On the road again

I finally got my bike put together at took my first ride in at least fifteen years; I rode for exactly an hour at a pretty brisk pace and it felt good. I could have gone further but decided not to do too much on the first day.

I have had the frame for about six weeks now; a 52 cm. Fuso that I built in 1986. It had a brand new paint job in the 1990s and the previous owner never built it up after that. Very tastefully finished in a royal blue with understated black decals; I bought some Vittoria Corsa tubulars with blue sidewalls and found some blue and black handlebar tape. Black brake cable housing finished the job.

The components are all Campagnolo SR from the 1980s; the hold up in getting it finished was in finding a bottom bracket spindle the right length. It finally arrived on Friday and I put the whole thing together over the weekend. Also arriving on Friday was pretty rare NOS Super Record 48 tooth chainring that I had found on eBay. This gives me a much more usable range of gears with a six speed 13 – 18 freewheel.

Old bikes are like old cars; you can work on them yourself. I love the simplicity of down tube mounted friction gear levers. I read a statement by someone who said “Indexed shifting is like frets on a fiddle.” I’m inclined to agree. I adjusted the gears in the house expecting to have to do some final adjustments as I rode it, but it all worked perfectly.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not knocking the new stuff and if you are racing the bar mounted shifters are probably a huge advantage. But for someone like me who’s just riding for pleasure and exercise; why get complicated?

I love the beautiful lines of the older bikes; they look so flimsy with the thin tubes and rims and yet are so very strong. It is what started the whole love affair in the first place.

I will admit that I do like the new clothing; the padded shorts instead of chamois leather insert that was a pain to wash and dry. (Of course you could clean your windows with it.) I haven’t gone clipless yet but probably will in a few weeks when I have got used to riding again.

And the helmets; they finally got that right. Do you remember back in the late 1970s early 1980s when the Bell helmets were the thing? Looked like a fucking great white mushroom stuck on your head. These new helmets actually look cool so I am wearing one for the first time.

Alright so I’m a poser; what can I tell you? But you probably figured that out when I said I’d bought blue tires to match my blue frame.

Get out and ride it: It's what they're built for

Mark Rosenberg emailed me pictures of a 50 cm. Fuso he recently picked up on eBay. The previous owner had peeled the decals off for whatever reason so it was ugly, but this did mean he got it for a pretty low price. (See below.)


Mark opted to go for a $100 red powder coat paint job which only took a week to do; he built it up with parts he already had, and he was on the road. He reported to me that the bike was a nice ride, great handling, and quick, very stable. He added, great shock absorption, can't figure that one out.  A good steel frame is like a very stiff spring, so it will absorb road shocks. At the same time when the rider makes a sudden effort it will give a little but then immediately transfer that energy to the back wheel.

It pleases me when I see one of my frames with the original paint and has been cared for. It pleases me when someone spends a good deal of money to restore a frame to its original glory. But I think what gives me the most satisfaction is when someone like Mark just rides it. It is what the frames were built for; the beauty is in the way the bike rides and handles, not just in aesthetics.

The Number 10 Fuso Just Surfaced

The other day I received an email from someone who had just bought one of my bikes. It was a 53 cm. Fuso (Pictured above.) and although the buyer had not heard of the name before he worked in a bike store and knew enough about bikes to know that this was a quality product and he got it for a bargain price. “Almost brand new, hardly ridden.” Was his comment.

After buying the bike he did a Google search and found my website which led to his contacting me. The thing I found interesting was the serial number 010; yes this was the 10th Fuso built and by far the lowest number Fuso I have heard about outside of the number 001.

The number one Fuso was a 58 cm. and was used for display at a trade show when I introduced the brand in 1984. After the show I gave the bike to my friend David Ball from San Luis Obispo, California in exchange for some photography work he had done for me. Several years later David sold the bike to the owner of a local bike store, and as far as I know he still owns the bike even though he has since sold the store.

The Fuso was built in batches of five frames at a time; so the first five were 58 cm. and now it seems the second batch of five were 53 cm. I have considered starting an owner’s register where frame serial numbers would be registered against the current owner’s name. But with close to 3,000 Fuso frames built between 1984 and 1993 the number of owners in contact with me is less than 200, and that’s for all frames built, not just Fusos; so it hardly seems worth it. There would be a lot of gaps in the register; a lot of frames un-registered.

I see Fuso bikes and frames for sale on eBay all the time; in fact is rare for a period of more than a week to go by where there is not one for sale. I always monitor these sales and keep track of prices for my own interest even though I have no part of these sales. Once a bike is sold rarely do I hear of it again.

So it seems the Fuso and the other brands I made are still one of the best kept secrets around. With only 200 owners that I know of means there are several thousand others out there; many of them sitting in garages and basements and can still be picked up at bargain prices because the owners don’t know what they have.

There are some God awful paint schemes on Fuso frames out there: Not my fault.

