CliffordK

I'm not at all surprised that the bikes are coming in around 30 pounds.

30 years ago, a good road bike might have been 22 to 25 lbs.

20 lbs seems to be a good number for an average road bike today. However, many manufacturers are weighing without things like pedals or saddles (while the UCI will weigh bikes with everything but water bottles).

My guess that extra 10 pounds between the road bike and touring bike comes in with a number of things.

• Cheaper tubing selection. Not choosing top of the line tubing (basic chromoly vs Reynolds 853 or similar).
• A little added redundancy in the frame build. Build it heavy for people that do stupid things.
• Straight spokes, heavier rims, etc.
• Heavier tire/tube
• Is the seat weighed (in as delivered configuration)? Steel rails?
• Are the racks being weighed?
• Crankset & Bottom Bracket?

Compromising a little here or there to save money may well add up.

That mid-range touring bike doesn't do it for me. I'd choose something either super-heavy duty, or super-light duty.

My next project is going to be a road bike conversion to touring.

However, browsing on E-Bay, this Kona popped up.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Kona-Wheelh...W/123572708505

It appears to have many of the features of a light touring bike, for about 23.5 lbs. However, adding a rack will push it up somewhat. Reynolds 853 should give a pretty light, but stiff frame.

numbernine

Just picked up a Fuji Touring Disc from the local Performance that is going out of business ($707 out the door). It seems pretty (very?) good especially for the price tag.

Drive train, brakes, shifters seem excellent. Steel frame supports a very smooth ride, though at a geometry a little more relaxed than I'm used to. Wheels are a bit heavy and the stock tires are VERY sluggish. Currently replacing them with some Marathon Supremes. Easily installed front rack and fenders from my 1983 Univega Gran Turismo.

Using bikeflights to do a 9 day tour from Phoenix to Albuquerque so I can give a more complete rating after that. I check out the ADV 1.1 today at REI and Fuji had much better specs although I never actually rode the ADV.

Best of luck!

fietsbob

As I under stand it, Performance Inc. was already in the hole to the corporation that imports and distributed Fuji Brand bikes sold through their shops,,
so they did a debt for equity swap and gave them the keys..






... then they got in the lifeboats and rowed towards shore?





...

Wilfred Laurier

The last statement needs to be included much earlier in the story. I don't believe 2019 Fuji has any person or asset or facility in common with 1984 Fuji.

megaclyde

I'm looking forward to reading your review after the trip. I suspect you'll be quite happy with the bike. And at the price you can get one for now if your local Performance store has one... what a crazy deal. I was shopping for a touring bike when I started this thread. I ended up ordering a Surly LHT. At the end of the day the 26" wheels were just too nice of a feature to look past. I wear size 13 4E shoes and toe overlap is a very real thing. A few weeks ago I picked up a Breezer 650B bike from the performance blowout sale and it quickly became apparent that tires smaller than 700 really do help. I'm looking forward to riding the 26" hoops on the trucker. The bike came in this week but it arrive with a bent chainring and possibly crank. Waiting for my shop to call QBP tomorrow to get a new part sent out.

djb

this is one aspect (another aspect) of 26in wheels that are really nice. While my feet are on the med size, having a 26in bike often allows use of fenders and still not having an toe overlap problems-which is nice on a loaded bike in tight and slow conditions. Yes, we get used to toe overlap bikes, but only one of my bikes has it, and its a very small amount, and I sometimes forget how nice it is not to have it.
Re 26 vs 700 speed comparison, I'm not really convinced that there is any difference, certainly not with a loaded touring bike.

the other pluses of 26 are lower gearing, slightly stronger wheels because of the shorter spokes (although that depends on the wheelset and how the spokes are tensioned) and slightly quicker steering. Re steering, I guess you would have to test ride a 700 vs a 26 trucker to really have an apples to apples comparison, as frame geometry is of course a factor. I have read that the 26 LHT does steer quicker than the 700, and thats a good thing in my books.

numbernine

Ok here is my review of the Fuji Touring Disc.
Fuji Bikes | Touring Disc

I have only ever toured on, in fact I mostly ride, vintage steel bikes with friction shifters and rim brakes so my perspective is somewhat limited. I toured the Pacific Coast on an '83 Univega Gran Turismo in 2017 with about 30 lbs of gear. A couple weeks ago I finished a tour along the ACA Southern Tier route (map #2 ) from Phoenix to ~Caballo, NM and then cut up to Albuquerque over eight riding days so I averaged 68 miles/day. Same ~30 lbs of gear plus a little extra food/water/clothing.

