Recently my 15 year old daughter has "adopted" my wife's nice road bike, and has been doing some great rides around town on it. So I thought I'd look for another road bike of about the same size to have a road bike available for both of the ladies in my life. I thought I'd go check out a thrift store bike yard, because my partner Steve found a great mountain bike out there. I went to the bike enclosure of the thrift store, and ran into Steve and his wife Jody, who were scouting for a kids bike. We prowled around together looking for gems, and seeing mostly junk.
Steve and Jody left with a nice kids bike, and I saw an aero brake lever on a handlebar, under a pile of nasty bikes. I unraveled the stack of nasty bikes, and got more and more excited as I freed the bike at the bottom of the pile. I saw a Campagnolo brake, then finally got the entire bike free to look it over.
It was a Fuji, with double butted steel tubing, and about the right frame size for my wife. It had Campy hubs, cranks, brakes, headset, shifters, bottom bracket and skewers, and Cinelli stem and bars. The saddle was suede, and it had Shimano pedals. Since one tire was gone, and it was pretty dirty and greasy, the lady at the gate of the bike yard put a price of $5.00 on it. I tried not to jump for joy, paid my $5, and took the bike home to clean it up. It was like Christmas in July, and with new tires and a little soap, the old bike looks pretty decent. This bike was the JACKPOT! Judging from ebay prices, any of the Campy parts would go for $75 to $125, and the whole bike might run $500+ on ebay.
Now if I could upgrade the shifters to indexed shifters, maybe older Shimano 105 derailleurs and down tube levers, my wife would like it a bit better. Anyone have advice about such an upgrade?
That is a great find!
Posted by: Mike | July 24, 2006 at 01:10 PM
No clues, but congratulations!
Posted by: Ricardo Schillaci | July 24, 2006 at 08:35 PM
Nice bike! Looks to be from the era of my youth (late 70's).
If so, the paint has held up very well!
No advice re Shimano 105, but that Campy equipment is so beautiful, can you convince your wife to keep it? Love the chainwheel. Is it the high end Nuovo Record stuff?
Dave
Posted by: Dave | August 16, 2006 at 06:39 PM
It is definitely the high end Nuovo Record stuff. I put speedplay pedals on it, and it seemed to weigh 3 pounds less than my wife's previous road bike. I thought the vintage was late 1980s, because of the aero brakes. In 1988 indexed shifting was new, with Shimano's 105 6 speed the first entries, and I think it was a few years before Campy had any indexed product. I bought a bike in 1988 that had aero brakes, and I thought they were new then.
Posted by: | August 17, 2006 at 09:43 AM
Im seeking information on a Fuji model 441
Posted by: Willie Parka | September 17, 2006 at 07:17 AM
It turns out that my wife likes it fine with the shift levers on the down tube. Its as good a bike as I thougth it was. Lucky me! Bob S.
Posted by: | October 30, 2006 at 01:52 PM
I'd screw a 7-speed Hyperglide cluster on it, bung on some Campy 8-speed dual-control levers and rear derailleur, and a Campy dual-pivot front brake.
Posted by: | August 11, 2007 at 01:42 PM
Two years later. I hope you kept it all together. None of that crazy 7 speed freewheel stuff.
Posted by: David | July 12, 2008 at 05:49 PM