classicjapanese

Thanks thrice-kindly Bikedued. The Fuji Newest is something of a minor obsession for me — I actually owned the VERY ONE that you might see in that period ad placed on the back of the Rolls Royce (Silver Shadow, I believe). It was one of the first, if not the very first "1B" style (1974 catalog specification) in the country. I sold it during those ever-deprecatory college years. Now, as a kind of “mad-catharsis-mitigation-drive” I collect wayward Newests whenever I am not starving or have the requisite dollars, whichever comes first. So I have a couple (well six of them) and have only let the 22.5" sized models back into the cycling streams of life. Very glad you have the brakes sorted out! The headset, by the way, is the early Tange Falcon. Yes, the exact brake levers do not come up too often, but they do — the gum rubber hoods being very "hard" or hard to procure. You want the type with those lovely overwrought side-swinging quick-release mechanisms. The 1B has the quick-release at bot lever and hanger — you can adjust the cable without even using a "third-hand" tool, flip everything and have a perfect fit. The brakes, despite all the transiting about, are fairly strong and responsive. The cable on yours was grey, which Dia-Compe produced for some years, although NOS is pretty rare — again, its the saddle that will be difficult to get — if one comes up there are a fair number of sharks in them there waters and many a Newest/Professional in need of the black suede beauty... At some point I will toss up some pictures...

classicjapanese

G O R G E O U S S C O T T / And you know how amazingly these babies perform on the road, fenders a nice touch as there's enough clearance for classic tubulars and fenders; that's what's known as S T Y L E !

ramzilla

I've got a very large Shogun 300 frame & fork with Tange 900 sticker on it that you may be interested in. I'll measure it when I get home. But, I would guess it's around a 25" - 26". It's huge!

jonwvara

I'm pretty sure that's at least a 26--maybe a 27. Too big for me, alas--I usually ride 25s, but that last inch or two is more than I can handle.

Tropic_Blunder

Hi there simmonsgc, I've been blasting thru all these post's to find an early 80's Royale that's been worked on more than just a bit.
I know the post was a few years ago, but might you still have the specs for the Headset? I'm already at the end of the parts list for an 81' Royale and can't find a definitive answer to the question burning in my head. Ώ Is it 26.4 or 27.0 ? Thank ya much.

ramzilla

I just measured it ............. 26-1/2" center to center 27-1/2" top to bottom. The thing has a 10" head tube. I really don't know who's big enough to ride it. Beautiful frame though. Rings like a bell when you tap it. Maybe I'll make a lawn ornament out of it.

jonwvara

I also like frames that ring like that. My Dawes Double Blue frame had a beautiful gong-like sound before I built it up. The sustain was remarkable--you'd flick it with your finger and it would ring for over five seconds.
I'm sorry that frame is so enormous--if it were a couple of inches smaller I'd be really interested. You've just got to find the right owner for it....

Katiesmalls

The Fuji is SOLD thank you

YouthxCrew

Nearly done, need to replace the cables, housing, and one of the top tube cable clamps, but it looks almost brand new. Cleaned up nicely:

Cougrrcj

Nicely done!

Bikedued

I've been looking at the catalog pictures, and it seems the two tone chain doesn't show up until the 1977 model? The one before that seem to be all dark color?

Also, is the wrap orange to match all the accents on the bike, or red? It looks red in the catalog pics, but that would not make a whole lot of sense if everything else on the bike is orange? It also appears to be wrapped over the base of the hoods rather than under?,,,,BD

ScottRyder 

The bar wrap is red, despite the orange used in the decals .. on my chrome version I decided to go with orange wrap but on my '74 I used red cloth wrap. Here's my '74 with links to my blog.



1974 Fuji "The Newest" - Vintage Fuji Archive

I found it interesting that on the early models there weren't hoods at all.