I'm 5'11" and bought the 58cm (XL) size. My feet are size 10 and I had about 1.5 inches of clearance between the back of my foot and Ortlieb back rollers so that was never a problem. I made the following changes to the bike- pedals, replaced the saddle with a B17, replaced the Vittoria Randonneur tires which I found to be extremely sluggish with Marathon Supremes (700c x 35), removed excessive decals from the rims, added fenders and a Tubus Tara front rack. I didn't weigh the bike, but it was almost certainly heavier unloaded than my Gran Turismo. Still, what you get for that weight is a lot. I didn't think to check before departing, but the tubing gauge of the stock Fuji rear rack is the same as the Tara front. This came in handy when part way though I switched my load from the front to the rear.

The frame has lots of clearance for wide tires and feels like it could do some gravel riding with the right pair. Even with fenders I had ample space for 35mm Supremes. In retrospect I'd have gotten the larger 40mm ones. Had I done so the front would have been fine but the rear clearance with fenders/rack may have been tight. Still, there is plenty of space for 40s where the chainstays meet the BB. I had one pinch flat the first day (user error!), then ran over a nail on day 3 which punctured the tire once and tube twice. The manufacturer provided plastic rim tape slipped and folded and came to expose the tube to sharp eyelet holes. Before my next tour I plan to replace these with adhesive cloth or plastic rim tape. The wheels are straight-up heavy. At this price point that is where you have to sacrifice. But hey, they seem strong which is what you want on a tour.

The disc brakes worked great with no need for adjustment. The pads broke in after 20 miles of shakedown riding. I always had confidence in their stopping power even when coming quickly to a stop from a fast descent while loaded. The bike was extremely stable feeling even at high speeds (low 40s mph) while loaded. No strange shaking or harmonic resonance at all. I normally descended while in the drops.

For the most part I was happy with the drive train. Rear shifting is indexed 10 speed and front triple is friction. My least favorite part of the bike is the crankset arm length, though it may be conflated with a change in BB drop from what I'm used to. I'm used to riding 170mm cranks and spinning rather than mashing but Fuji decided to equip the Discs with 175mm Deore cranks for all sizes above and including 56cm. My knees suffered and I could not ride while standing up from the saddle at all without my knees feeling bad. It felt like my pedal stroke was exaggerated. I never would have thought that crank arm length would have mattered this much to me, but I am considering replacing with 170mm cranks. It is also possible that the BB drop and/or not easing into long days in the saddle could have contributed to the knee problems.

Compared to my 3x5 speed Gran Turismo, I felt like I had more than enough of a gear range.

I was equally comfortable riding with my Ortlieb back rollers on the front or rear rack. On the front I feel it distributes the weight more evenly. Part way through the tour one pannier came off. The bolt holding the Tara front rack to the mid-fork mount had backed itself out (about 1/2 inch of threads!). I was relieved that it hadn't been stripped and merely screwed it back in, but decided to put the bags on the rear rack anyway.

Cockpit felt great. I have large hands and was worried that the TRP levers would feel small but they didn't. If I wanted to stretch out I could wrap my fingers around the very tip-tops of the hoods and still have plenty to hold on to. The fork is not one of these low trail varieties, so riding with no hands was somewhat difficult. Gotta keep a hand on at all times.

To recap:

Pros:
-price
-disc brakes
-drivetrain specs
-tire clearance
-sturdy while loaded and stable during descents
-all the braze-ons
-could probably handle all the terrain you want to throw at it

Cons:
-heavy, especially in the wheels
-sluggish stock Vittoria Randonneur tires, bad rim tape, decals
-175mm crank arms on 56cm, 58cm models
-same kinda blah color scheme as my Mom's Rav4

djb

re your rack bolt coming loose. Rather common. Next time you have a chance, take out the bolts and rub wax into the bolt threads, or use a thick anti seize paste, or blue loctite. The loctite is easy to use and not messy like anti seize, but all three will help stop loosening. Loctite probably works best, but Ive used anti seize stuff, basically really thick paste, that while messy, helps with the vibration loosening thing.

make it a part of a regular clean and check over of your bike to check that rack bolts are not loosening, takes just a minute every week or so and doing a weekly clean and go over is a good way to know your bike and to be both familiar with all the parts, and to avoid issues before they happen. Don't overtighten rack bolts however and damage threads, although all internet warnings cant teach you how much is too much feeling it through your own hands and fingers....

if you havent done so already, have your spoke tensions verified by a good wheel person, its worth paying a small amount for this to avoid potential spoke issues down the road.

