i love this bike
This is the first bike I bought myself as an adult.
A 1984 Fuji Espree. It's been with me since 2011, when I bought it out of a garage in Lansing, MI (my home at the time). Back when I first got it, it was set up period correct, with a 2x6 drivetrain, yellow wall 27"x 1 1/4" tires, a nitto quill stem and drop bars, and yellow bar tape (to match the tires). I rode it totally stock for 5 years in Lansing, as a commuter to various customer service jobs, and as a joyrider. When I moved to Chicago in 2016, it became my main mode of transportation, and brought me to various coffee shop jobs, and to many apartments around the north side as I walked the dogs of the financially sound. I had a rear rack with a milk crate ziptied on for years.
It wasn't til I lived in Chicago that I really started riding it year round. With that change, I started wearing through parts that had lasted unknown amounts of years. Some projects were done by a local shop, but I also had to start learning more bike maintenance skills myself. For another couple years, I mostly did chain/brakepad/bar tape replacements as needed. I hadn't changed anything about the bike or how it rode! Then, I decided I wanted to use a handlebar bag- the problem was, all the bags I wanted were too wide to be comfortable with the narrow Nittos. It was time for my first swap. I grabbed a pair of Soma Highway One bars, a stem, and a threadless stem adapter, and made my first significant alteration to how the bike felt. It was satisfying!
A couple months after that, I decided I wanted a different feeling bike. I found a late 90s (1999?) Fuji Touring Series frameset, and decided I was going to build it up into a city cruiser as my first real bike project. I was really trying to do it pretty cheap, and I made the decision for my Espree to donate many of its components to the Touring Series (and to have a new life with another project in the future). The swap went smoothly, with the Espree giving up its downtube shifter levers, the 2x Sugino crankset, front Suntour derailer, rear Microshift mech, and the rack. The touring series was fun to build, but it turned out, a bit small for me (I tried various different bars and stems, but never landed on anything that felt 'right'). While I was realizing this, I decided that instead of putting the Espree back the way it was, I was going to follow through on a dream of years before and make it into a fixie. I found a cheap Van Dessel wheelset on Craigslist, and made it happen.
The Fixspree was so much fun! I lived on it for a while, training for and riding a century. It was just a blast to rip around on. While in fixie mode, I found a deal on a cool 26" wheel Surly Long Haul Trucker (another dream bike of a younger self), and picked it up with the intent of replacing what the Touring Series was meant to be (that bike is also awesome, I'll have a bike check for that someday soon!). A year or two after that, I also built up a Velo Orange Pass Hunter frameset into a 650b forest trail ripper.
I only wanted to have one drop bar bike, so over this past summer, I decided to redo the cockpit on the Espree. I found a very long Ritchey/Nitto stem, and some Velo Orange Left Bank bars that I originally ran on the Touring Series, added a Nitto M1-B rack and half sized Wald 139 basket. I also had a rear wheel built with a Surly flip flop hub and Udai hoop. The Udai hoop is wider than the previous Van Dessel rims, so now paltry 700x33 tires won't clear fenders, but the Rivendell Jack Brown Blues feel real comfy, and the LHT is fully fendered, so I'm living without until winter, when I'll change the tires up and throw the fenders back on.
I'll maybe add more images to this post as I go back through photos, but this is the bike in its current state. I use it when I don't have to carry more than this bag (the LHT is better for hauling), and when there's not weather to consider. The Espree feels light (triple butted tubing!) and quick, and it's a great bike for ~15 miles of commuting every day.