Originally Posted by
eschlwc
^ comparing my '84 club to my two 531 bikes is difficult, because, even though the seat tubes are the same length, the wheels and geometry are slightly different. one 531 frame has the lightest wheels and shortest top tube, which makes it climb easier, but also makes it the least comfortable (just of these three bikes) elsewhere. the other 531 frame has the longest top tube and wheelbase, which seems to contribute to its overall comfort. but there's something special about the club bike. its overall design feels really sleek and fast. it's just hard to pin down and explain, but the club is one of my favorites to ride right now. i even sold two other japanese bikes recently after riding the club so much. now i've got my eye out for an even more high end fuji from the early '80s.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not bad mouthing the Fuji Club, I like riding it, but it wouldn't be my first choice to ride on a century. I'm sure the geometry are all slightly different on all the bikes I mentioned, but the tires are the same...if that matters. Obviously the wheels are all different but they all use 36 spokes, but the lightest wheels I have are on the Trek, it uses DT Revolution spokes on the front and DT Competition on the rear; while the Miyata team uses double butted 14/15 on both rims, but the Torelli's on the Trek are lighter; the Fuji uses straight gauge #14 spokes as does the Miyata 712. I think the Trek has the tightest geometry because that's the only bike that I have to deflate the rear tire and then squish it flat against the seat tube to slide it out, the others don't have to be flattened first to remove.
I know when I ride any of those 4 bikes both Miyata's surge when cranked hard due to the splined tubing's lateral strength I can only assume. That feeling is like you said, sleek and fast but it feels more like a surge at every push of the crank is how I explain it.
But the lightest steel bike that I currently own is that Fuji Club at 20.8 pounds completely factory stock except for the saddle and tires/tubes, the next lightest one is actually a tie between the Miyata Team and the Trek 660 at 21.1.
I do have a aluminum fork that came off a AL race bike I had that cracked at the head tube for no known reason (which is why I won't buy another aluminum bike!), anyway, I polished up the fork to an almost chrome like shine and I'm thinking about replacing the Fuji fork with it just for fun to see how light the Fuji could get. Without knowing the weight of the Fuji steel fork but roughly know what other higher end steel forks weigh (around a 1 1/2 pounds) I assume I should lose about a half a pound of weight doing the swap which would bring down the weight of the Fuji to 20.3 pound range. That's about as light as I would go unless I swapped the Trek's wheels to the Fuji which were the lightest 36 hole clincher rims available when I bought them. I thought about re-lacing the Fuji rims to go with DT Competition spokes, but it's just a thought.