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Fuji Bicycles
Founded in 1899 in Japan as Nichibei Fuji 1), an importer of American and English bicycles. 20 years later it started making its own bikes and by 1971 it became the first Japanese brand to sell in the US using its own name. Today, Fuji is owned by Advanced Sports and makes its bicycles in China and Taiwan. 2)3) See: https://www.fujibikes.com.
Fuji has catalogs!.
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1983 Mount Fuji Ltd
3×6 moderately low gearing. 30 pounds.
1983 Mount Fuji Ltd
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1984 Sundance
Nice wide gearing and lighter weight at 27.5 pounds The old Mt. Fuji (no longer Mount Fuji Ltd) continues with better gearing, bullmoose bars, wider tires and remains 2 1/2 more pounds than the Sundance.
1984 Sundance
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1985 Fuji Blvd Xc
“Ultra wide gearing” with cruiser tires. A decent hybrid at 31 pounds. The Sundance, Mt. Fuji and Mt. Fuji Ltd continue as before.
Blvd Xc Stem Booty
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The Blvd XC came with a weird stem protector: a dust boot sort of rubber thing. Not quite a nard guard.
5)
Future Shock
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Perhaps the boot was hiding Fuji advanced shock absorbing tech?
1985 Fuji Blvd Xc
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1986 Fuji Blvd XC
SunTour XC Sport derailleurs and shifters, Dia Compe 981/281 brakes and levers, Diamond Blue (1986 only). 26-46 front, 14-30T rear, 6 speed. 26×1.5“ tires. 29.2 pounds.
1986 Fuji Blvd XC
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1987 Sundance
SunTour XC Sport groupset, u-brake rear, double butted cromo frame. Dual bottle cages on down tube. 28.9 pounds. Catalog shot. This is their top mtb for the year - without knobby tires.
1987 Sundance, from 1987 catalog
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1988 Mt. Fuji Ltd.
Full Shimano XT M730 groupset, Tange outer butted tubing6), dual downtube bottle cages. 26×1.6” tires, with knobs. 28.5 pounds. 1988 models used a stylistic “F.” monogram on forks and seat tube.
1988 Mt. Fuji Ltd.
Catalog shot.
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1989 Mt. Fuji
Should be Shimano Deore RD-MT62 derailleurs. Japanese May 1989 ad from Bicycle Club Magazine. Custom paint, perhaps to show off color choices.
1989 Mt. Fuji
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1990 Titanium ATB
Full titanium frame, Tange Switchblade fork, Shimano Deore XT groupset, Sella Italia Turbo saddle, Ritchey Force Racing K tires, 24.5 pounds.
1990 Titanium ATB.
Catalog shot
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1991 Mt. Fuji Ltd.
Shimano Deore XT M732 (1989-90) groupset, Ritchey Megabite Harddrive 2.1“ tires, Tange double butted MTB tubing.
1991 Mt. Fuji Ltd.
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1992 Professional
Rock Shox mag 20 (1992), Tange Prestige tubing, SunTour XC Pro groupset (1989-92), Ritchey brakes & levers (original?). No catalog available for 1992.
1992 Professional
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1)
'Nichibei' translates as 'Japanese-American.' https://www.fujibikes.com/usa/aboutus
2)
Info from wikipedia and Classic Fuji
3)
Advanced Sports was in turn acquired by the Tiger Capital Group in 2019, which then sold Fuji to BikeCo of Philadelphia in 2020, which also owns https://www.breezerbikes.com/.
4)
But more interestingly: What kind of car is that? The 1950's curves say Aston Martin, but it's hard to pin down…
5)
Can't resist:
- nard guard n. used to prevent wang chung.
- wang chung n. what you might get when your stem has no nard guard. See crotch-testing.
- crotch-testing n. sudden impact between a male rider's private parts and something very hard and pointy, such as a handlebar stem or seat.
6)
Outer butting implies the tubing has been machined from the outside with a constant inner diameter. This is often cheaper than traditional inner double butting and is typically done with tricky materials such as titanium.