3alarmer 

.
...I bought this for the parts, which I need for some restoration work on a 1971 Fuji Finest sometime next year.

I'm curious about what it started out it's life as, before someone outfitted it with Campy hubs with tubular wheels/tyres, a Sugino Mighty crank, a Shimano Crane rear derailleur, some Campy DT shifters, and what looks to be a fairly decent repaint. The chainstays are short, at about 15 inches (much shorter than the Finest geometry), and it has a folded and welded fork crown, as well as requiring what seems to be either a 25.8, or a 26.0 seat post.

Is this an older S-10-S, made from butted hi ten tubing ? Or is it something else entirely ?

bikemig 

Are you dating the bike by the serial number? Is the 7 what you are using to date it as a '72?

If this is a '72, there were only 4 models and the S 10 S had cheaper drop outs than this bike.The forged drop out suggests a nice bike but the seatpost diameter which may have been squished down suggests a lower end bike.

https://classicfuji.posthaven.com/1972-fuji-catalog

I've never been able to properly date my Fuji Finest but this is likely the best source for figuring that out (and I assume this is the resource you used in dating your bike):

https://classicfuji.posthaven.com/fu...om-bill-reavis

3alarmer 

.
...I went with the explanation in T-Mar 's Asian serial number data base, here :

himespau 

I wonder what that dropout says under the paint.

3alarmer 

....I think it's the same dropout they used on the Finest.

bikemig 

If it's a 72 with that drop out then it's not an S 10 S; it's either a Finest or a Newest. Is there chrome underneath the paint? The seatpost is a puzzle as it should be 27.2 but maybe it's been damaged over the years? Or perhaps it's not a '72.

T-Mar

Besides the dropouts, the stay end and stay cap treatments are not what I'd expect on an S-10-S. I'm assuming the bottle bosses were added prior to the repaint. Based on the crown, lugs and stay caps, this looks like a Finest, as opposed to a Newest. Might the cinch slot have pinched due to an undersize post? Also, if you were measuring the tube inner diameter measuring with calipers, there might have been a spec of dirt on the jaws, that could cause an undersize measurement.

3alarmer 

...no, I'm sadly correct on the seat tube measurement, and it's not pinched at the seat lug at all. This is measured by inserting a few posts in the sizes from 25.8 to 26.0. The 26.0 post will go in, but it is a very snug fit, and I haven't greased it yet to try insertion much past a few inches at the top. So it might be reamed to 25.8. The stay caps do seem to indicate a nicer bike frame, as do the dropouts. But I can't quite comprehend the seat post diameter.

I was confused at first by the repaint, I think. And the bottle bosses were, I presume like you, part of the updates and overhaul. The chrome frame, pictured above for the dropout lettering, which is definitely an early Fuji Finest, (and why I bought this one as a parts donor,) has chain stays that measure 17" long. The gold frame has chain stays that come in at 15 inches. And they do have identical seat tube length. This gold frame is also just a tad shorter in the top tube.

I presume the exterior dimensions of the tubing are the same on both bicycles. Not sure what to make of this. A practice bike on the assembly line for someone who wanted to move up to brazing the Finest ? Some kind of momentary parts shortage in the inventory department that produced the S 10 S ? It's a mystery to me.

The wheels and other components that were on this when I got it were what you'd expect if some amateur racer had made some upgrades on a budget. And it came from Davis, where there was a relatively small, but nonetheless dedicated amateur road racing contingent for many years. The kid I bought it from said he rescued it from the curbside pickup, when his girl friend's old landlord put it out there one day. So he didn't know much about it either.

zukahn1 

I'm think a Finest from this time frame could be a different year. Most the different models and later year Fuji's I know of would have different dropouts. The seat binder does look to have been fairly aggressively clamped down. I would see about getting a shop to check it with round seat post gage to verify the correct size and see if it is out of round slight squashed which if they have the tools can usually be corrected fairly easy without needed a partial repaint.

zukahn1 

That would make this a mystery to me based on the additional details of not quit as nicley done dropouts as I would expect and the heavy seem on the BB. All I can think of is maybe it is none US, Japanese or Asian market model one or two steps below the finest lot of which weren't in the catalog's.

3alarmer 

...really, I have all that stuff, and I'm checking it with posts, for size. It's round, and it's round down at least past the lug. Now I'm curious if it might have had some sort of insert brazed in there, and them been re-reamed. I will check and report back with a photo of the seat lug from the top.

bikemig 

It wouldn't surprise me if the Newest has shorter chain stays than the Finest. The Finest is really closer to a fast touring bike than a racing bike. But perhaps someone here knows the answer to that.

I've not seen a good discussion of the differences between the 2 models but the Newest is one model above the Finest.

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...er-finest.html

3alarmer 

...still takes a 26.0 mm post. Finest, with the seat tube brazed in upside down, maybe ? I was wrong in my seat stay measurements. This one is very close in seat stay length to the chrome one. Not sure what I was measuring before, but they are identical in geometry.

26.0 post is a nice, close, sliding fit for at least six inches.

zukahn1 

That is odd it does look like someone nicely brazed a shim in there to resize the post like you mentioned earlier can't figure any reason to do this unless someone did it to bolster repair a small fracture crack in the lug. which after brazing and repaint one likely couldn't see.

Hummer

I do not disagree with the assessment of the bicycle.

However the serial number stamping is odd for a Fuji from Showa year 47.

Most of the export Fuji serial numbers from this year were stamped on the seat tube.
An example is in the album of member @buzze40

https://www.bikeforums.net/g/album/21048856


Also the characters are in two different fonts. The last 2 or 3 characters are a different font from the first characters.
The "3" normally had a flat top. The "9" should look like an upside-down "6". I have seen this style of "9" on old Araya Swallow serial numbers.

Just an observation.

3alarmer 

.
...thanks to everyone who chimed in on this. I have now accepted that it is an old, 1972 Fuji Finest (which is what I thought it was originally, when I spotted it for sale on CL). It simply appears to have something idiosyncratic going on with the seat tube, possibly due to its colorful history. I'm gonn hang it up in the repaint project line, and maybe fix it up along with the original repaint Fuji project. I think I have enough parts to do both of them, and the guy at Velocals has a reasonably good sticker set for the early Fuji Finest.

3alarmer 

.
...for informational purposes only, I just took out the seat post from the '71 Finest, in the process of dismantling it for painting.
It's 26.6, which is one of the sizes listed for early Fuji posts in various links online. https://sheldonbrown.com/seatpost-sizes.html

zukahn1 

The good thing is whoever did the minor repair work and additional braze on's did a very good job to bad they weren't so great at paint.