ScottRyder 

That is gorgeous!!! Love to post those photos on my Fuji blog. I have an '88 model, that has the straight top tube instead of the curve. Just the frame, almost NOS

Scott

OldsCOOL

Scott, year and model would this be?

ScottRyder 

That would be a 1981, October, #51 built. The Newest frame on eBay is the #50 built. This might conclude that between the two models, the Newest and The Professional, that by October they had only built around 50. That's if their numbers started in January. But they were hand built so maybe that's accurate.

Scott

trentschler

Thanks! Please post away - your blog is cool. I only just did a quick scan. Lots of great bikes and I saw two other Team funny bikes.

On this bike, the black stem was scored so I replaced it with a new Dia Compe ENE stem. I found NOS SunTour Sprint shifters and derailleurs and replaced the originals. It didn't come with a freewheel so I put on a Dura Ace 7-speed Uniglide 13-23 with 45x50 chainrings. The hubs are original Sprints laced with bladed spokes to Araya Aero 4 rims - 28 front and 32 rear. The rims were fairly well oxidized and could use another polishing. The fork crown and chainstay cleaned up nicely. The original Mundialita saddle was pretty worn so I put on a Brooks B17. They are the most comfortable for me.

The bike has very low miles. I bought it from the original owner who bought it new in 1988 for a couple of Pennsylvania time trials. I don't think he rode it much after 1990 so it's been sitting inside since then. The frame is really clean.

The bike handles really well - very predictable, not twitchy. It's stiff. The cranks are 165 mm. I usually ride 170 or 172.5 mm, but these spin nicely. I really like them and they seem so appropriate for the bike and its purpose.

OldsCOOL

Thank you, Scott!

leicanthrope

I suspect that those numbers reset every month, instead of annually. My Professional has the serial number #1 for June 1975, and I want to think that I've seen pics of a Professional at the New York Bike Show that would have been held earlier in the year.

Chris

ScottRyder 

Yea, you're probably right on that. I'll check with the NYC master to see what he thinks. And yes, you have seen those photos of the New York show and somewhere I have them saved .. I'll try to find them.

Scott

Pompiere

I found this Fuji Sagres for my daughter at the local Goodwill store. I just cleaned and lubed everything and replaced the tires. The Fuji seat was found at another Goodwill store.

francophile 

I saved this from the crusher or slow FeO death when it followed me home today.

Someone slathered in heavily in blue (latex?) paint, after peeling down the layers it looks like it was originally dark red on a white primer base. Someone stripped the fork down to full chrome. No decals I can find. No chrome socks. Maybe it's a '76 Sports 10 or Dynamic 10? Interested to hear from the experts.

FD/RD: Suntour Spirt, GT long cage
Crank: Sugino 52/42
Steer: Nitto stem, Nitto Olympiade bars, Tange headset
Wheelset: Sunshine hubs, Weinmann rims, ??FW??
Brakes: Centerpull DiaCompe, DiaCompe dual-pull levers

greg3rd48 

@francophile Well done saving her from the executioner. Possibly a '76 Gran Tourer?

francophile 

Thanks and good call! I overlooked the Touring bikes because they all seem to have stem-mounted shifters and these are on the downtube. There's some previous owner hackery on the bike, so it's totally possible they moved the shifters to the downtube. The stem has a place they could've been mounted.

Does a Fuji with stem-mount shifters typically have the little chevron-shaped downtube boss pictured under the shifter band here, buried under that pile of blue paint, just above the animal poop?

If it's a Gran Tourer, I guess I'll be hunting for the downtube cable clamp/provision, eh?

greg3rd48 

True, true I maybe the Dynamic 10 is the winner since there is a good chance that those are the original DT shifters. The stem shifters were an oversight on my part. The experts in here should have a definitive answer.

https://classicfuji.com/1976_09_Dynamic10.htm

willydstyle

ScottRyder 

^ Good looking America!

Scott

Scooty Puff Jr

I think you're really close on the year, my first geared bike looked just like that one but it was green, bought it used in 1979. I had it for many years until the butted frame came apart behind the BB, doubt it had anything to do with jumping it off plywood ramps ? Hey I wasn't 17 years old yet.

