Fuji del REY 12-speed
 

I've been doing some searches and haven't come up with any good info on this bike. There is one for sale in my city and I'm wondering if it was known as a good frame and worthwhile to buy -- they are asking $100. It has FUJI VALite tubing and is a quad-butted steel frame. It seems to be in decent condition, it will need new tires and wheels though....

Thanks for any info you may have.

I bought a used del Rey a couple of years ago for $75. It was what I would term a hybrid, probably a lower end model, and the frame was possibily the best thing about it. It appeared to be a mid-90's model, but my research showed that Fuji has used the model name for other types of bikes at times. I donated it to a local bike coop last fall although I can dig up more specs and a photo if you want them.

nah. that's cool. I did ended up finding an archived thread here about Fuji's. There is variance in what Del Rey models had good components, but it appears some of them came with decent stuff on them -- I suppose it depends on the year...

Quad butted Valite sounds like it's worth $100, easy. Look up Valite in here, especially what T-Mar has to say about it's characteristics. He discusses the loss of strength between cromoly, and manganese-molybdenum (Valite), when brazed automatically, and the Valite begins to approach cromoly in strength, because cromoly isn't able to stand up to the higher brazing temps that mangy-moly is. And quad-butted? That was state of the art in tubing. I'd go for it, if I liked the bike.



EDIT: My mistake, according to T-Mar, Valite is Vanadium-steel alloy. Similar to manganese-molybdenum, but not manganese-molybdenum.

Here, T-Mar on Manganese-Molybdenum.

My two Valite framed Fujis are a delight.

I recently sold a mid 80s Del Rey. It was a solid, solid bike. Frame construction was beautiful, very light frameset, Nitto bars and stem, Suntour Lepree which was a solid mid-level group, and Ukai rims with stainless spokes, much better than the galvanized spoked single-walled Araya rims found on many entry level bikes of the period. If it's of this vintage, features the quad butted VaLite tubeset, and is in good condition, I'd seriously consider it if I were you.

EDIT: Reread your post (reading is fundamental!). I'd say that price is fairl, though it's always a good idea to negotiate down :). If you can find a decent set of second hand wheels for a good price, you'll have a nice bike.

Here's a pic of the one I sold:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21...e_original.jpg

Thanks for the info guys. I believe they said it has mostly Suntour components and it is definitely the VALite quad butted tubing... They said the crank arm is stamped with FUJI so I don't know what brand the cranks would be.

My wife rode a Del Rey when we rode from San Fran to Bar Harbor Maine in 1984. 4200 miles in 39 days with no problems, she rides this bike to this day! I have a Fuji S12S that I have crossed the USA with twice now and rode this same bike this morning. I also just picked up an early 80's Univega Grantourismo thats perfect. As for riding and touring these early to mid 80's bikes from Japan can't be beat!!!

the cranks are SR ,they're ok, the smaller ring is 36t,good for hills. The whole bike is good for that price.As far as wheels,places on the net sell wheels for under $30 each for Wienmans,closer to 50 if it's 700c wheels which are to be had by Sun. Quad butted is chromoly of course,a worthy material.