Soody

the blue is really nice : )

badgnome

Thanks for the write up numbernine. What did you think of the shifters and rear rack? Is the ride quality typical of the steel bikes you have ridden? Is the chain guard of any use? I'm guessing the big question is "how long will those wheels last?" My last bike was a Trek and the Bontrager rims were one of the first things to fail.

I was looking at this for an all weather commuter bike and was pleasantly surprised Fuji made this bike and even more so at this price level. Also have to admit there is something of an underdog feeling in riding an uncool brand like Fuji (take that Cinelli!).

staehpj1

I agree. Are there really bike shops that don't service bikes they don't sell? I don't think I'd deal with them. In the past I have known of shops that have had a policy of not servicing Walmart bikes (which were even more universally terrible back then). I can understand that, but we are talking about a different thing altogether.

Personally none of my bikes usually see the inside of a shop once I buy them except maybe when I am on tour. On tour I may be more likely to rely on shops because I don't have full shop tools with me or just find it easier to have them put parts on while I am there. Three of us did the Trans America on Bikes Direct bikes (Windsor Touring) and I did some tours after that on mine. We stopped in quite a few shops over the course of that trip and the following trips. Not once did I ever get so much as a negative comment about the bikes from any of the shops and none one ever gave any hint of not wanting to work on them for any reason other than a backlog. Even when there was a backlog they always tried to work something out to get us going.

Granted we weren't their typical customers. Despite the fact that they were often busy they treated us special since we were in the middle of a long tour. Most often they squeezed us in and often did the work gratis. Sometimes they just pointed me to a bench and some tools and let me do the work myself in their shop using their tools. Never did they turn me away.

I don't have any experience with trying to get service in my home town since I never have felt the need. I think the last time I took something to a shop it was years ago and because I didn't have a particular tool. I had them face a BB shell and clean up the threads. They couldn't have cared less what kind of bike it was since it was a bare frame and they were just dealing with the BB shell.

badgnome

I called my LBS and they said the only Fuji Touring Disc available for special order is the 64cm. Is this the end of the production for this year or will it be discontinued or something else?

rifraf

Just out of curiosity, is there any butting of those Reynolds 520 frame tubes?

Paul Barnard

https://toposoutdoor.com/products/fu...16848810803290

Paul Barnard

That seems utterly moronic to me. We live in a mobile society. People take vacations. People work away from home for extended periods of time. Military service members transfer often. Why you wouldn't want to make money servicing their bikes is unfathomable to me. I won't do any kind of business with a business like that.

I am retired Coast Guard. I transferred often. I went to local boat dealer to have a basic service done on my outboard. The told me they wouldn't service it if I didn't buy it there. I reminded them that Keesler Air Force Base and the Navy Seabee base had nearly 10,000 people stationed there and that those people transfer often. I got a shrug. I asked him if they would sell those people a boat. He said of course. Then I asked him where he thought they should get it serviced when they transfer in 2 years. Blank look. I stayed in the area after I retired and have bought a number of new and used boats since. Guess whose doorway I have not darkened?

Dumb.

badgnome

Good deal but that's the base version and not the disc one.

gravelslider

Nice! I think that about sums up Fuji as a brand...

Fuji made the marketing mistake of year after year trying to grow market share by discounting. They overproduced models every year and then discounted them and dumped the unsold inventory to liquidators every fall while dealers were all stuck competing with full price merchandise in the shops. They just wound up with the same share, an alienated dealer network, a mediocre brand image and bankrupt.

Their bikes are okay. For the price...

For me. I'd rather associate the brand I ride with a company that I have some respect for... I may pay a bit more sometimes, but I do not shop at Walmart or Amazon either...

mstateglfr 

Interesting interpretation of events.