Fuso Components

I am often asked, “What was the standard component package on the Fuso?” or John Howard, or Recherché.

The answer: There was no standard component package. The reason, I only sold frames, not complete bikes.

The frames were ordered by bicycle dealers, usually for a specific customer, who then chose the components and the bike shop ordered these in and built the bike.

Often what happened was the customer could not afford an all Campagnolo or Shimano Dura-Ace equipped bike. So the dealer built the bike with lower priced components like Sugino, Sun Tour, or Shimano 600.

The thinking was, (And I agreed.) the frame is what determines how the bike fits, handles, and feels to the rider. Wheels are the next important factor, but after that a Sugino crankset, or cheaper pedals will, for the most part, feel no different than Campagnolo. The main difference is the quality of finish and the durability of the product, not so much in the ride quality.

The theory was, get a newcomer on a quality frame, get them hooked on cycling and they would come back and upgrade to a better quality component later. This was a smart business move for the Bike Dealer, and it sold frames for me.

For about the same price as say a mid range Japanese or European import, a customer could get on one of my frames with lower priced components. And of course when the customer compared the mid range import and my bike on a test ride they could feel the difference.

That was the theory. In reality what happened in many cases, the bike purchase was an impulse thing, and after a short period, the bike ended up sitting in the garage where many still languish to this day. 

From time to time such a bike comes up on eBay, often with a mish-mosh of cheap components.

If you are buying such a bike, realize that you are basically buying it for the frame.

If you strip the components to replace them with, say Campagnolo; these left over parts will have little or no resale value.

On the other hand, many may not want such a bike. If you can buy it at a bargain price, you can ride as originally intended and upgrade the components as they become available.

All frames I built were measured center to top which is approximately 2 cm. more that the center to center measurement. For example frame stamped 58 under the bottom bracket shell, would measure 56 cm. center to center. Also, if it is a Fuso and you ask the seller for the frame number, you can link to my Registry here and get the approximate date it was built.

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Stolen Bike finds new legitimate owner

Back in November 2016 I got an email from a Police Officer with the Moreno Valley PD, in Riverside County, California. He had a Fuso bike in his possession that was thought to be stolen, and he was trying to track down the rightful owner. (Picture above.)

The bike was not listed on my Registry, and I had no way of knowing who the original owner was as I sold all my frames though bike dealers, so no longer had records of individual frames, or where they went. I did however post the story here on my blog, and posted a link on the Dave Moulton Bikes, Facebook Group.

In 2018 this 60 cm. Fuso bike, frame number #948, was sold by auction from the police impound after the new owner had posted it in three different newspapers. This was required for transfer of ownership. The new owner has now listed it on my Bike Registry.

It seems to me a lot of people made a real effort to try and find the owner of this bike after it was stolen. The owner, it appears did not even take the time to file a police report. Had he done so the bike would have been returned. The same as it would have been had he listed it on my Registry.

If you want to win the lottery you must first buy a lottery ticket. If your bike is stolen and you would like to get it back, you increase your odds greatly by filing a police report. If it is a bike I built and it is listed on my registry, I can flag it as stolen and you will have a whole host of fans of the brand looking out for it.

To the original owner it was obviously just a bike, and his thought was probably. ‘My bike is stolen, and I’ll never see it again so I’ll just get another bike.’ I am pleased this long drawn out story has come to a happy conclusion. Welcomed back into a family of owners where FUSO #948 will be appreciated for what it is, rather than being just another bike.

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Success and Fate

Looking back on the United States part of my framebuilding career, although some of my success I created, fate also played a large role.

For example, in 1980 I went for a job interview with Trek, in Wisconsin. I didn’t get the position, but later that same year I landed a job with Masi in Southern California.

When I eventually started my own business, I was definitely in the right place. California, and in particular the southern part of that state, has a climate where one can ride a bike year-round. Had I opened my own framebuilding shop in Wisconsin, business would have definitely been seasonal.

Also, when Masi laid me off at the end of 1981 it was due to an overstock of unsold frames coinciding with a recession. It was not because of anything I had done, and it was not necessarily Masi’s doing either.

They were only too pleased to rent me space in their shop to build my own frames, as they also had a drop in income. This got me started back in my own business again, and I was able to resume building custom frames, something I had not done since leaving England in 1979.

Then when John Howard, ex-Olympic rider and winner of the first Ironman Triathlon approached me in 1983 to build frames under his own name, it gave me a contract to build five frames a week.

This brought in a steady income to supplement what I was already making from my custom frames. It enabled me to open my own framebuilding facility, along with my own paint shop.

