icepick_trotsky 

Can anyone enlighten me on the '80s Fuji touring lineup? I know that the Series III, IV, and V were at the top of the heap, but the catalogs also show a lot of other touring or "sport touring" models at a more modest budget. Are any of these worth seeking out/picking up if happened upon?

wrk101

The marketing departments at most bike companies played fast and loose with model names. Names like Grand, Racing, Touring, Deluxe, etc. were often used on bikes that were anything but. Heaviest bike I ever owned was a model "Lite Weight". The Fuji catalogs are all on line, the Series Touring bikes were the "real" thing for 1980s touring Fujis.

As far as seeking, at the right price, some of the lower ones were OK, depends on budget limitations, price, condition, etc. And model specs tended to change every couple of years, so a model could be decent one year, and pretty basic another year. No hard and fast rules.

The "America" was another touring model, although most years did not have cantilever brakes.

My favorite misleading name of all time was the Ross Gran Touring Professional. Nothing Grand about the bike, it was not anything close to a Professional model, and I would not consider it anything like a touring bike either. But they sold a lot of them. And in the end, people have toured on all kinds of bikes, from Walmart crap to racing bikes.