I recently saw a comment posted on Classic Rendezvous Bike List saying something like, “Picked up a Fuso recently with weird purple and yellow paint.”

When I introduced the Fuso frame in 1984 I offered it in four very tasteful (I thought.) color schemes. There was my favorite Charcoal Grey Metallic and Red (Pictured below.) Red and Silver Metallic, Dark Blue Metalic and Light Blue Metallic, and Dark Plum with Lilac Metallic.


I was trying to keep costs down and by limiting color choice to four meant I could paint batches of frames all the same and keep them in stock for immediate delivery. Almost from the beginning I started getting requests for this color and that color. I refused at first but after fighting it for two years, I gave in, simplified the decal design, dropped the metal head badge (I had to cut costs somewhere.) and offered the Fuso painted to order in 1, 2, or 3 colors and offered at least a dozen colors to choose from.

Through the latter half of the 1980s I painted some pretty garish color combinations at my customer's request. As well as the Purple/Yellow afore mentioned there were a lot of Powder Blue and Pink, Turquoise and Pink, Green and Purple and every other stomach turning combination you can think of. I hated it, but I was running a business and like all successful businesses I was giving the customer what they wanted.

You have to remember people ordering these frames were from a generation who grew up in the 1960s psychedelic era and maybe partook of a little too much pot or LSD in their youth. After that came the 1970s when kitchens throughout America were equipped with Avocado Green refrigerators. Red and green plaid pants worn with a striped or polka-dot shirt was the height of fashion.

The 1980s were no better, this was the era when bicycle shorts and fanny-packs became fashion items. People who grew up in this era did so in a cultural and artistic wilderness where every speck of good taste had evaporated like water from the desert. It is interesting that now everyone has come out of the drug induced haze of those former years, peoples taste in just about everything has improved immensely.

The people who ordered these frames cannot be blamed, they knew no better and it looked cool at the time. Now they look as outdated as a pair of yellow polyester pants, and like the polyester pants they will last forever so they are going to be around for a long time.

I make no apologies for these God awful paint schemes. I’m not particularly proud of them but like Oliver North, I was just following orders. If you want a nice looking Fuso, look for what I call the first generation in the original four color schemes offered. And not all frames that came later were garish; there were a few people around with good taste.

The person, who commented on his purple and yellow Fuso that prompted this piece, also said “I would have preferred red and yellow, but then someone else may have snapped it up.” So there you have it; because people balk at these wild and crazy color combos, there are bargains to be had out there, and if you maybe wear some really dark glasses you will find that under the gaudy paint there is a bike that is built to be ridden.

Maybe in time you will grow to like the bike enough that you will spring for a repaint. In which case you will be doing me a huge favor, and making the world a better place by removing one more piece of visual pollution.

A very nice 59cm. Fuso Lux just sold on eBay.

This Campagnolo equipped anniversary model (1987) went for $879; in my opinion a fair price. In monitoring eBay sales recently it seems the going rate for an FR1 model (Complete bike.) is around $500, and for a Lux model $800.

The extra 79 bucks paid for this one was well justified because it seems to be in near perfect condition and it is a 30th Anniversary model which makes it a little more special. The new owner can rest assured that there are many years of riding left in this bike and they may even show a profit should they decide to sell in a few years.

Incidentally another 57cm. Fuso, an FRX, failed to reach the reserve price when the sale ended and the highest bid was at $510. My advice, for what it is worth, is as follows:

If you are selling and you can live with the prices mentioned above. If you no longer ride the bike, look on it as passing the bike on to someone who will ride it and cherish it. If you put a reserve price about the price mentioned above, your bike may not sell. But put a reserve $200 or $300 less than that and the bike will probably go for the price you want. If you want more for the bike then don’t sell yet. Hang on to it.

If you are buying a lot depends on the size you are looking for. I built just under 3,000 Fuso frames between 1984 and 1993. Add to this about 200 John Howard frames, and about 150 Recherche frames. The most popular sizes and therefore the most built were 56, 57, 58, and 59. Sizes 53, 54, and 55 plus 60, 61, and 62 were the next most popular sizes. The sizes below 53cm. and above 62cm. there were even fewer built, but on the other hand there will be less people looking for these sizes.

If a bike comes up for sale in a popular size there are bound to be more than one person biding for it. But if you are not successful there will be others for sale probably quite soon. If you are on the look out for one of the least popular sizes, there may only be one or two bidding on it so you may get it for a bargain price. But if you really want that particular bike you might be prepared to bid a little higher because the chances of this particular size coming up for sale again soon is less likely.

I would like to stress that I have no financial interest in any bikes that sell anywhere. I do not own a single bike or frame that I built. But I am interested because I built them; I just don’t want to see anyone get screwed, be they buyer or seller.

Anyone buying or selling a frame I built can find more information on my website including frame number info and dates frames were built. You may also contact me if you have a specific question.