agnewton

Craiglist giveth a $60 Fuji Special Road Racer. It has many of the charms of a $60 CL bike, but appears original enough and I am using it as tear down/ build up/ learning exercise. I'm hoping it'll give a decent ride when re-assembled. I am pretty sure it's been in an accident as I discovered that the drop bars were twisted/ bent and there's a small dent in the head tube (behind the Fuji badge) when I tore it down. The front fork seems to have been replaced after the suspected accident also.

I am replacing the ball bearings in the head set. The ones I have removed are 5/32" but the size specified on one of the classic Fuji websites is 3/32" (51 pcs) -- spec from an old catalog of replacement parts and components scanned from "Frank's Spoke 'N Wheel", sorry I can't remember who put it on the web, but my thanks to them. The fork is all chrome, not just the tips as per the Fuji sales catalogs. The parts catalog lists replacement forks as "all C.P.". The fork is also stamped "Made in Japan Naniwa" and included an old school, two-tone "Grocery $70" price tag on the fork that was concealed by the head tube.

So I have two(ish) questions:
1) Assuming the headset cups/ cones are original, are there any negatives to returning the bearings to their original spec'd size (3/32")? Or should I replace like for like (5/32")? How would I know if the headset is original?

2) Just a question of curiosity. Does anyone know if the original/ replacement forks for Fuji were made by "Naniwa"? Is the replacement fork "Fuji Approved"?

thanks. Aric

Hudson308 

An '81 Fuji S12-S Fork looks like this, before and after media blasting. Your earlier S10-S fork may be different. I don't remember anything stamped on the steerer tube, but the "Fuji" engraved in the top of the fork crown was pretty obvious.

JohnDThompson 

The Fuji S10S bikes I've worked on all had 5/32" balls in the headset. If the make & model of the headset is marked, post it here and perhaps we'll be able to tell you what ball size it is designed to use. If there are no markings on the headset, post a picture(s) and it will help determine what you need.

agnewton

Thanks JohnDThompson and Hudson308 for your replies and sorry for my delayed response. I am cleaning up the S10S (1973) as half of a pair with a '74 S10S mixte. I got the stem unstuck on the mixte yesterday, so I was able to collect a bit more info.

The fork crown lugs on both of these are a bit different from the picture you posted Hudson308. There is no Fuji stamp on either fork crown and the stamping on each of these steerer tubes is different. The S10S mixte stamp was only half-way successful (readable), but it's three characters stacked vertically: the first is two concentric circles with an "S" or "5" joining the two circles in the lower part; the second is an "8" or "3"; and the final character, if I had to guess, is a "K" absent the left vertical line. The fork crown lugs on the two bikes are similar (but not identical) to one another and different from those in the photo of the '81 fork you posted. I'll just assume the "Naniwa" fork is contemporary to the year of the accident and be satisfied that it preserves the "Japanese"-ness of the bike.

I haven't been able to locate any distinguishing marks on either headset, but the S10S mixte also had 5/32" ball bearings (N= 52). I was only able to collect 48 BB from the S10S, but it started pretty rough so I assume that some are missing. The adjustable cones on the headsets (tops) seem to be the same and the spacer on the men's bike appears to have had the locater "key" ground out to work with the "Naniwa" steerer tube. Maybe I'm putting too much energy into a 45 year old catalog misprint(?).

Sorry for the thousand word description, but I haven't made it to ten posts yet, so any pictures of the headsets will have to wait a few more exchanges. Thanks again.

Hudson308 

These are interesting, nice riding bikes. Looking forward to seeing pictures when you get to 10 posts.

agnewton

I'll be sure to share a pic when I get there. The mixte should be done by the weekend. I've got a deadline.