Scott

simmonsgc

Hi there--- sorry I didn't see this question earlier. Sometimes I include a quote so that the "questionee" will get a notification. If my memory serves, it was a 27.0. I think every old Fuji I've had was a 27.0 crown race. That being said, there's no substitute for popping the old one off (if you have one) and measuring the inside diameter with a digital caliper, and if you measure the fork, be sure to measure the seat. Good luck with your '81 project! Those are great riding bikes.

thumpism

Is that downtube buckled just behind the fork crown? Top photo makes the head tube angle appear much steeper than it should be on that bike. Run a finger along the underside of the downtube from the head lug to the shifter bosses and see if there isn't a bump there, indicating a strong frontal impact at some point that caused the tube to bend. A closeup photo of the area would help with further evaluation. Such an impact can bend the fork blades back, bend the steerer tube, buckle the frame, or any combination of those.

A photo of a different Sagres from the first page of this thread, for comparison.

Lanovran

Yes, it is. I noticed it not long after I posted that photo. What bugs me is that I'm pretty certain that I never crashed the bike into anything with a frontal impact sufficient to cause that, so it may have already been damaged when I bought it second-hand; however, that would mean that more than one competent mechanic and myself would have somehow failed to notice it for a couple of years. I doubt the likelihood of that, but I honestly have no idea what could have caused the damage.

In any case, that Fuji has since found a new home (or at least, part of it has)...

TroN0074

Here is mine, nothing original just the frame.

thumpism

This thread is for Fuji parts as well, right? Have not seen many posted so I thought I'd contribute a couple of mine. Never owned a Fuji bike of my own though I worked for a dealer for years and built up a nice little Sports 10 for my then-girlfriend. I still kick myself for not buying the blue and chrome Finest ('75?) that hung in the showroom. A co-worker buddy of mine bought it and I'll bet he still owns it.

First is a Fujita Professional saddle from a Fuji America. The saddle had a bow in it on the right side, so it got replaced under warranty and was chucked into a box at the shop. Already having several Brooks saddles and wanting to salvage this one, I shaved the imperfection down, thinning the leather considerably in that area, then burnished and treated the spot and now it is no longer even visible. Needs some leather treatment, as you can see, after being parked for a while. This is on my Trek 510 city/hybrid build.


Next up is a Fuji-branded Sugino Maxy crank that came off a wrecked bike, I think. It's what I call my K-Mart triple. This was back at the dawn of the mountain bike era when guys were scrambling to see what they could build from bits rather than having to pay $750 for an early Stumpjumper, a lot of money in the early '80s. This became the crank for my effort. Smallest stock ring available is 34T so that is what this uses, with a 45T large ring. Triplizing it was no big deal. I spent a few minutes looking at the Sun Tour Perfect freewheel parts board (remember those?) and figured out that the smallest cog with a hole pattern in a multiple of 5 was the 22T cog, so that is what I used. Found some bolts, nuts, washers and spacers, spent a little time with hacksaw and grinder and bolted the cog (using every other hole) to the crankarm's 5 holes. I calculated this gave me a 19-inch low gear using the 14-34T freewheel. I still use this on a little-ridden Schwinn Cimarron frame I got a few years later, but at the time it went on a converted Reynolds 531 A-D Inter 10 road frame (also warranty) with a cruiser fork. I'll have to report on that build if I can find the right thread for it.

GermanS1

I woke up at 4:30 am last Sunday, and with nothing better to do, I got on CL looking at bikes. I found this 1980 Fuji Royale and got so excited that it was hard to wait until a decent hour to call the seller. Eventually, I called and left a message. Turns out the seller was selling for his dad, now in his mid 90's, who bought it new and essentially never rode it. I met the seller and it turned out that the bike was originally sold by my LBS and the seller was also in the neighborhood (quite a coincidence in a city this big) It didn't take me long to make the purchase and move it to my side of the neighborhood.

The bike has a little tire dynamo and front and rear lights. Might have been state of the art in 1980, but the headlight is very dim by modern standards.

