Originally Posted by
jargo432
I was looking at the Fuji about a year ago, in the end I decided on the DT. (built it myself) The thing that worried me was the wheel set. I'd heard a couple of stories about broken spokes. I looked at what it would cost to put a good wheel set on the Fuji and it brought it to the price of a DT.
Assuming that DT means Disc Trucker... That is probably a reasonable decision if you like the DT better and or it is better suited to your style of touring. For me the DT and the LHT are a bit more of a truck than I want or even than I would have wanted when I was packing heavier. If you either carry a pretty heavy load or just like that kind of ride the Truckers are probably a better bike for you. I found the Fuji (actually the bikesdirect.com clone of the fuji) about right for me when I was carrying 45 pounds on my first tour (Trans America) and even when over time I cut the load to 22 pounds it was pretty nice, but when I went ultralight I went with a lighter bike with sportier geometry and liked it better.
I concede that I am a bit of an odd ball in that I like twitchy criterium bike handling just fine even for touring and also like to camp and cook with a super light load (14 pounds on the Southern Tier and I have trimmed a bit more since then). That said, my two companions on the Trans America found their Fuji clones well suited to long distance touring with medium loads. They probably carried 30-35 pounds on the TA, but the bikes would have been fine with more.
As far as the wheels on the Fuji, they are OK, but typically could benefit from a touch of hand tuning and stress relieving.