I just bought my first FUJI since, a 2016 Crosstown 1.1 disc, I'm really enjoying it. Compared to my old Giant hybrid (which I love) it's a huge upgrade. Here's a pic the day I brought it home, just finished removing the reflectors and before I "de-stickered" it. It's now has a few hundred miles on it, other than the pedals, I have no complaints.

francophile 

Ok @greg3rd48, it looks like you may be the expert in this case!

What I'll be calling "Smurf Fuji" showed its true colors tonight when I finished teardown. Serial number indicates a '76. Only two bikes in '76 were maroon, the Gran Tourer and the America, and the rear stays and other specs don't match the latter of those two. Looks like it's a Gran Tourer and someone moved the shifters to the DT. I guess I'm now hunting for three Dia Compe cable clamps and the DT clamp for the shifters now

I still can't figure out what the hell the PO used for paint on this thing. It won't come off with mineral spirits, acetone, oven cleaner or anything else I've tried thus far. I really hate breaking out the airplane remover or zip strip at this time of year. I think I may ping someone to soda blast and PC it back to nearly the original color to reverse the hackery.

francophile 

Oh - couple of questions if any of the more well-versed Fuji folks are reading:

Is there any advice or guide to paint-matching the original maroon coloring of this bike?

The 3T spindle is shot on this thing, pitted all to hell and one of the cups is bumpy as hell from someone overtightening the BB. Anyone have any luck swapping in a sealed Tange unit? They seem to be very price-friendly.

3T would indicate shell width of 68mm, but I broke out the caliper and the shell is 70mm wide. Wha?

leicanthrope

Which way does the drive side bearing cup unscrew? Clockwise, or counter-clockwise?

I've used the Shimano (for JIS) & Miche (for ISO) sealed bottom brackets, with no problems.

francophile 

Drive side is CW, non-drive side is CCW. Both cups have the Fuji emblem stamped on them and appear to be original for the bike, best I can tell. Spindle is 3T which, according to the bible of Sheldon, is 123mm overall width (32/52/39) and would take a 130mm sealed unit if the new one is symmetrical.

I actually really like the stock Sugino crank styling and want to keep it but I wish they had something similar in alloy so I could cut 1-2lbs weight off the bike, it's already fairly heavy. I'm going to tinker with soaking some of this stuff in OA to see how much cleanup is possible on the old crankset.

leicanthrope

According to Velobase, there are some Sugino Maxy three bolt cranksets that are alloy:


VeloBase.com - Component: Sugino Maxy 3-bolt

francophile 

Huh. Something to keep my eyes peeled for on fleaBay, where everything is 3x overpriced if it has the word "Maxy" in it.

I've seen a lot of ripping on the Maxy line, much vitriol from other BF members. I stopped looking after reading a handful of threads with various people during the past decade ripping them a new one, but tempted to keep eyes out again.

leicanthrope

The "joy" of the Maxy line is that Sugino used that same name for so many different cranksets that seem to really have nothing in common other than being cranksets.

T-Mar

I believe the common factor between the various Maxy cranksets was the manufacturing process. All the ones that I have seen have the large chainring or spider swaged to the crankarm, which allowed them to produce an inexpensive cotterless crankset. Basically all they had to cast or forge were the crankarms and they could use the same tooling for both right and left arms (all you would have to do would be install an insert in the tooling to eliminate the swage collar from the non-drive arm). Chainrings and spiders could be manufactured using less expensive stamping operations, though some of the better Super Maxy did use cast and/or forged spiders. It also allowed them to mix and match materials (i.e steel arms with alumiunm rings or vice-versa). It was a very flexible, modular system that allowed Sugino to produce a wide variety of cranksets in a cost effective manner and permitted cotterless cranksets to trickle down to the upper entry level market during the early 1970s bicycle boom.

Cougrrcj

My late '74-built, '75 model year Fuji S-10S (ser no K9I003xx) originally came with an alloy 3-pin Maxy crank. 51/39 rings. I still have it around someplace... The rings would flex a bit if you put a large pedal force in a cross-chain situation and rub on the front derailleur.

My youngest sister had a maroon Grand Tourer with a 5-pin alloy crankset and I was tempted to swap it out when she wasn't looking.

I ended up replacing the 3-pin Maxy on my S-10S for a 48/38/28 Sakae triple around 1980.

francophile 

@Cougrrcj if you're not planning to hold onto that thing, give me a shout. The prices on eBay are a bit too rich for my taste.