Fuji Bikes and Trek

"James Lynx" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi how do you rate Fuji bikes in general? Also, how do
they compare to Trek? Which are better?

They are both comparable IMO. They both use the same
components and have been around for quite some time. It
really comes down to proper fit/comfort, and price.

Dan.

In article
<[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Hi how do you rate Fuji bikes in general?

i have a 2002 fuji finest aluminum, i like it a lot. even
the sora components are light and are going strong at 6500
miles. they may not be the prettiest in the world but other
than that they are fine. the frame seems very well made.

wle.

On 20 May 2004 14:37:46 -0700, [email hidden] (James Lynx)

Quoted message said:

Hi how do you rate Fuji bikes in general? Also, how do they
compare to Trek? Which are better?

My frame of reference is somewhat limited, but I own a Fuji
Touring Series and my girlfriend has a Trek 520. The only
real difference is that the Trek is lugged and brazed, while
the Fuji is TIG welded. Other than that I find the quality
quite similar. The Fuji has one nice feature missing from
the Trek, a spare spoke holder on the left chain stay.

Generally I believe I've seen Fujis priced less than
comparably equipped Treks.

jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net
home.earthlink.net~jeverett3Open ↗

John Everett said:

On 20 May 2004 14:37:46 -0700, [email hidden]

(James Lynx) said:

Hi how do you rate Fuji bikes in general? Also, how do
they compare to Trek? Which are better?

My frame of reference is somewhat limited, but I own a Fuji
Touring Series and my girlfriend has a Trek 520. The only
real difference is that the Trek is lugged and brazed,
while the Fuji is TIG welded. Other than that I find the
quality quite similar. The Fuji has one nice feature
missing from the Trek, a spare spoke holder on the left
chain stay.

Generally I believe I've seen Fujis priced less than
comparably equipped Treks.

jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net
home.earthlink.net~jeverett3Open ↗

I bought a Fuji Touring about 4 weeks ago. Chose it over the
Trek 520 because the components seemed good, the bars were
higher, and the price was lower by a couple/three hundred
CAD. Also, some place on the 'net rated it as best touring
bike for the bucks.

Being a bit of a retro grouch, I also wanted a quill to
easily and precisely adjust the handlebar height.

So far, so good. Once I tweaked some fit adjustsments, it
became quite comfortable and fairly fast. The tires are big
enough (700 x 32) to take the punishment my commute offers
and still max at 96 psi for a good pavement ride.

I love the Tiagra integrated shifters, am so so about the
Avid Shorty brakes (tho I like the simplicity of cantis),
the standard rear rack seems sturdier than any I have owned
to date, and fitting some full on Planet Bike fenders was no
problem. The light road toe traps that came with it were
just not for me, so of course I put on a pair of Mt.Zefal
toe cups for riding with any footwear. Nice low key colours
too: metal flake dark green with sand highlights - they call
it Aztec Green.

In conclusion I like it lots. I am looking forward to some
great weekend runs this summer on it. To be fair, I've not
ridden the Trek 520. It looks to be at least as good though.

Best regards, Bernie

John Everett said:

Other than that I find the quality quite similar. The Fuji
has one nice feature missing from the Trek, a spare spoke
holder on the left chain stay.

I don't know why other makers haven't adopted this feature
for their touring bikes already. Even if you never need it,
it's still a nice attention to detail, and the cost is
probably minimal.

(Still annoyed to only have one pair of eyelets at the front
and rear.)

--
Frederic Briere <*> [email hidden]

=> <[email hidden]> IS NO MORE:
=> <http://www.abacomsucks.com> <=

In article <[email hidden]>, bmcilvan@mouse-
potato.com says...

...

Quoted message said:

I love the Tiagra integrated shifters, am so so about the
Avid Shorty brakes (tho I like the simplicity of cantis),
the standard rear rack seems sturdier than any I have
owned to date, and fitting some full on Planet Bike
fenders was no problem. The light road toe traps that came
with it were just not for me, so of course I put on a pair
of Mt.Zefal toe cups for riding with any footwear. Nice
low key colours too: metal flake dark green with sand
highlights - they call it Aztec Green.

I happen to prefer the Maroon and black treatment of the
2003 version, but it's still a great value in a bike!

--
Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in
the newsgroups if possible).

David Kerber said:

In article <[email hidden]>, bmcilvan@mouse-
potato.com says...

...

