Fuji America "Score" #2 for 2021
 

I brought home a 1980 Fuji America last night. I didnt have high hopes for its condition, But the seller held it for me and it cost me a $100 and an hour detour into Eastern Pennsyltucky to find out. Of course it was raining pretty good when I got to the landmark meat market just off the side the highway, so I got as far as seeing that the mechanical condition was good, but the frame had some rust issues to deal with. Now when I got it home, and cleaned up a bit I noticed that the chainstays had been been reasonably neatly painted over with silver auto paint, to cover rusty chrome. It also looks like at some point the bike had been clear coated, apparently over active rust spots. I was hoping that this would be clean enough to bump my very clean Fuji S-12-S from the 650b Queue, but his ones going to need paint work.

So before I hang this from the ceiling and get back to the other 37 concurrent projects, I was wondering if any one had any thoughts about frame work that will make this a better 650b candidate? I'm getting a 50mm clearance measurement for 650b at the chain stays, and the same at the fork, so 40mm actual tires should work with a modern wheel build. I think the 1980 America is built with a 60mm fork offset, which is pretty close to the 65mm "standard", so I'm not sure If that needs tweaking. My "good " wheelset is spaced at 126mm so I don't need to change the rear spacing.

That leaves me with smaller non critical braze-ons for the rear brake, a 2nd water bottle, "rando" rack mounts on the fork, pump pegs and maybe some dynamo wire routing. Which is stuff I can get done "locally" or take on my self.

The big question of course will be what color paint or powder coat will be suitable for a Franco-Japanese Randoneusse?

Pictures to follow.

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That's too bad about the rust and paint issues but you easily got a $100 worth of parts out of the deal. I'd paint it blue since that is the right color for a Fuji America.

I've wanted one of these for a while but I ended up with a Fuji Finest which works for me. I think the America sort of took over the spot in the line up for the Finest. The Finest was marketed as a racing bike but it has lots of clearance for fat tires so very similar in terms of geometry to the later Fuji America.

The bike defiantly suffered more from neglect than abuse. It looks like it had a tune up before it got left in a shed for a decade. I don't think its a one owner bike, but some one had personal preferences and swapped out the bar ends for downtube shifters and switched the free wheel to a corn cob.

I kind of like the light blue panel and head tube color. Its close to a Miyata In the garage. Chances are it will get a single color paint job on the frame, and I'll have the fork chrome masked.

I'd also add downtube cable stops, just for added flexibility later on. It's nice to never need a clamp there no matter how you decide to shift.

I'd also add bridge/crown fender mounts, even if you're not initially thinking fenders, just because they make life so much easier if you decide to add fenders later on. One threaded boss under the fork crown, in the hole, a threaded boss in the chainstay bridge, which is already drilled, and another shallow one underneath the brake bridge is all you need. I wouldn't bother moving either bridge, since I don't think the brake bridge would need to go any higher, and with horizontal drops I'd rather live with an imperfect forward fender line to make wheel removal easier.

Might want to check actual tire clearances in the rear with a 650b wheel, to see if a little more chainstay dimpling would get you a bit more tire clearance. Kind of more of a future-proof thing, maybe, but it might be nice to have the option to wider in the rear with a new/different fork---someday?

And if you really wanted to go over the top, how 'bout canti bz-ons? That'd minimize any tire/brake clearance issues, and maybe give you more solid braking than you'd get from mega-long rim calipers.

I have a little stake in this, having a slightly taller America the same vintage as yours. Paid a little more than you did, for just the frameset and quite a few years back, so I'd say you did well. I got the frame first, and it sat forkless for a long time, then the same seller on ebay popped up with the matching fork just a coupla years ago. Mine has similar cosmetic issues, and the chainstay dimpling looks like a previous owner tried to do some clumsy home metalworking, so I'm thinking of a respray with some dimpling help at a miniumum just to make it look less janky.

