Originally Posted by
Hiro11
I miss the days back in the 80s when Miyata, Fuji, Univega, Panasonic, Bridgestone etc were producing unique, top quality frames at reasonable prices. I had a Miyata 914 that was beautiftully made and cost maybe $700 with Shimano tricolor 600. Bike brands are all just meaningless brands now, very few brands actually make anything.
In that company, I thought Fuji was the stodgy one, at least until the end of the '70s. The Team and Pro were pretty nice. Univega was cool because Ben Lawee always had that Italian aesthetic going, and Bridgestone had Grant Petersen before he went total retro-grouch. Japanese Fujis were always well made but to me they lacked curb-appeal. As if they were designed by a committee that didn't really know what it was going after.
Actually, I'm quite fond of Fuji's Roubaix line. I think it's one of the best road bikes available at this kind of price. It's the ill-conceived hybrids like the Absolute, the off-target mountain bikes, the flat foot disaster called the Saratoga, and the ultra-low-end Newest range that get my scorn. They reflect an attitude of follow the leaders, source the cheapest components, and beat them on price even if the package doesn't work as a whole.
Fuji probably makes more money licensing the Roubaix brand to Specialized than it does selling Roubaixs, but that's OK by me. It's a cool bike.