jamesdak 

This is so very cool, on so very many levels!!

jamesdak 

I'll add in this updated pic of my Opus III. I think I have it right where I want it now. I think this is my most classically beautiful ride.

greg3rd48 

@jamesdak There is just something about a classic Fuji. Yours is exemplary.

Pompiere

My son's 1989 Club Fuji. I found it at a yard sale about 10 years ago really cheap. The seat post was stuck and tires were rotten, and the seat was shredded, but it had all the original parts. I got it road worthy, but my son was not a fan of the downtube shifters after crashing while reaching down to shift. I found a pair of 105 brake/shift levers for $5 at an antique mall, so I put those on. They were 8 speed and while they worked okay with the 7 speed hub, he needed better gearing, since he isn't in the flat lands any more. The crash messed up the rear wheel and I wasn't able to get it completely straight. Today I swapped in a set of wheels, found at another yard sale, with an 8 speed 11-30 cassette. The shifting is much better, too.

Deal4Fuji

A little help please - can anyone tell from the photo what size frame this is? The '84 Team Fuji taller frames were made in 61 & 64 cm. Sorry for the non-drive side pic, It came with Sun Tour Cyclone Mark II gearing. Not done with this one yet, but getting there.

Murray Missile 

64cm (25 inch), that's what I normally ride.

Deal4Fuji

Thanks MM! that's what I suspected, but wanted to confirm. 27" or 66cm is what fits me best, so I've got a quill stem riser to put on to get those bars rotated back to a more normal position.

polymorphself 

My recently finished 1981 Royale.

Wileyone 

I came accross this 1978 Fuji Professional at a Swap meet. As far as I can tell everything is Factory original. Unfortunately it had no Wheelset. So I had an extra set at Home i put on till I find something else. The Bike is in amazing original condition. This is my first Japanese Road Bike in many Years.

ScottRyder 

Gorgeous, what a find!!

Scott

greg3rd48 

@Wileyone Now that is a find! What a beauty.

Don Buska

Indeed a really nice find. Looks like a Suntour Superbe handlebar stem as well. Heck those go for over $100 alone. Enjoy the bike. I love Fuji's myself.

Wileyone 

Thanks @ScottRyder, @greg3rd48 and @Don Buska.

Don I was wondering about the Stem also. It looks the same as the Superbe one but lacks the cutout on front top of the clamp. In the 1978 spec sheet they list the Stem as a Nitto Pearl-G (it lacks the front cutout).

1978 Fuji Pro spec sheet. https://www.classicfuji.com/1978_16_S...ions1_Page.htm

The spec sheet also lists the Crankset as a Sugino Super Mighty Victory while mine is Stamped Superbe. They look to be identical. Not all that familiar with Fuji's "yet" but I am learning. I Love knowing the History.

Don Buska

Ok on the stem. Kusuki (Medalilion) made the Superbe stems for Suntour for a few years only. However, even the Kusuki's own version didn't have the fluting on the arm, but instead had a hole bored down the arms inside, which was probably responsible for the notched out front initially. Still the Pearl line is also Nitto's top end stuff. FWIW, several companies made stems with that front notched out. Even SR (Sakae Ringyo) made a version, albeit I have still not encountered one in real life. So many of the SR high end pieces never got put on to production bikes and only got added as after market upgrades or on perhaps some custom made bikes.

I do have that Suntour Superbe RS-1000 stem on my 1980 Fuji Newest (Just added this past winter). I'm almost ashamed to say how much I had to pay to get one. It's a 85mm reach, their shortest version, which I required. However, I had built up that Newest from the frame up and it's was all Suntour Superbe 1st generation components and the handlebar stem was my last remaining item to find. Oh yeah, regarding the cranks. The real noticeable difference, beside the arm engravings, between the Sugino version and their Superbe version made for Suntour is the cut outs for the crank arms are a slightly different shape. The Superbe's are slightly narrower on one end of the cutout, whereas the Sugino is the same size on both ends. A very subtle difference but recognizable from a distance once you train your eyes to it. My 86 Fuji, see below, originally had that Sugino version on it, but just recently I upgraded it to the last generation CW-SB10 Superbe Pro version. Thus I was able to convert to a 52-39 front end due to the smaller 130 BCD ring mounting.

Be very careful, Vintage Fuji's can be very addictive I own four of them now, with one 1975 'The Finest' still to be built! My recent acquisition is a 1986 Fuji with a special built frame by Cherubim. Here is my forum post on that build. We are getting an early warm spring day today, albeit windy, so I'll be taking that 86 Fuji out for a 30 mile ride shortly. Enjoy the Professional, your starting out with one of their best for sure. The Japanese made some really great stuff in those golden years and Fuji always had two or more models in that top tier. Your spot on, IMHO, learning the history and working on these vintage bikes is half the fun.

Wileyone 

Thanks Don. Great info. I was also trying to find out about the lugs on the Pro. They seem to be quite ornate. Were they a Fuji made product or were they from another source?

VintageRide

Mounted a Gilles Berthoud 2886 on my '81 S12S - pretty well complete after also going from 38mm Soma B line tires to 42mm Hetres. It's a great riding machine that is my go to bike for most of the cycling I do, says a lot.

DQRider 

Wow. What an amazing build!