Not sure I want to go with the whole bz-on suite, but it's both tempting and I know it'd make the build and tweaking a lot easier. Any you can work through all the bugs for me!

My thoughts exactly re First/America.
Love my 72 Finest and have 77 America parts bike due to rusty stays. Geometry specs are amazingly similar.
77 had a swaged crank. 78 onward is the one to get and if a blue one (23") pops up I'd grab it.

That was an interesting time in the US bike market, with "racing" spec moving away from Euro-style long-course/stage geometry/clearances towards short-course/criterium tight/stiff/quick-handling designs. For Fuji, the Newest and Finest adopted the Professional's crit-friendly geometry, and the America, targeted as a touring bike, more closely maintained the geometry of the earlier Finest, which would eventually be called sport-tour geometry. Full-on touring designs were also hitting the market, with complete touring spec from Miyata, Panasonic and others. Fuji was late to the full-touring market in the US, bringing out the Touring Series models a good 3-4yrs after Miyata and Panasonic touring models appeared.

I think the Finest and the Fuji America may have overlapped for one model year but it's clear that the Finest like the America is really a sports touring model. Of course in the early 70s, that was considered a "racing" bike. I really like 70s and early 70s racing bikes because they have generous clearance for decent sized tires and they have eyelets.

This 70s era Finest is one of the best long distance machines I have ridden. I built it up with an SR apex triple, 48-38-28 rings, and a 13-28 7 speed freewheel as it was spread to 126 OLD:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...da8f555357.jpg

Yeah, I think '76/'77 the Finest and America were both in the US line, with very similar geometry. In '78 the Finest became the crit-geo Finest Mark II. The America and Finest MkII continued in the line through '82. In '83 Finest MkII and the Newest kinda merged into the Opus III. In '84 the America was replaced by the Touring Series bikes, marking the end of higher-end Japan-built sport-tour designs.

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I don't remember what year this is from, but it looks like the top tube leangth on the Finest II caught up with the America at some point.

From the enthusiastic response's, I'm gathering that I've got a good frame to start with for a 650b specific build. I was kind of looking at this as an improvement to the the S-10-S and a place holder till I can gather the resources to have a certain individual in Portland transmogrify a Raleigh Competition. I'm pretty confident I could handle the small braze-ons with silver and find some one to do canti posts with bronze, but brazed on center-pulls seems seems a lot more involved, and a rarer skill set. So the question is, whether I should consider the Fuji America to be in the weight class as a Raleigh Competition? Thanks

I never worry too much about weight if the bike is made of quality tubing from a reputable builder. You won’t go wrong with either the Fuji America or the Raleigh Competition. The S10 has a chrome moly main triangle.

I guess weight class is the wrong analogy.. I could have been a contender...

If you mean are the 2 bikes the same quality, I think so and the Fuji America might get the nod as between the 2 bikes. The tubing is comparable (Reynolds 531 versus chrome moly) but there are a lot of posts here talking about brazing issues with Raleighs and few if any saying the same about Fuji. Fuji likely had better quality control.

There is also the coolness factor but that is subjective obviously. Personally I'd do a 650b conversion on the Fuji especially since the paint job/chrome is troubled.

I'm not sure I'm man enough to ride a Gugie 'Merkin.....

Oooh, very cool, I haven't seen this one before.

'78 model year, going by Fuji America catalogs. Interestingly doesn't show the Intermediate Track, which was in the catalog.

This was the first year of the Finest MkII, and you'll see it's very, very close to the same geo as the Newest/Pro. Main difference I'm spotting is a little more fork offset, 45mm vs 40mm, which with the same head tube gives a little less trail: 50mm for the Finest MkII, 55mm for the Newest/Pro.

Also interesting that the America has a little less fork offset than the S-10S series, 60/65mm, so a little higher trail: 43/38.

OH MAMA!! There's a reason they were call "Finest"... The Fujis are timeless.