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Fuji Opus III - I lucked out today! - Pic Heavy

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Fuji Opus III - I lucked out today! - Pic Heavy

Old 09-10-16, 10:05 PM
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Fuji Opus III - I lucked out today! - Pic Heavy

Well, as if I don’t have enough vintage steel in the house. This 1985 Fuji Opus popped up in the local classifieds right before I was heading out for long ride today. So instead I made a long 200 mile round trip to pick this up. The asking price was fair and looking at the pics it seemed to be in good shape.

I got down to see the bike and it was in really nice shape. The guy had got it from the original owner at an estate sale, cleaned and tuned it up, and then listed it. The only obvious thing with it is the tires are old. They look good and still feel supple but I can see cracks. So I’ll swap those out before I take it out tomorrow. It appears to me mostly stock. The saddle isn’t, the wheelset isn’t and it’s got a 7 speed on the back. It even has what appears to be the original frame pump on it!
I’m fine with the wheels as I figured I’d have to change out the tubular setup if it was stock. Funny thing is it’s the 3rd very nice vintage ride I’ve picked up that appears to have come from Fishers Cycles in SLC. The Giordana Antares and the Greg LeMond all originally came from there also. In fact this bike has the exact same white and red bottle cage that came with the Giordana.

I weighed the bike at 22 lbs 14 ozs as you see it in the pics below. With the proper tubular wheelset and original saddle it probably does come close to the catalog weight of 21 lbs. The reflectors have to come off for sure.

The guy I got the bike from did go over it. All bearings, hubs, etc have been serviced. That’s a nice plus too. I’ll get it out tomorrow and see how it rides. Then I’ll need to source a saddle for it. I’m thinking a brown Brooks Swallow will look sweet on this and I know that saddle will work for me.

And now the pics. Most of the “scratches” in the surface are actually cat hair from the blanket I covered the bike with in the Jeep, oops. And sorry if they are not very sharp. I set a PR on my 23 mile route with the Schwinn Circuit right before I shot these. My old body was wasted and shaking a bit still.









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Old 09-10-16, 10:05 PM
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Old 09-10-16, 10:07 PM
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Old 09-10-16, 10:09 PM
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Old 09-10-16, 10:10 PM
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Old 09-10-16, 11:53 PM
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lucky son of a gun. thats the exact color and model I've always wanted. Good find to you.
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Old 09-11-16, 12:23 AM
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I love how so many bike owners are also great photographers. I am muchmuchmuch less so. beautiful in plum!
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Old 09-11-16, 02:07 AM
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Gorgeous bike. Love the Suntour Superbe Pro bits. Thanks for the great photos!
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Old 09-11-16, 05:54 AM
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congrats, and nice photo set - thanks for posting
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Old 09-11-16, 05:58 AM
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Great photos and sweet bike.
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Old 09-11-16, 06:10 AM
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Beautiful bike.
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Old 09-11-16, 07:09 AM
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Wow, that is super clean. Nice score.

I have to say, that is the first time that I think the selection purple bar tape and cables look perfect. Great looking bike.
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Old 09-11-16, 07:21 AM
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I am still shaking my head...that is a very nice, well taken care of bike. Enjoy.
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Old 09-11-16, 07:23 AM
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Originally Posted by jetboy
I love how so many bike owners are also great photographers. I am muchmuchmuch less so. beautiful in plum!
By coincidence I use "classics" in my photography too. Pretty much every lens I have is an old manual focus lens adapted to use on Canon cameras. Mainly old Leica R and Contax Zeiss with a few Pentax screwmount and Olympus thrown in. Like our sweet old bikes I find the old glass to be a lot better than the modern stuff most of the time.

These were shot with an old Leica R 60/2.8 macro lens.
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Old 09-11-16, 07:32 AM
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Originally Posted by shuru421
lucky son of a gun. thats the exact color and model I've always wanted. Good find to you.
I'm just lucky the guy was willing to hold it for me as I made the 100 mile drive. When I got there he said several other folks had contacted him wanting it after I called. Sometimes the stars just align for you.
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Old 09-11-16, 08:11 AM
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Originally Posted by jamesdak
I'm just lucky the guy was willing to hold it for me as I made the 100 mile drive. When I got there he said several other folks had contacted him wanting it after I called.
The guy I bought my C-dale ST 600 from was good like that. Three towns over and he held it for me for four days!

As I'm handing him the $100, he says, "Boy, I sure got a lot of emails on my ad..."

