My most recent bicycle purchase sort of fell into my lap. A neighbor of mine picked up the bike for a very good price at a rummage sale. For reasons I don’t understand he unsuccessfully tried to sell it for a couple years and eventually offered it to me for a nice price. Wasn’t going to buy it but I have a weakness for yellow bikes. I didn’t think it was going to be that great for my taste, but I was very wrong.
The bike is a 1997 Fuji Team in a very nice yellow color. It is a great looking bike, but newer than I am usually looking for. And I thought with the 23mm tires and alloy front fork it would be a rough ride. To my surprise it actually rides really smooth. I’ve done a bit of work to it as it wasn’t shifting and the cables and housing were rough. Tires were ok, but kinda dry so I didn’t think they would be good for many miles. So, I have cleaned it all up, got the shifters working again just by spraying with some WD40, replaced all the cables and housing, and got some new Panaracer tires. Now it looks good and rides really nice, have a look:
Bike is made from True Temper Ox Gold tubing which I believe was their best road tubing at the time. Fork is made from Kinesis 6061 alloy and is probably why the bike is so light. Bike only weighs about 20 lbs. which surprised me. Components are all Shimano 600 6400. Headset, shifters, derailleurs, hubs, brakes, crankset are all 600 and working very well. I believe my bike is stock except for the tires, bar tape, pedals, housing and cables. Here is a list of the components:
Specs
Frame: True Temper Ox Gold steel tubing TIG welded
Fork: Kinesis 6061 alloy
Saddle: Ritchey Vector plus
Seatpost: 26.8mm alloy
Bars: Profile Hammer
Stem: steel quill
Front Derailleur: Shimano 600 6400
Rear Derailleur: Shimano 600 6400
Speeds: 2×8
Headset: Shimano 600
Crankset: Shimano 600
Shifters/brake levers: Shimano 600 6400
Brakes: Shimano 600
Wheels: Mavic Reflex SUP with DT Swiss spokes and Shimano 600 hubs
Ride
Like I mentioned, it actually rides surprisingly smoothly. The Shimano 600 shifters are working well and shifts great after just a little tuning. Only thing uncomfortable is the position of the shifters on the bars, it has a lot of reach. But I believe this is just how they were in the 90s due to the shape of the bars so I don’t ride on the hoods as much as I normally would. Really want to keep the feeling of a 90s bike and am getting used to it. I’m trying to track down a 1997 Fuji catalog so I can see how they listed it. I do have the original owner’s manual for the bike which is really cool. Glad I decided to buy it; I’ve really enjoyed cleaning this bike up and riding. I will still do a few more things to it including touching up the paint a little but mostly I will leave it as it is. A nice-looking fun ride.
Fuji Bikes History – some history on Fuji bikes.