The John Howard frame was a short lived project that only lasted a year. Again due to circumstances largely outside of my control, and of which I have outlined here in a previous article.

This left me scrambling to find a replacement to fill the void in my production capabilities. Once again fate had played a hand and out of that the Fuso was conceived.

The John Howard frame was always underpriced, and profit margins were small. It was competing head on with the Masi and Italian import frames, but was not an established brand at that time, so we had to produce and sell it for less.

With lessons learned from the John Howard frame, the Fuso came into being in 1984. The extreme luxuries like chrome plating were dispensed with, and the Fuso was a well-designed, well-built product with nice paint and graphics.

No longer having to split profits with a middle-man, I now had a frame that was a reasonable price and would compete favorably with the import frames.

The Fuso had a good run for almost ten years, when once again fate took a hand in the form of the Mountain Bike, people stopped buying road bikes. However, this time I did not rise to the challenge and re-invent myself or my business.

Maybe I had been knocked down one too many times. I was thoroughly burned out with the bike business, and no longer wanted to be a part of it.

If someone had offered me a job in the bike business, I would have considered it. But to run my own business again, subject to all the whims of the market and the consumer. No, thank you very much

Looking back, I have no regrets, but can't help but wonder what if I had landed that job with Trek back in 1980. Would they have treated me well enough that I stayed?

I might have retired by from some executive position with a large pension. On the other hand, I doubt if it would have been as satisfying as what I did do.

And is money the only consideration when a person looks back on what they have achieved? At some point we die, and money has little bearing on anything

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How many Fuso Lux Frames?

Like most frame builders, I stamped a serial number on my frames. Most products of any value have a serial number.  It is an identification mark on an often otherwise identical product. My custom frames were stamped with a number that represented the date it was built.

When I started to build the non-custom frames like the John Howard and the Fuso, these would hang in stock unpainted, sometimes for months, waiting for a customer who needed a particular size.  To stamp the frame with the date it was built, and the customer would perceive it was old stock.

It was practical to simply stamp these in sequence starting at number 001, which I did. It also served as a record of how many frames I was building. Beyond that I could have kept records of frame sizes, the color they were painted, and who they were sold to.

I kept no such records, I could see no useful purpose in doing so at the time. The reason, back in the 1980s when I built these frames, I could never envisage the Internet, and corresponding with people 30 years later about these very same frames.

However, since I started my Dave Moulton Bike Registry in 2010, and owners are sending me details of their frames, I am able to fill in some of the missing information. For example in 1986 I introduced the Fuso “LUX” model.

The Fuso Lux had a chrome plated right chainstay and dropout faces.

People had often lamented the passing of the John Howard frame with its chrome plating and superior finish with decals buried under eight clear coats, then sanded smooth before applying the final clear coat for a super smooth, ripple free finish.

The LUX (Luxury.) frame had these niceties. These frames were built to order, in other words an order preceded the frame being built. Other than that it was built on the same jig setting as the other Fuso frames. In a batch of five frames, one might be a special order LUX model.

But, when I stamped the batch of frames in sequence following the previous batch, I kept no record of which number was allocated to the LUX frame. As a result I have no idea how many Lux frames I built over the years. There is no point in counting the LUX frames on the registry, as even after nine years it only lists a fraction of the total frames built.

However, back in 2015 I wrote a piece about “One Thousand Fuso Crowns.”  In 1985 I ordered 1,000 Cinelli fork crowns with the Fuso name cast in them. (See picture left) Just this week a blog reader emailed me to point out there was a Fuso frame for sale on eBay #303 with a FUSO crown. This is a lower number than I previously had known.

So at the time of writing this, it has been established that FUSO frames numbered in the range of 303 to 1511, built in the five year period from 1985 to 1990, had the FUSO name fork crown. This is a total of 1208 frames.

As there were only 1,000 FUSO crowns, the excess 208 frames must have been the LUX model, as the LUX had an integral aero crown, without the FUSO name. (See right.)

This is the most accurate estimate I have so far. There will be a few more built after 1990, and as we discover more FUSO crown frames outside the current 303 to 1511 range, it will increase the Fuso LUX count.

So be on the lookout for FUSO crown frames with serial numbers below 303, or above 1511. If yours is within that range, it is already counted.

Read more about the Fuso LUX here.

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What Model Fuso?

Some Fuso owners, or would be owners, are not sure what model they are looking at. So I created this Infomercial with photos and the relevant info. It will be perminantly on my Registry linked to the Fuso page.

Click on the image to view this larger version.

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