Quoted message said:

I love the Tiagra integrated shifters, am so so about the
Avid Shorty brakes (tho I like the simplicity of cantis),
the standard rear rack seems sturdier than any I have
owned to date, and fitting some full on Planet Bike
fenders was no problem. The light road toe traps that came
with it were just not for me, so of course I put on a pair
of Mt.Zefal toe cups for riding with any footwear. Nice
low key colours too: metal flake dark green with sand
highlights - they call it Aztec Green.

I happen to prefer the Maroon and black treatment of the
2003 version, but it's still a great value in a bike!

Well, after the loss of my Marin hybrid - it was looking too
clean and sharp 🙂 - I want a rather plain looking set of
wheels for a low key image. Besides, green is my colour. I'm
riding nearly every day - lately 120 - 200 kms a week,
depending. Wear and tear is always on my mind. Do you have
any durability issues with your bike? Does yours have the
Tiagra brifters? Any problem witht the brakes? How bout the
tires? Mine came with Hutchinson Globetrotters. They can be
had online for $9.99 usd so I wonder about the quality. They
ride fine though. I think I'd like the bars better if they
had a flatter ramp behind the hoods to rest my hands on, but
maybe that;s just because I haven't ridden drop bars in such
a long time. Overall, I am enjoying the 'road' features. It
helps to get down on the drops in the headwinds that are
part of my daily commute. Bernie

In article <[email hidden]>, bmcilvan@mouse-
potato.com says...

...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I happen to prefer the Maroon and black treatment of the
2003 version, but it's still a great value in a bike!

Well, after the loss of my Marin hybrid - it was looking
too clean and sharp 🙂 - I want a rather plain looking set
of wheels for a low key image. Besides, green is my
colour. I'm riding nearly every day - lately 120 - 200 kms
a week, depending. Wear and tear is always on my mind. Do
you have any durability issues with your bike? Does yours
have the Tiagra brifters? Any problem witht the brakes?

I've only had mine since last September, and have around
1500 miles on it, but no issues so far with the shifters. At
the end of the winter, it was missing down shifts a lot, but
a thorough chain, cassette and derailleur cleaning took care
of that problem.

I really like the brakes, though the pads seem to be rather
bad about picking up grit, which then scrapes the Al wheels
and occasionally leaves Al particles embedded in the pads.
Of course, my previous bike had center-pulls and steel
wheels, so any modern brake system would seem great compared
to that setup.

Quoted message said:

How bout the tires? Mine came with Hutchinson
Globetrotters. They can be had online for $9.99 usd so I
wonder about the quality. They ride fine though.

The 2003 came with Ritchie Tom slicks in 32mm width. They
rode nice, but seemed to have a lot of rolling resistance
even when pumped up to their rated max, so I swapped them
out for a set of Conti Sport-1000's in 25mm, and I really
like that combo at around 100psi front/110 rear. I still
have the Ritchie's stored away for future use on rough road,
dirt road, or loaded touring use.

Quoted message said:

I think I'd like the bars better if they had a flatter
ramp behind the hoods to rest my hands on, but maybe
that;s just because I haven't

I felt the same way, so I rotated the bars back a bit so the
ramp is now nearly flat out to the hoods. That has the nice
(for me) side effect of slanting the drops a bit down toward
the ground, which my wrists prefer when I have to stay down
for an extended time. I also put a set of cheap aero bars
on, which gives me yet another hand position with NO weight
on my hands.

Quoted message said:

ridden drop bars in such a long time. Overall, I am
enjoying the 'road' features. It helps to get down on the
drops in the headwinds that are part of my daily commute.

Same here.

Quoted message said:

Bernie

--
Dave Kerber Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but
keep posts in the newsgroups if possible).

Bernie said:

How bout the tires? Mine came with Hutchinson
Globetrotters. They can be had online for $9.99 usd so I
wonder about the quality. They ride fine though.

Cheap tires are often more durable and/or long-wearing than
expensive tires.

Quoted message said:

I think I'd like the bars better if they had a flatter ramp
behind the hoods to rest my hands on, but maybe that;s just
because I haven't ridden drop bars in such a long time.

If you can measure and mark everything to be able to put it
back where it was originally, it might be worth some
experimentation. You could move the brifters back and change
the tilt of the bars accordingly and may find the flatter
ramp that you want...but that's a tough guessing game, so
make sure you can figure out where everything started.
--
Rick Onanian

David Kerber said:

I've only had mine since last September, and have around
1500 miles on it, but no issues so far with the shifters.
At the end of the winter, it was missing down shifts a lot,
but a thorough chain, cassette and derailleur cleaning took
care of that problem.