Everything about it looks pretty much new, this picture is from right when I got it, I did a mild cleanup and replaced the dry-rotted original tires with Schwalbe Marathons. The Marathons are a bear to install, but I have well over 1,000 miles on another set with no flats and that's super important to me because this area is filled with cactus needles and I ride as much at night as in the day and changing a flat is not my idea of fun.

I took it for its maiden ride this morning, just a few miles around the neighborhood. I'm wondering if I should service the bearings, everything sounds and spins fine, but 35 year old grease... Kind of hate to take it for a longer ride and discover a problem far from home, so maybe I should get to it. I'd like to add fenders and a handlebar bag, as well as a modern hub-type generator and a good light. All that can come over time, no rush to do it all at once. I'll post some better pictures once I sort out an uploading glitch between my camera and computer (took this picture with the phone).

ScottRyder 

Welcome GermanS1 to all things Fuji!

My 1979 Royale was my introduction to the Fuji world and sent me careening down this crazy obsessive road of Japanese steel. We'd love to see more photos when you get a chance .. I'm jealous you're in AZ with bare ground. Here in MA we've got a 80" of snow total this year, we won't see biking weather for a few months!!

Scott

thumpism

Nice Royale. I sold quite a few of those in my shop days and put similar Union generators on them. Typical excessive (by modern standards, I guess) drag when in use but reliable.

GermanS1

Scott, thanks for the welcome and I'll work on the camera problem so I can get more pics up. I rode it 25 miles this morning in short sleeves (sorry about that... ). I have to say, though, that at 55 I'm not nearly as comfortable with the drop bars as I was as a teenager; my other bike has Rivendell Albatross bars and I'll likely change these for the Rivendell (Nitto) Albastache or the original Nitto Moustache. Being hunched over isn't great for me and not having instant and constant access to the brakes is frightening (and caused a bad moment this morning).

Thumpism, yes, I tried it and it does add noticeable drag, but it would certainly work in a pinch. Do you think it would power a modern LED light? If so, any recommendations for a good one?

And thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread, it made my decision to buy the Royale very easy!

German

thumpism

I'm not qualified to answer this since most of my stuff is old shop and I'm not aware of wired LED bike lights. I have one battery-type LED light bought in about the year 2000 and everything else is older than that. I'm sure someone will suggest new gear that works.

Tropic_Blunder

simmonsgc,
Thanks for your response. I've started on the build already. But some things have to wait for those last few parts. I WILL post pics! Thanks again.

classicjapanese

Greetings Bikedued — Sorry, as I have less than fifty posts (being a recluse within more extremist Fuji groups) I was not able to respond to your private message about levers, I do have some and will figure out a way to communicate and get those to you — but the covers may not be up-to-snuff. The bar tape is RED, although orange looks cool if you lacquer it (otherwise Orange tape just gets dirty way to quick) — the early Chain is HKK Blue Sky Blue — the later (post 1973) is, as you noted the Gold/Blue (not the all gold) — its a great 5-speed chain, shifts maginficiently. The later HKK 6-speed chains were not quite as responsive, but Suntour and HKK got them flawless in the end (albeit late in the "chain-cycle") (wow that is a triple pun)...My 1974 had the Gold/Blue — yet you are right, it does appear darker in the Catalog — I have a set of bars wrapped by the factory from 1971 (!) — simple dia-compe levers, no covers, red tape, the levers you need are those early Gran Comps which I will hunt down — sounds like you are almost there, but what about the saddle, the Holy Grail for these precious road bicycles?

classicjapanese

Hopefully attached is a 1984 Fuji Club — the diminutive frame size saved this baby from being build 31 years ago; instead, it was out away and forgotten. Last week, I took it out of the box and everything was as new. So, if you have a Club from this time here's a exemplar that is 100% factory perfect down to the reflectors and bar tape. For safety's sake I am swapping out the Silver Star Trimline MII's and installing Panasonic Panaracer Pasela PTs (that is one nice string of alliteration Panasonic!) — in the 700 23C size — I call this the Chinese New Year Bicycle — little time warps like this are always a delight!