Anyway, your Fuji is beautiful; love to find one like that
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Old 09-11-16, 08:35 AM
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I'd drive 200 miles for that. Very nice.
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Old 09-11-16, 08:46 AM
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Very nice.
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Old 09-11-16, 09:07 AM
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Fuji Gods are smiling for you.

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Old 09-11-16, 09:22 AM
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I enjoyed every single one of those pics. My word, what a bike.
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Old 09-11-16, 12:54 PM
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That's all I have to say...........
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Old 09-11-16, 05:38 PM
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Dayum.

On my Grail List.

Nice score.

Beuuuuutiful.
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Old 09-11-16, 05:42 PM
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Well, I swapped out the old tires and tubes for some nice latex tubes and a set of Continental Grand Prix Classic tires. The tires are 700 x 25 and there's plenty of room left. I wouldn't be surprised if you could fit some true to size 700 x 28 tires on this or maybe at least the VITTORIA OPEN PAVE EVO CG III in 700 x 27. I ran those before and they measure true to size on an old narrow rim. I tried the old pump while messing around with the tires and it works just fine.

Swapped out the "so out of place" saddle and put on a basic black racer saddle I had on hand for now. Let me honestly say that either I'm an idiot or the seatpost is a pain to mount a saddle on. It's a two bolt setup but adjustments are done on the top of the seatpost. Really hard to get at the front bolt if your saddle has any side skirts on it. More reason for the Brooks I guess, LOL!

After that I took it out for what I had planned to be just my normal 5 mile shakedown route I used for all my new rides. But everything seemed to be working great so I just kept going. Wound up doing a mostly leisurely 23 miles on it subjecting it to lots of different road surfaces and one short but steep climb. Oh and I just have to say that in the sunlight this paint takes on a life of it's own. It is so gorgeous when the sun lights up all the metal flake in the paint, Fuji really hit a winner with this.

Now the ride, how to describe it? Stiff, for sure, and responsive. None of the pedaling effort seemed to be wasted. I would not call it a fast comfortable cruiser by no means. It felt like it wanted to be ridden hard. It chattered and banged over the same rough roads surfaces that some of my other steel bikes would just take with no drama at all. I would not call this a good choice for a long distance bike. This is a pure on race machine I think. More along the like of my Trek 560 than either of the Giordana's or the Circuit. Exactly as I expected though. It did really well on the climb though despite the less than ideal gearing. It seemed like pretty much all the effort I was putting in was directed to get me up the hill. It felt solid when I stood and just seemed to skip along lightly underneath me when I stood and got on it. Felt lighter than it is at times like this.

I only got it to 36 mph on the descent but the bike tracked well and took the high speed turns just fine. The last 3 miles I just kept it at 53/13 and cranked away. Held speeds over 20 mph just fine over the last 3 miles of slightly rolling hills.

The only issues shifting were from me. I've gotten a little soft with the index shifting on most of my bikes, LOL! The brakes, ummm, yeah they are the original pads. Need I say more. The handlebars are too narrow for my liking but that seems to be the norm with all the bikes from this era. Easy enough to fix.

The fit is a bit off on this one but sort of expected with the aggressive geometry. I would normally have about another inch of setback but it didn't seem to bother me today. This may prevent me from running a Brooks on this though unless I have some crazy long setback seatpost on it.

Anyway the bike was everything I thought it would be and more. So happy with this one.
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Old 09-11-16, 06:03 PM
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That's a great Fooj and some really nice shooting of it. Congrats on your new acquisition, she's a beaut! I always loved those RGC brakesets, the finish is incredible. I'd be tempted to leave the reflectors on, although I probably wouldn't in the end. A bike that old with original reflectors? Kind of cool. That paint is ridiculous!

You could throw a Nitto crystal stem on there with loner reach to accommodate that Brooks you have in mind...
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Old 09-13-16, 04:33 PM
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Got it out again today on my base 23 mile daily route. Had a killer migraine that only got worse but still pulled off a 19.1 mph on the ride. Guess it holds speed by itself pretty well 'cause I was able to put much into it. Couldn't find a happy medium on the tension for the RD shifter. Had to keep it tighter than I'd like or the RD didn't want to stay in one gear. Don't know if that's the nature of the beast or a tuning issue.

Bike seemed to take the turns well without feeling too twitchy, just direct. But winds kept me from really getting the speed up and cranking it through the tight turns section.
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