The Fuji

It's not quite refurbished, it's not quite restored, but it rides well and it was great fun working on this bike.

As the cracked and peeling decals illustrate, this is a Fuji Boulevard from around the late 1980s-early 1990s, judging from the online catalogs I've looked at. The above photo shows what it looked like the night I brought it home. It had been posted on Craigslist for months, and something caught my eye about it every time the price dropped. I keep thinking it was the rack that sealed the deal, but who knows? The price hit $30, and I pounced. I visited the guy's house, made it look like I knew what I was doing in giving it the once-over, and drove away.

The Fuji Boulevard is a very heavy bike. Slotted at the lower-end of Fuji's line, it appears to have been a sort of pre-hybrid: definitely not heavy-duty enough (well, it has the heavy part down!) to be an off-road mountain bike, but big and solid and comfy enough to make a nice city cruiser. The advertisement was weird. It was described as a "teenage" bike with 24-inch wheels. But it was  most definitely a smaller-to-medium size adult bike with 26-inch wheels. It was a 10-speed, with a Sugino double crank up front and a Shimano 5-speed freewheel in the back. The seller described the rear wheel as slightly bent, which was basically accurate. The spokes were corroded and rusty, too, so I decided early on the big find for this project would be new wheels. I figured that when complete, I would have my oldest son try it on for a possible upgrade from his 24-inch Nishiki. If he didn't feel comfortable on it, I figured I would just sell it for what I paid, or try for a small return.

Any experienced bike flipper would not have gone near this bike. Like I said, it's heavy. It's pretty basic. It was not a hugely expensive or unique bike when it was new. It needed more work than, quite frankly, it was worth. And I only paid $30 for it! The wheel issue should have sent me running--that's a big expense on a bike that I wouldn't be able to sell for much. But the other big reason I dove into this project was to teach myself some repair and refurbishing techniques. The big ones on this bike were the bottom bracket and the headset. It's such an uncomplicated part--just a spindle, some bearings, and "cups' that hold the bearings against those spindles. But I don't think a lot of people would attempt the repair. Two tools are required--a crank puller and a bottom bracket tool. But they're not too expensive, and will be used on future projects.

It all came apart pretty easy, and all went back together pretty easy. I stayed with the Sugino double for two reasons--I liked how it looked, and I didn't want to spend the (admittedly short) money for a triple that most modern mountain/hybrid bikes come with. Just figured I could always add it later. I might need a longer spindle, but hey, now I know how to remove a bottom bracket. Which was half the point of this project, like I said.


I had disassembled everything and cleaned everything, and the project kicked into high gear when, one afternoon a few weeks ago, I came across an 2000 Fuji woman's bike described as a "beach bike" or something like that. It was $10. I emailed the seller to ask if the wheels were true, and he said yes, adding that he had inflated the tired and took it for a spin around the driveway with no drama. I scooped that up, and had my wheels. The freewheel on the rear wheel was a 7-speed, so I transplanted the rear derailleur as well. I had to slightly squeeze in the new, wider freewheel, but it didn't seem like it was too much of a stretch. The original setup was friction, and the new 7-speed setup was indexed, so there was a nice upgrade. That led me to the only real new parts I bought (besides the bb bearings. cables and wires): the SRAM grip shifters. I had some extras from another parts bike, but they were horribly difficult to re-cable, and were hard even to get back together. They were older no-name units; newer grip-shifters are much easier to service. It seemed like a splurge, but I had already committed to an indexed system with the rear wheel. Plus, I knew I needed new grips for the straight bar setup. New grips, I figured, would be $8 to $10. The basic but pretty-good-quality SRAM grip shifters are only $17 for the set on Amazon, and come with their own set of grips. So I thought that was a pretty good value.

The only parts of the project I farmed out to the bike shop was the new chain (I just wasn't ready, particularly considering the frankenbike 14-speed setup) and brake adjustment (I fiddled with them for five minutes and threw in the towel). Labor charges well-spent, I say.

It rides true and smooth, and miraculously enough, the new drivetrain works like it's factory. My son loves it, although he checked off the "rack delete" option, and requested the kickstand be reinstalled, which is fine with me--it's his bike, now.

What a great feeling, riding it without any drama for the first time after putting it all back together. I'm sure there will be another project down the road that will do its best to discourage me from further projects, but this one was a great way to start out.