General Cycling Discussion - Why are Fuji bikes so cheap?

A "new in box" Fuji Roubaix Pro road bike just went for $700 on ebay. The same bike is selling for $900-ish at bike shops, which is still a very good price for a Reynolds 853 steel bike with 105 and a carbon fork. These bikes were going for $1200 or more during the season.

There seem to be other, similar deals on (surplus?) Fuji bikes of many different styles and types.

So why Fuji and not, say, Iron Horse or Jamis? Where are all these bikes coming from and why are they flooding both the local bike shops and the Internet?

Does anyone know anything specific?

RichC

yeah, that's occurred to me, too. in fact, I was pretty close to getting one myself before a deal at the LBS came up, and I couldn't say no.

and yet, none of the bikes I notice on the road are Fujis. actually, I can't remember ever having seen one.

==-alex.

While I own a Fuji touring bike and find it quite adequate and very well made, we must recognize there is a difference between a custom made bike like Klein and a factory assembled bike from Taiwan. Not to say factory assembled bikes can't be good. Just a differnece between methods of manufacture..?
Maybe, unfortunately- reason I bought my Fuji over other custom made bikes, my wife railed on about how much money I spent on my Klein..

Originally posted by cyclezealot
While I own a Fuji touring bike and find it quite adequate and very well made, we must recognize there is a difference between a custom made bike like Klein and a factory assembled bike from Taiwan. Not to say factory assembled bikes can't be good. Just a differnece between methods of manufacture..?


That explains why a Fuji is cheaper than a Klein. But what I'm wondering is why, all of a sudden, there seem to be so many 2002 Fuji's that are cheaper than they themselves used to be. Roubaix Pro's were selling for $1200-1300 at the beginning of the season. You'd expect the price to drop to maybe $1000 for leftovers in the Fall, but we're seeing $700-900 prices with all sizes available. Did they simply make too many?

RichC

I can tell you from an international business standpoint that both the Japan yen and the Taiwan NTD have devaluated against the US dollar this year.

It makes foreign made products cheaper to buy in the USA.

There may be other factors, but this is certainly a contributing factor. I don't think that the currency exchange can account for the drastic price decrease. Who knows. Dumping comes to mind.

Originally posted by cyclezealot
Not to say factory assembled bikes can't be good. Just a differnece between methods of manufacture..?
Klein might be a different story, but there really is no difference in the process or quality of manufacturing between the US and Taiwan mass-produced bikes. The difference, aside from the language spoken on the line, is more in the area of QA, which tends to be slightly more careful in the US.

Originally posted by velocipedio

Klein might be a different story, but there really is no difference in the process or quality of manufacturing between the US and Taiwan mass-produced bikes. The difference, aside from the language spoken on the line, is more in the area of QA, which tends to be slightly more careful in the US.

I can assure you from personal manufacturing experience, velocipedio, there is a huge difference in QA (quality assurance) between Taiwan and the USA. For many reasons, the quality produced in the USA is significantly better than that produced in Taiwan for virtually all products.

Products produced in Japan are also significantly better than products produced in Taiwan.

Products produced in Britain and Germany are significantly better than products produced in Taiwan.

The problem is that few consumers are willing to pay the cost premium for having products produced in the USA, Japan, Britain, or Germany.

Interestingly, many Japanese consumers ARE willing to pay a premium for better quality. In most of the world, Japanese name brands are actually produced in other less costly locations such as Malaysia, China, and Taiwan. However, in Japan you can still buy Japanese made products, but the price is higher than the imports. In the bicycle trade, for example, the consumer can chose between a Japanese made Bridgestone bicycle or a foreign made bicycle. The foreign made is considered to be of inferior quality and costs significantly less.

I suppose the same is true for USA Trek, for example. The low end models are produced in China while the high end products are produced in Wisconsin, USA.

I had a Fuji road bike for a short amount of time. I liked the bike, but sold it (long story. you know how some of us are. can't keep the same bike for longer than a month).

I totally agree with the quality issue. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean that Fuji bikes suck. They just cut cost with mass production, which equals less quality control. Cheaper labor also.

In addition, I suspect that Fuji is going after the "eye-candy" market. People see Reynolds 853 with Shimano 105 and they say, "Wow, how can you beat that deal!" Once again, it doesn't mean that the bikes are bad. To me, it just means that a few more bad ones will slip into the stores.

Fuji does sponsor a pro road team. I saw them on OLN, riding their Fujis.