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Fuji Touring Bike

Old 11-06-07, 11:39 AM
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Fuji Touring Bike

Anyone here have any experiance with the Fuji Touring Bikes? What are your thoughts?
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Old 11-06-07, 03:24 PM
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Great bike for the price. The only real problem with the stock setup is that the rear rack is kind of wimpy for loaded touring, though fine for credit cards.

The gearing is a little bit high for most people, but that's a common failing of almost all mass-produced tourers. You can easily put a 34-tooth rear sprocket on, though, and that will help quite a bit.

As a bike, it rides well, and is very stable when loaded. It should also last as long as you want it to with regular maintenance. Although I can't speak to the stock tires, I personally find the Fuji saddle quite comfortable.

Also, it's green now!
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Old 11-06-07, 04:30 PM
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One of my girlfriends rides one and loves it. It's a sturdier touring frame than the one I ride and it's a little more stable fully loaded with its slightly slacker head tube and longer wheelbase. It would probably have fit me and my penchant for fat tires a bit better too. I'll agree that the OEM rack is a bit anemic for fully loaded stuff though.

Unfortunately, the nearest Fuji dealer is over an hour away and I couldn't get a good look at one let alone a test ride. I was also hesitant to bother with threaded headsets now that I have all the threadless tools. One of my LBS's is a Jamis dealer that trusts me to wrench on my own. They gave me a "special" deal knowing I'd dial in my own cockpit and wouldn't be back in for a bunch of post purchase tuning.
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Old 11-06-07, 07:51 PM
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I ride an '83 Fuji Touring for my commute that I picked up really cheap. I haven't had a chance to tour with it yet, but I love the ride. It seems very stable and comfortable riding pavement or gravel. Mine came without a rack so I never had to deal with the OEM rack.
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Old 11-07-07, 01:18 AM
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66,000km of touring, randonneuring, training and commuting. It's a 2002/03 model (the last one with the horizontal top tube), and has been my best cycling friend, but is now very sick after the right rear dropout broke (no fault of the manufacturer, however).

I don't know much about the current model, but here are some cautions:

The wheels (Alex rims, no-name spokes and hubs) were not particularly reliable. I broke a lot of rear spokes, and since changing out to other wheels, I have not had problems. I put the wheels on a fixed gear, and... broke spokes. I built or rebuilt both sets of wheels; but I didn't replace all the spokes in the rear, although I came close!!!

I find I need to concentrate more than I think I should to stop the bike from wandering off line. It means I cannot enjoy the scenery as much because I have to keep looking ahead and at the road to make sure I am not running off it.

Yes, the OEM rear rack is a lightweight job, and I broke the welds at the most rearward uprights while touring Europe in 2003 with only a moderate load. I replaced it with Topeak racks; it now has a tubular one with the top-deck mount for a Topeak trunk bag.

The seat is OK, but since changing to Brooks saddles (initially a Team Pro and now a B17), I was relieved of significant chafe issues that emerged on moderately long rides (150km or longer).

Apart from that, it handles pretty well; the frame is stiff enough to stand and climb fully loaded (of course, that's given that the panniers are soundly packed and mounted without too much weight hanging out the back pockets); it has braze-ons on the front fork which were among the deciding factors in buying the bike; the Tiagra brifters have been pretty reliable; and the fork and chainstays have plenty of room to install 35C or even wider tyres.

The original BB was pretty beefy with cartridge bearings. I replaced the original crankset with a 22-32-44 set that the Tiagra front derailleur seems to handle OK. The bike came with a nine-speed 32-11 cassette.
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Old 11-08-07, 04:15 AM
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Last year my friend Amanda and I set off a tour of Mexico. Her bike was a brand new fuji, I don't know the model. Story short: every single one of her spokes broke after roughly passed the 1000km mark, it was like one, two or maybe three spokes breaking every day so it was a pretty annoying experience since we also had difficulty finding the right size replacements.

We tried re tensioning them but it made no difference. After all of the rear wheeel ones were gone and replaced then the front wheel started popping as well. The spokes were clearly defective.

The bike frame might be good, but, for me, the image of that brand came down as terrible... Quality control of the components should be as important as anything else.
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Old 11-10-07, 10:09 AM
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When I went shopping for a new touring bike earlier this year, my LBS, a Fuji dealer, steered me away from the Fuiji tourer. Said he had had many problems with wheels and spokes--the wheels, as specd. by Fuji, were supposedly double wall, but were actually single. He steered me towards the Surly LHT, even though he's not a regular Surly dealer. I bought the LHT and couldn't be happier.
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Old 11-10-07, 10:18 AM
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Originally Posted by gnz
Last year my friend Amanda and I set off a tour of Mexico. Her bike was a brand new fuji, I don't know the model. Story short: every single one of her spokes broke after roughly passed the 1000km mark, it was like one, two or maybe three spokes breaking every day so it was a pretty annoying experience since we also had difficulty finding the right size replacements.
Hey GNZ,

FWIW, her bike is the Fuji "Touring" model.
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Old 11-10-07, 11:12 AM
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I knew they had difficulties with defective spokes in the past but I thought they got that worked out, and supposedly they replaced the wheels quite readily.
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Old 11-14-07, 05:30 PM
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I read on this thread that the spoke problem had been solved ,.so I bought a 07 fuji touring bike I started breaking spokes after 500 miles of light load riding, but mainly no load.so at the lbs advice I put mavic cx wheels on with 700- 28 and have no regets. I ride it every day and love the bike but havent had it full loaded on a tour yet.I am sure I will have to go to a wider tire for that but think the wheels will be ok.
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Old 01-27-08, 06:32 PM
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I have one and have had a few problems, after breaking four rearspokes I upgraded the wheels, problem solved, I also changed the cranks and lowered the gearing for the hills. The frame and the other parts of the bike are fine. I'd upgrade the rack for long tours. I commute about ten miles a day on mine and an occasional weekend ride
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Old 01-27-08, 06:50 PM
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Originally Posted by robow
I knew they had difficulties with defective spokes in the past but I thought they got that worked out, and supposedly they replaced the wheels quite readily.
I also thought they got things worked out with the spoke/wheel problems. I'm quite sure the Touring model was equipped with 32 spoke wheels f & r up until a year or so ago, where they are now using 36 spokes. If they are still experiencing problems, even without being fully loaded, they must be using very poor quality spokes or there is something wrong with the build process. Perhaps they should consider using some simple 14 ga DT spokes and raise the price of the bike by $50.00. It might save their reputation.

All the best,
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