SurferRosa

What would you pay for this heap?


https://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/bik/7541869634.html




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randyjawa 

Given a chance to look the bike over carefully, I would feel comfortable paying up to $100.00. If the bike proved to be in really good shape, I would be willing to sell it for $250.00 and probably settle for $200.00 from a respectful buyer. That said, based on the pictures, it is not really possible for me to make a picture based value call but I do see at least $100.00 value there.

SurferRosa

It was in Bremerton, a $10 walk-on, 1-hour ferry ride from downtown Seattle. So, besides the pics/presentation, that's one reason it sat on Craigslist for months at $85. I finally brought it home.




I have one of these nice Sugino cranksets on two of my bikes. This one's in wonderful shape. They don't really grow on trees. So that's the main reason I broke down and spent 4 hours in transit today for a crummy old road bike.

But it was a beautiful day.




....

SurferRosa

The frame's a lot nicer in person, compared to those horrible craigs photos, presented like it was part of a sex ring. With the nice set of Suntour barcons, I should easily break even and keep the crankset and awesome Mikashima pedals for myself.

Score with the Blackburn cage clamps too. I'll have to find a home for this.



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SurferRosa

Breaking it all down last night, it all went smooth until the end and found the expander stuck in the bottom of the stem. I banged on the top of the bolt a few times. Nothing. Back at it again today, I put a folded t-shirt over the top of the expander bolt and whacked it a few more times, and it finally freed itself. Whew.

Back in the old days, I would have checked that before I even purchased the bike. But in this case, I really just wanted the crankside and pedals. Maybe had I checked that, I could have haggled the price down substantially. But, no biggie.

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SurferRosa

He didn't remember me, but this is at least the third bike I bought from this particular flipper. The first was probably 7 years ago. He's a really nice guy in person, but he has zero clue how to do anything with vintage bikes. He says he "fixes them up." Yeah, no. On this one, the headset was adjusted waaay too tightly. But my biggest beef is he uses motor oil on everything. It really stinks. Literally.

SurferRosa

Any insight to the serial number year, @T-Mar?




I believe the date codes for both the Suntour rd (OE) and Sugino crankset (47) correspond to 1972.

T-Mar

1972 component codes would be correct, as the serial number indcates May 1972 Fuji manufacture. It certainly looks like a rebranded Fuji Finest of that era.

noobinsf 

I kept revisiting that ad and pondered asking someone to facilitate. If you’re inclined, I’d be interested to know the seat and top tube measurements, and I might want to buy that frame from you if it would fit me. I’ll pm you soon…

SurferRosa

I think c-c is ...
21.5" tt
22" st.

After my team got crushed, I spent the better part of the day staying away from football and cleaning up the frame. Got rid of the rust spots on the chrome with aluminum foil. It's looking so good, now I'm thinking about building it up.

noobinsf 

Well, we’re moving, so it may be among the worst time for me to acquire a new bike anyway. These are my ideal measurements, though, so if you tire of it, let me know. It’s proportioned opposite of my later Campania Pro, which had a longer top tube than seat tube (and was too big for me). Enjoy!

SurferRosa

After the stuck expander, the only real headache in cleaning up this frame was removal of the three owner decals. The yellow one at the top of the downtube shown in post 4 was one of those city identification decals to stop theft or whatever, and it was on like cement. Another gooey mofo was positioned over the seat tube decal. Rewarding that they finally came off, along with the surface rust on the chrome.



A couple weird discoveries: the small chainring is a 44t and the rear spacing is 126mm.

Kabuki12

Ya know… it might make sweet bike . The chrome and paint look decent. Whatever you do , you made out good. The crankset and bar end shifters and the fact that the frame has some value plus a ride on the Blackball (if those are even still running) ya did good!

noobinsf 

He even managed to dispense the frame pretty quickly...

Robvolz 

Ok, as a kid, I worked at the Bike Peddler in Silverdale. I’m curious if you have any bike peddler sticker on that bike.

also, to this day, whenever I visit Seattle with friends, they want to ride the ferry with me.

I explain to them that I had to take that shaky boat to and from school every day for three years. Thank you but no thanks. I’ll be in the bar over here.

TugaDude

I had a Campania that looked very similar. I bought it, cleaned it up, greased it up and promptly sold it. I was attracted by the chrome lugs (I'm a sucker for chrome lugs) but the bike was much heavier than any of my others and the ride felt sort of "dead". I made a few bucks at least.

Regarding the crankset, that is one of my favorites and that, along with the shifters and pedals was worth obtaining the bike. Add in the bottle cage as a bonus and you did well.

SurferRosa

The big one from Seattle to Bremerton is under Washington State Ferries, WSF. There are little, faster boats too, but they're more expensive. The big Black Ball still runs from Port Angeles to Victoria. <Love>

SurferRosa

Looking forward to how you find my wrap job. It's the first time I've used shrink wrap ... and some hard plastic I carved out of an old bucket to reinforce the box. Yes, a bucket from the garden gave its life for this bike.

SurferRosa

Pretty sure that is the decal at the top of the seat tube you can sorta see in post 3. Think it was first sold at that shop?

I don't ride it much, so it's usually fun for me, especially on such a beautiful day. After the pandemic, it was a nice surprise to see they're back serving warm food and coffee on board.

SurferRosa

Crankset looks good. Too bad about the 44t.




These MKS Unique pedals have all-aluminum cages and threaded toe-clip holes, unlike those on two of my bikes. I don't even care that the dust caps are not identical. One is more 1972 old school with that big slot for a penny to fit. I fully overhauled both and shined up the rash with my two iron files.



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Kabuki12

yea , last time I was up there was in 1975 to see my oldest brother in Sooke. We stayed in Victoria and I took my 1957 Porsche across , for my new wife it was an experience. As a boy my folks and us two American boys would go over to see the rest of the family still in Canada, always on the Black Ball sometimes the crossings were quite rough. Usually a couple times a month. It was the mid to late fifties and by the time we were getting ready to move they were building the Space Needle. We could see it , once it got tall enough, from our place on Franklin St. Good memories but it seemed like it rained a lot up there where we were, snowed once and lasted long enough to build a snow man.

SurferRosa

Ever go across the the Strait of Georgia from Nanaimo to Vancouver? Now that feels like open sea. Can get crazy windy.

Kabuki12

Never done that one!

zukahn1

Great buy the matching crank assembly with the nice maxi crank with nice rings BB and pedals is worth close to $200. and the Sumtpur shift group with barennds is worth at least $100-150.. It is a lower end bike with $400- 500 in nicer parts..

TugaDude

Beautifully cleaned. No matter on the dust caps because it is really hard to see them both at the same time anyway.