Old Fuji Road Racer Commuter Conversion
 

I have an old Fuji road racer road bike from the 80s. I have a bad neck, and I'm thinking of replacing the drop down handle bars with riser or swept back handlebars moving the shifting levers which are are on down tube to the grips. And add fenders and rack. What do you think? Any advice appreciated.

Steel road bikes from the 80's are the bomb. It will make a great commuter. Personally I wouldn't get rid of the drops unless you have to, but you should be able to do some kind of a conversion. I assume it's a 5 or 6 speed, so to move the shifters up to the bars, you might have to get some vintage stuff which shouldn't be too hard to find. Depending on where you live, those bikes actually fetch a good price, so you could also sell it and buy something already set up the way you want. My experience is that those kind of conversions often times end up being more expensive/difficult than they're worth.

I guess one question is whether you need gears at all. Lots of people convert bikes like that to single speeds or fixies and put risers on them. I'm telling you this as somebody who likes gears but nevertheless got hooked on riding fixies after trying one more or less on a whim. My fixie is an 80's road bike but I left the drops on it, or more accurately, got different drops for it.

If you really want gears and you can't position the current bars high enough to where they are comfortable, I second the idea of selling it and getting something closer to what you're after. If it's from the 80's and has down tube shifters, there's a good chance it's a decent bike and worth something to somebody. Most low-end road bikes of that era had stem shifters. The better ones (like I'm assuming your is) had down tube shifters.

The good folks in the classic and vintage forum might be able to give you an idea of what you could sell it for. I had an '87 Peugeot road bike that wasn't anything particularly special but it was in great shape and I sold it for $270. With that and what you would have ended up spending on a conversion, you could probably get something your style from Bikes Direct.