It's good to hear that, because I hear brifters are not
repairable. The wrist shifters (grip shifters?) on the
Marin failed fairly quickly. It's only been a few weeks on
the Fuji, but the brifters are very slick, no change noted
from day one.

Quoted message said:

I really like the brakes, though the pads seem to be rather
bad about picking up grit, which then scrapes the Al wheels
and occasionally leaves Al particles embedded in the pads.
Of course, my previous bike had center-pulls and steel
wheels, so any modern brake system would seem great
compared to that setup.

Ya, been there myself. Remember attempting to make a fast
stop in the rain with steel wheels? The previous brakes were
vee brakes and they work better than the Avids, imho.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

ow bout the tires? Mine came with Hutchinson
Globetrotters. They can be had online for $9.99 usd so I
wonder about the quality. They ride fine though.

The 2003 came with Ritchie Tom slicks in 32mm width. They
rode nice, but seemed to have a lot of rolling resistance
even when pumped up to their rated max, so I swapped them
out for a set of Conti Sport-1000's in 25mm, and I really
like that combo at around 100psi front/110 rear. I still
have the Ritchie's stored away for future use on rough
road, dirt road, or loaded touring use.

Don't think I will go skinnier just yet. Will stay vigilant
about keeping tires pumped to the max and carry on.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I think I'd like the bars better if they had a flatter
ramp behind the hoods to rest my hands on, but maybe
that;s just because I haven't

I felt the same way, so I rotated the bars back a bit so
the ramp is now nearly flat out to the hoods. That has the
nice (for me) side effect of slanting the drops a bit down
toward the ground, which my wrists prefer when I have to
stay down for an extended time. I also put a set of cheap
aero bars on, which gives me yet another hand position with
NO weight on my hands.

Fitting is interesting, isn't it? Especially when pain is
motivating one. I had the shop add a quill to threadless
adapter and a rising stem to get the bars up to seat
level. In combination with losing the gel gloves and a
small fore and aft adjustment of the seat, I was much more
comfortable right away - very little weight on the hands
now. Because I bought the bike from them, they did the
alterations at cost - this is a shameless plug for the
LBS! Now if I can just find a pair of those cheap and
tough crochet and leather gloves... they seem to be gone
from the local scene this spring.

David, thank you for the great feedback! I'm off for a
spin. Bernie

Rick Onanian said:

On Mon, 24 May 2004 11:55:19 -0700, Bernie <bmcilvan@mouse-

potato.com said:

How bout the tires? Mine came with Hutchinson
Globetrotters. They can be had online for $9.99 usd so I
wonder about the quality. They ride fine though.

Cheap tires are often more durable and/or long-wearing than
expensive tires.

Generally speaking, I agree. My Cheng Shin nylon 700 x 35's
were very durable, and rode fine too. However, here's what
happened today. Went for a spin. Rode about 12 miles to
where I start to loop back home. Heard a small scuffing
noise, so I stopped, suspecting something was stuck onto or
into one of the tires. While I was looking/feeling the tires
my rear tire blew very hard. Couldn't find anything stuck in
it, so removed tire and tube, inspected tire, found nothing.
Tube had a
1/8th" diameter hole in it. Inspected tire again, still
nada. Installed spare tube, started pumping. Pumped tire
up to ready to ride hardness and blam! Reinspected tire
and found a break at the edge of the bead and the
sidewall. There was no obvious cause, just that the
threads had parted. Came home on the bus. There's no need
to mention my eyesight, it's awful. But so was the tire.
Has maybe 350 miles on it. Is there a high defective rate
for this tire? Anyone?

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I think I'd like the bars better if they had a flatter
ramp behind the hoods to rest my hands on, but maybe
that;s just because I haven't ridden drop bars in such a
long time.

If you can measure and mark everything to be able to
put it back where it was originally, it might be worth
some experimentation. You could move the brifters back
and change the tilt of the bars accordingly and may
find the flatter ramp that you want...but that's a
tough guessing game, so make sure you can figure out
where everything started.

It's a thought, but small adjustments keep improving the
comfort, so I think I will leave the levers where they are
at least for now. Thanks for the feedback. Bernie