Rough and Ready 1980 Royale

"Dear Fuji Otaku,

I was browsing your blog and noticed that the Royal did not appear to be represented on your site. I recently bought one and did some rudimentary work to get it roadworthy again. I submit these pictures to you of the bike in its natural state: Covered in grime from a pleasant(read: huge squall with 40 mph wind gusts) day's commute. As you can see, this is not a prime example as the frame could use new paint, the decals are faded or gone, and the front derailleur was taken off an old Roadmaster(nothing like quality parts, eh?)

Anyway, I have enjoyed reading through your archive and look forward to reading you future post.

Sincerely,
Thomas Harding"

Thomas,

Thanks for filling in this gap in our coverage. The Royale always constituted the top model of Fuji's midrange lineup and is quite a nice bike. One of my long term goals is to acquire a Royale, what I'm hoping for is one of the large mixte models.

Speaking of large, maybe it is just anecdotal evidence, but over the many hours scouring craigslist, ebay, etc, for Fujis for sale, I seem to have seen a LOT of really large Fuji Royales, like 63 cm. If anyone knows the reason for this, please let us all know.

And just like shiny and silver beats matte and black in components, dirty and ridden beats clean and garage bound in bicycles. And keep the pictures coming!

Your humble servant,

Fuji Otaku

Shellac, Take One!

Here is the bar tape on the 1972 Mondia Special with one coat of shellac, after about sixteen hours of drying time. An image of the raw bar tape with no shellac is here.


The green is saturating a little and is almost a perfect match to the frame paint. The yellow assumed a little more of an orange cast, about which I'm a bit concerned - the yellow highlights on the bike, note the head tube pinstriping, are a canary yellow, so this isn't matching well.

Hopefully, the yellows will diverge enough such that it doesn't look like an attempt to match the yellow highlights. Perhaps it will end up looking like old leather after repeated coats. If it is unsatisfactory, back to the drawing board.

Fortunately, I bought a couple extra rolls of theolive green Viva tape, which is out of production and getting scarce. Jitensha Studio is out, although Rivendell still has some (they call this color "celery"). If this doesn't work out, seems like it will be either solid green bars, which would be sad, or attempt to dye some white tape a much more pale yellow to match the frame highlights.

Here is a shot moments after application of the second coat. It goes on dark and lightens up as it dries.

More Mondia

The 1972 Mondia Special build is shaping up. Those are Campy Record High Flange hubs, with the coveted straight QR levers laced to Mavics. Got the handlebars taped. I swore I was going to wait until I did at least one bike with a conventional wrap before I did another harlequin, but I couldn't resist on this bike. Just too flashy. The green is Viva tape from Rivendell, they call it "Celery", the yellow is Tressostar.


The green seems to match the paint nicely, but we'll see after lacquer how it looks.

The stem is a Cinelli 1/R and the bars are Cinelli Giro d'Italia. These were prominently positioned on my Tommaso, which I parted out a year ago, I had wrecked it, and the frame was bent.

When you part out a bike, it is like the Inuit and a whale they've caught - it feeds projects seemingly forever. Little bits of this Tommaso keep turning up in various projects.

I de-anodized the stem and bar with oven cleaner. Unlike other parts I've deanodized where a 3-5 minute soak is adequate, these took a while with multiple applications.

Here is another shot. The lustre on the handlebars/stem isn't evident in this picture, but they do really shine. Also, those are NOS Suntour Superbe (not Pro) non aero levers. I have the medium reach calipers to match. I've had these around for a number of years, this is the perfect project for them.

Rare Bird - John's Featherlight

John P. writes:

"The wheels are some relatively inexpensive weinmanns I grabbed so I could get rolling sooner. The bike came to me w/ tubular araya rims laced to dura ace (front) and suntour superbe pro (rear) track hubs. I will have them built into clinchers eventually.

The cranks that came with it are dura-ace and I put a cool fuji race saddle and suntour seatpost I had on it. Also, the seller described the front hub as high flange dura-ace track, but when I examined it all I saw was a shimano "S" on the hub barrel. Then I looked at the sides and saw "dura ace" inscribed on the washers/dust caps. Then I looked at the barrel again and saw a tiny "njs"...

Bike weight is 20 lbs., 10 oz. as shown."

John - thanks for sending these in. I don't know much about these other than I believe that they were only distributed in Japan. This would account for their scarcity here in the U.S. But that is only hearsay, so if any reader has any additional info, it would be appreciated.

John's bike is the subject of a BikeForums thread here.

Push The Big Red Button

I can't stand it any longer - I was going to hold out for a few days before posting the mystery frame, but after I applied the decals to the mystery frame, I nearly fainted:


Yes, it is a 1972 Mondia Special. I received this frameset in a trade eight years ago, and have had it sitting around ever since. Recently, I stripped the paint, sent it out for spraying, then applied the striping and decals.

Not a Fuji, but those aren't my only love - I've had a decades long dalliance w/fine European steel and this has it all.

More to come on this bike.

Mystery Project Preview - Test Your Frame ID Skills

Just finished the lug lining on this frame, whose identity won't be revealed yet. But if you'd like to guess the maker, here are some clues:

• Nervex Professional Lugs and crowned fork (not shown).
  
• Reynolds 531 DB tubing
• French threaded headset/bottom bracket
• Campagnolo Dropouts
• Serial number stamped on the top of the wraparound left seat stay. This should be a dead giveaway to followers of a certain marque, when they consider the other features and the brazed on brake cable guides on the bottom right side of the top tube and the seat tube chrome panel.

Post your guesses in comments. The identity of this frame will be announced when the decals are applied and a new photo is uploaded. One may click on the image to display a larger view.


The color is Sherwin Williams "Gecko". The lug lines and serial number highlights are Sharpie yellow paint pen, extra fine point.

On Deck This Week in Auction Watch

Usually, Auction Watch speaks for itself, but this week there are two sales worthy of note, a 1976 Fuji America, quite original including saddle, and a 1980 Fuji Cambridge III. Neither of these models come up for sale very often, especially in original configuration, so this may be of interest to readers.

Plus, there is a Gran Tourer, a perennial favorite and a great gateway acquisition into Fuji collecting.

The America is a little big for me, in addition to the fact that I already have a very nice 1980 model. The Cambridge is a different story, just the thing for running up the street to Snider's Grocery, whose entry sign proudly proclaims (I'm not making this up), "Meat That Can't Be Beat".