Vintage Fuji Racer too big for me. Part it out or sell it whole?

[charlesj]

Early 70s "The Ace" 60cm . Nice lugwork. Tubular/sewup tires. Lacking front derailleur. Frame has a few scratches. Moderately fancy (no chromed stays or fork).

I like some old bikes but I'm not a collector and this is too tall for me to ride. Part it out or sell it whole? TIA

[rideit]

Honestly, if it was in great working condition, it’s probably worth $35-$75 Dollars.
Maybe more to a ‘collector’, but I don’t think the parts on it would make much of a difference in price.

[charlesj]

ok. thanks

[Falcon3]

I'd reevaluate that, actually. Talk to the bros over at Classic/Vintage Bikeforums. This bike might actually be worth something. Depending on the year, it might have a vintage Dura Ace groupset along with hand-brazed double-butted cromoly tubing. Upload a few pics or PM me, I'll take a look.

Just the Dura Ace components from early 70's can fetch $250+ on ebay.

I regularly pick up vintage steel bikes on CL/FB for $35-60 and flip for a couple hundred. It takes patience, but can be a fun hobby.

[rideit]

Fair point, but that era Fuji’s didn’t come with those types of components very often.
Worth investigating, though.
Just did some googling, people are certainly asking some high prices for that era, for sure!

[charlesj]

This is a cool bike I owned in the 90s. It's about a decade older than the Fuji, Reynolds and Campy, very damned rare and I think beautiful for a racing bike of that era.



http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Bri.../Green_W_1.htm

[Falcon3]

Beautiful Fuji, worth way more than the $35-$75 estimated above. That crank set is probably $100+ on eBay. There’s absolutely a collector out there looking for this bike in original (as is) shape.


In the 1970s The Ace was Fuji’s top amateur-level bike. The Dura Ace stuff is highly prized because it was before Shimano got huge, it shifted well and looked great and is reasonably rare. at this point, Campy was king and Suntour was a little bit behind).

Most bikes in the “bike boom” 70s era are straight walled tubing with stamped rear dropouts. This is a lugged/hand-brazed model made of double butted cromoly in a Japanese factory likely. “Good” bikes like this are fairly rare to come by.

There’s a guy in Iowa on Bikeforums that is a big time collector of this vintage, if you post in the “what’s my bike worth” forum on there, you’ll likely get a couple offers.

[rideit]

Yeah, I didn’t see any pics at all the first time around. My mistake. I just assumed it was a ‘70’s bike boom’ bike. The parts are worth more than the sum of the whole, for sure.

[charlesj]

I figured it was worth enough to subsidize some skiing or pay some bills. I have too much cool stuff that is essentially clutter. Thanks Rideit and Falcon.