and I didn’t even notice the extra weight! I even did some light off roading as I cut through a golf course, and the steering and comfort was great!
I’ll probabaly upgrade to a better front rack, but I needed the proof of concept first. I was hoping to use Jan Heine’s BQ method of measuring trail and angle and getting all the protractors out and stuff, but this ended up being easier and more empirical.
The only thing I’m not sure I like is the cockpit:
I love the bar end shifters, and have them on my xtracycle, but i find i keep my hands on the ends where there are no brakes. With the brakes located in a more forward position, I find myself not really ready to brake quickly if I needed to. I think I’ll keep it like this for a while (partly because i shellacked the hell out of the bar tape, and it’d be a pain in the ass to redo that), but also because I might just replace it with a Nitto Noodle someday.
The other thing to note is that this is the bike that I’ll be using for the trail bike, so I am sort of required to have a wider grip. Once spring hits, we’ll see how it works with the kids…
hi there, that fuji was a great find! the S-12-S was a great, lightweight model, and the japanese bikes of that era were first-rate. if your fender clearance is a problem, you could go with aluminum honjos or velo-orange fenders. i have a pair of 700C honjos on a bike with 27 x 1-1/4″ tires and the clearance is fine.
since you haven’t posted in a while, i’m curious what your latest kid hauling solution is. i have a 5.5yo and need to think of some urban-friendly solutions as she is outgrowing both the trailer and bike-mounted seat.
would you mind contacting me directly? atutter AT gmail DOT com
thanks!