Fuji and other Japanese bikes with tubular wheels
 

Was Fuji the only Japanese company that used tubulars from the factory? I'm cleaning out the storage and found these. Can't recall what they were on.

36H Ukai tubular rims laced to high flange Sunshine 5345 6-hole hubs.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/Bikes305.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/Bikes306.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/Bikes307.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/Bikes308.jpg

I'd say these are '72-'74ish, off a Fuji Finest, early Newest or Professional. I'm getting too sleepy to dig through catalogs, Scott R. may know without having to dig. Your close-up photos jarred loose a memory that there may have been a rear drive-side spoke breakage issue with those wheels, a combo of large-ish spoke holes and longish spoke j-bend. Fuji wasn't yet used to specing bikes for big Americans, and stuff that worked fine on the home market sometimes self-destructed over here.

Not sure if Miyata ever specd tubs on high-end race models, at any rate I think by the time they were a factor in the US it was later '70s and most high-end wheels had moved to small-flange hubs. We were briefly Panasonic dealers, if they had a tub'd bike it would have only been the highest-end race model, which we never sold.

That's what I was thinking. Get some rest and report back with the catalog finds. Lol.

My '74-'75 Fuji Finest came with exactly the same wheelset: Sunshine hubs, double butted spokes, Ukai tubular rims.

PCB, you're right on the money with the Finest and Newest, I have seen an early Pro with the high flange hubs (in photos) but I don't believe they were spec'd that way. At least the catalog doesn't show it. Your right about the spoke breakage too but I've always heard that associated with the early S10-S/Special Road Racer rather the the upper end models.

I've got three sets of these rims/hubs, they ride great, no problem at all. Realestvin, if you need a place to store those just let me know! :)

Scott

Panasonic used tubulars on the Team Europe I, Team America, Team Japan, and Team Europe II models as well as on some of the higher end PICS/POS special order frames per customer request. Your wheels don't appear to be anything I'd associate with coming from a Panasonic however.

I have a blue vintage TEAM MIYATA that has tubulars, Mavic GP4s with Shimano Hubs. The bike is all Dura Ace, but the hubs have the oil hole band on them.

When I bought my Fuji back in '76, I specifically got the S-10-S because it had the Ukai alloy clincher rims instead of the tubulars of the 'higher' models. Tubies were for the serious hard-core-bike-nut-cases... I was only partially demented.

Like this? I have a lonely front.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/Bikes210.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/Bikes207.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/Bikes208.jpg

I've got a Bridgestone Velo 2000 which came with sewups. This was the 2nd-from-top model from around 1984.

I should have kept the aged tires though, they were actually branded Bridgestone.

Any 1970's Japanese bike with asian stainless-steel spoks was a recipe for spoke breakage.
Hoshi broke that mold with quality spoke production, but I still remember bikes like Nishiki Competition had very brittle, 14G stainless spokes which often gave fewer than 1000 miles before spokes began snapping semi-regularly.

Same color rim, I'll have to look closer to see if the oil "band" says Dura Ace on it. I'll probably be putting clinchers on the Miyata.

They look like the wheels I traded to you last year that came off my 1973 Nishiki Professional.
I know they had high flange Sunshine hubs but cannot remember rim brand.

Velobase.com has a catalog uploaded for Nishiki around that time but does not list rim brand either.

I also recall one had a tire mounted and one did not.
I still have the old ruined tire if you want me double check it to verify a match on the mounted tire.

Those are good looking hubs.

I have a '73 Nishiki Pro in need of an appropriate wheelset. Lemme know if you want to let 'em go.

They are Ukai hoops.

I don't know what came with what, but I found a shop here with a whole attic full of tubular hoops. The older Japanese steel frames I see around often have tubulars ... Takahashi, Panasonic blah blah