So you've gone 650b with fenders on this very wonderful frame? Perfect. Eventually that is my plan for all my 700c bikes, and the 27 inchers that will take it.

One wonders why the original manufacturers didn't think of it. But if course it was the racing mania that overtook all of them during the "bike boom" years. I mean, if you go to larger tires and more comfy geometry on the premium frames, people might not feel compelled to wear all the tight-fitting racer gear and other stuff that the industry has thrived on.

Thanks for the inspiration and validation for my master "Unracer" plan! Er, what's up with the license plate hanging from the saddlebag mount?

Don Buska

Fuji was a big user of Ishiwata tubing. However, on some of their high end bikes they could outsource the frame, like they did with Cherubim, and you could get a few oddities thrown in on the lugging side. Hit some of the online Japanese tubing catalogs and look closely at their lug offerings and you'll probably come across what is on your Professional.

Good luck with the search. Write up any interesting findings you discover and share them on the forum. Great reference material for future restorers.

Kilroy1988 

@Wileyone

That Professional is an amazing machine! Very cool find, indeed! Might I ask what the dimensions on the frame are? It looks tall, but the top tube also looks proportionately long, so my eyes might be tricking me.

-Gregory

VintageRide

DQRider


It is always nice to be able to encourage and in your case also inspire another person to consider building up one of these vintage Fujis around a 650B conversion - I cannot speak for some of the other models in and around the mid '70's until about 1983 but the S10S, S12S ( and Ltd ) as well as America are all perfectly suited to being used as basically a Randonneur bike, the trail numbers are nice and low and so using a front rack mounted bag works very well.


This was my first try at low trail/front load and I purchased the frame out of California about 4 years ago - these Fujis were not normally sold in Canada during the time frame mentioned, at least not in Western Canada that I am aware of, one rarely come across any - maybe 5 or 6 different models were spotted locally since I have had this bike.


All you really need are Dia Compe 750 center pull brakes - with a bit of fitting the fenders (45mm widened out to almost 50mm) will just fit between the fork legs, the rear is fine. I had this frame re spaced to 135mm to accommodate the wheel set I had on hand, which uses an XT hub with Shimano 9 speed 11-34 cassette along with a Sugino XD600 triple crank set ( using an older early '90's XT front changer ) with Campagnolo 10 speed Ergo shifters - had to use a Shift Mate to make the rear derailleur work ( 2006 Shimano XT ) although if you use the later redesigned 11 speed Ergos they work without a Shift Mate - use that set up on a Rawland Stag.

Anyway, the bike works very well and is comfortable, stable and fun. As the Japanese bike industry had, in years past, a generally positive influence from the French it is no surprise to find these Fujis take so well to being converted to 650b, a fluke? Possibly but one has to figure it was not an accident. True they built in more fork rake when using 27" wheels to help with steering stability but regardless I am very glad I went with Fuji - hope to find a top end America one day and convert it. If you do some searching there are at least 3 or 4 other Fujis that have been similarly converted by other members.


And the license plate? It is from Winnipeg, my home town and is from 1973, just something to remember when in my early teens during the bike boom period when I started admiring all of those French, British and Italian 10 speeds that seemed to be everywhere. I rode a light green Peugeot U0 8 at the time, my first "decent" bike.


Here is another image:

Wileyone 

Thankyou.

It's funny you say that. When I first saw it I had thought it at least a 60. But it measures out at 58 square. Still it is a little big for me as I usually ride a 56 or 57 which is my ideal size.

Wileyone 

Thanks Don. I will do that. And report back any findings.

Cheers Scotty

cycleheimer

My 1981 Royale "commuter" with mid-70's SunTour bar-end shifters. Rock solid Fuji dependability!

bikemig 

I picked up this 1972 Fuji Finest the other day. It is in exceptional shape. The paint and chrome look very sharp. The parts mix was good if not all original. The derailleurs, crank, and seatpost look to be original. The pedals are newer MKS, the bar and stem have been replaced, as have been the brakes. Plans are to keep the first generation dura ace brakes. The wheels that came on the bike were very good but did not look right as they are small flange hubs. I'll replace them with wheels on hand built around shimano 333 high flange hubs and Sun CR 18 rims. I'm running 27 x 1/14 pasela tires and they fit with room to spare. I'll replace the crank with a sugino mighty tour so I can run 48/34 rings. I'll likely replace the derailleurs with suntour VX as I want to run a bit larger freewheel (14-28). I'll likely run a sella anatomica nsx saddle which will look good I think on the bike. I'll probably use a nitto bar and stem and black cloth tape.

friendofpugs

Here is a mid 1970s Special Road Racer I recently overhauled - yes, I know the brake line is too high, I'm still a new fish when it comes to this stuff. The serial number is M9H00377 but I couldn't decode what year it was, I'm guessing 1976? It's the oldest bike I've overhauled so far, and it was pretty neat - the stem is cool, and I liked how simple everything was. I took it out for my first "longish" shakedown ride of five miles and I liked how it handled, very predictable, and I feel like these are monster truck tires, ride over everything! One thing I wasn't a fan of was the loose headset bearings - I found four of the buggers a few days later when sweeping the floor so I put them back in. I have it posted for sale locally but I'm wondering if I should keep it, or maybe sell it and wait for something fancier to show up.