Fuji Espree Quad butted Valite
 

I have an opportunity to buy a Fuji Espree quad butted valite frame. I believe it's an 85, seller hasn't gotten back to me with serial #'s but it's quad butted and it has waterbottle braze ons as well as downtube shifter bosses. Would this be a worthwhile upgrade over a hi-ten frame? I haven't been able to find a ton of info about it either way. As many of you know, I did a rebuild of an old Hi-Ten Nishiki century however aeshthetically it's a dog. All the parts that I've put on the nishiki should easily swap right over onto this fuji frame which while it has a few dings here and there, is a much better looking frame. I can then just reassemble the nishiki with all of it's old steel vintage parts and sell it or I'll give it a full stripping and do a nicer job of repainting it and perhaps build it up for a friend.


The nishiki is a tad small for me at 59CM, it appears that this fuji is 61 though they measured in inches. Seller says its a 24" frame but the fuji info shows 23 and 25 being the offerings, so i'm not sure how he is measuring it. I'm a bit worried that he got 24 inches from the bottom of the bottom bracket to the top of the seatpost which would mean its probabl a 23 and a tad smaller than the nishiki. Below are a few pics

I had a Fuji Club from the same era that was made with quad butted valite tubing. It wasn't heavy but it wasn't super light either, it's still an upgrade over a high ten frame. Aside from the tubing it also has forged dropouts. The rust and general condition are a bit sad in my opinion. If it's cheap than I would go for it, I just wouldn't pay a whole ton for it.

It's a bit better than your Nishiki, but you may want to hold out for something even nicer. It will be nice, but it's important to know how much you'd pay. What's the asking price?

I think you're better off keeping your Nishiki in its current state and buy a second bike. Building a bike takes a lot of time and money.

Time is a non issue, I'm a personal trainer so i work early mornings starting at 5:30 or 6:30 am and am usually done by 11 at the latest. then I don't work again until 6pm usually so the middle of my day is always free. As for money, I've already invested a few hundred on the nishiki, if i buy this, I would simply be taking all the parts off of the nishiki and putting them on this frame, so no cost involved. I will then probably take the nishiki which I did a half assed rattle can job on and chemically strip it down and sell it like that ready for paint, or attempt a proper rattle can paint job, just for fun.

As for price, asking price for this frame is $35. until I see it in person it's hard to see how many of those blemishes can be buffed out and how many are permananet but regardless, it's much better shape than the nishiki and I actually like this color. I just couldn't find one way or the other what Valite actually is. Is it hi-ten, is it chromoly? more research seems to say that it lies somewhere in between the two

Quad butted Fujis are pretty nice, but this one is on the rough side cosmetically. I just picked up a 1984 Fuji quad butted bike myself.

Just saw the price, if it includes a fork, I would go for it!

doesn't include the fork but I have a carbon fiber fork from nashbar that I'd be putting in it.

Too bad, as those old Fuji forks were pretty nice.

$35 doesn't seem outlandish, but I'm getting a weird (accident) vibe from these pics and I hope that I'm wrong. I don't see any full side shot, which should be the most common shot. The head tube looks like it's big enough to be a 25" frame, but the only angle I see of top tube is from the top looking down from the head tube. The first picture on the top left makes the rear triangle look bent out of allignment, but that could just be due to camera angle. The middle pic with the seat stays looks like there is a drop/droop in the top tube, could be shadow, could be nothing. I'd inspect the top tube behind the head tube for the classic impact buldge, and also string test the frame to make sure it's straight before buying it.

The craigslist ad originally had 2 pics in it, when i emailed the seller he took all day to get back to me and he does ahve a bit of a weird email address so I'm definately suspect, somewhat. he provided these additional pics without me asking. It is NYC so you never know, it could be a frame that a bldg super found sitting down in a basement for months and doesn't know much about bikes or it could be a professional thief selling off a frame after he parted everything else out. Of course the obvious question is "where is the fork?" why are you selling it without the fork, did it get wrecked? Hopefully i can get a good look at it. i'm digging out more and more info slowly and actually hearing a lot of good things about this frame.

I agree with the headtube, it looks kinda huge. I don't know if 25"frame would be too big for me but at 6'3" it would probably work fine. The nishiki is definately a bit small and I have the seat post up fairly high but i don't mind because I'm using it to sort of race around on, not just for leisurely rides.

This quote is from you in another thread:

"Umm most of the collective advice was that he should sell the bike because the selfish ******bags on the forum are more interested in geting something for themselves than helping him out. "

You have a lot of nerve asking us for advice.

I'm 6'4" and the 25" frame is nice, I actually ride a 27" frame Fuji as my main ride, but the standover is brutal, the frame is probably too big for me, but it's good for my back while I'm riding. I tilt it to the side while I'm at a stop sign and etc. I should have my 25"/64cm Gitane Interclub up and running in the next couple of days. I'd for sure string test that frame, if it's bent you might be able to cold set it, but I wouldn't pay hardly anything for a bent frame.

If you don't have something productive related to the topic of the thread that I started, kindly stay out of it. You have a lot of nerve taking something completely out of context and completely unrelated to this post and putting it out here.

One thing about NYC is that a lot of these frames will look beatup a lot more than in other places because we have to lock everything, everywhere, for any length of time. My 5 month old Rapid looks like it's been hammered on because I'mconstantly locking it up multiple times a day; it just becomes very time consuming to try to gently place the huge kryptonite chain around it everytime i need to lock it up. I don't know what the point of trying to pass off a damaged frame is whensomeone is going to come visually inspect it, but you never know because again, this is NYC!

I really lose interest when the frame is missing the fork for two reasons.

As I earlier mentioned, Fuji forks from that vintage were really good looking. I think a carbon fork would look out of place on that frame.

Secondly, a missing fork is very often an indication of a crash.

I find too many complete bikes to start a project with a frame that is missing its fork.

You don't get to insult a group of people, call them dishonest...and then come back with your tail between your legs asking for advice without comment. You clearly are a socially incompetent individual. Someone with any sense would be apologizing profusely.

please keep typing, your proving yourself to be quite the socially competent one.

the carbon fork would probably look out of place but I'm just trying to create a ride for functional purposes. the nishiki rides quite nicely now as is, but this seems like a good opportunity to upgrade to a better quality, better fitting frame for cheap and of course, let me tinker around some more..

Thanks for the info everyone, it looks like this could be a good frame, just gonna have to go check it out and person and see what it's all about.

I believe AE Bike has replacement forks for not-so-much, if you go that route be sure to get the treaded tube that is long enough for your head tube.