Originally Posted by
beech333
Scott, Scott's friend(William), and I have an interesting story that resulted in
my 75 Pro, but I'll leave Scott to tell the full tale.
Yes, I posted the story back in August .. but I'll show it again with some more photos.
For those who don't know, Gene Ritvo, to me, was the "father" of Fuji in the U.S. He spec's the S10-S for the American market, picked all the Fuji models, colors and components during those early years. If there is a Fuji to be owned that has provenance, his would be at the top of the list.
This is also a good story of how our Fuji network stretches from coast to coast.
Matt dropped me an email in January inquiring whether I'd seen the post by a C&V member named Kevin looking for an appraisal on his 1982 Fuji Pro .. I'd missed it but Matt was kind enough to give me the heads up. It was a tad big for him but would fit me just fine. Matt had been coveting my '84 Fuji Super Record, which I 'd bought from BianchiGirl .. that was a bit small and I didn't ride it as much as I'd hoped. The deal had begun! I sold my Super Record to Matt and used the proceeds to fund the '82 Professional from member Kevin. To both of us it was a win/win situation.
During my conversations with Kevin, he mentioned he'd received an email from a gentleman on the west coast who was the original owner of an '82 Newest .. he passed that email on to me, I made my inquiries and met a great guy named Kurt. Kurt had worked at LifeCycles (the shop Gene started) in Cambridge, Mass back in the early eighties where he had purchased his Newest. We'd heard about a lot of the same people ... Gene Ritvo was one of the names I'd heard and read about.
Kurt needed to get some sense of value of his Newest before selling so he made some calls to some old buddies back in the Boston area. Lo and behold, he found out that Gene had died last November. He also found out that his collection of Fuji's were planning to be put up on EBay in the very near future. Kurt and I agreed on a price for the Newest and by early spring had the '82 Pro and the '82 Newest in my group.
Kurt put me in touch with the person who was selling the collection, a wonderful person named Warren who works at Belmont Wheelworks. I took a trip out to see the group, there was the '76 black Road Pro, the '76 black Track (a matching set) and the grey Pro that Matt now owns. Also, an unbuilt Super Record with all of it's parts and a '85 Opus III frame.
I knew I couldn't afford all of them .. so I contacted my friend William in NYC .. He'd worked at Fuji in the '70's as a graphic designer, the "three dot" Fuji logo is his, plus a ton of the other collateral material you see from that era. He has an amazing collection of Fuji's ... mostly Newests, Finests and Pro's. Of course, he knew of Gene and LifeCycles.
It was agreed that he would buy the collection outright and possible sell one or two of the models. I already had a grey Professional, so Matt expressed interest that if one became available, he'd like to be considered. William and I discussed splitting up the matched set Professionals but we decided against that. They just look to good together to be separated. I decided on the unbuilt Opus III frame which I'm currently working on. (Now completed)
So, it's come full circle, Matt started it rolling, I got to meet some great people, learn a ton about Fuji and Matt has the '75 (first year) Professional .. doesn't get much better for Fuji lovers ..