[CR]John Howard Frames and FUSO FRX and Lux by Dave Moulton

(Example: Events:BVVW)

From: "Angel M Garcia" <wa2vuy@mindspring.com>
To: <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
References: <4057F22E.76199840@insightbb.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 19:03:41 -0500
cc: strattonh@insightbb.com
Subject: [CR]John Howard Frames and FUSO FRX and Lux by Dave Moulton

More info on the John Howard frames, and how the FRX and Lux models of the FUSO came about as per Dave Moulton:

"When I opened my own frameshop in San Marcos, CA 1983, I suddenly had considerable increased overhead that the custom frames could not support alone. John Howard had approached me to build a line of frames with his name on it and so production of the John Howard frame began with the opening of my new shop. I built the frames, John Howard did his own marketing and distribution. This really was a nice frame with some special features like chrome chainstay and dropouts and engraved seatstay caps and a paint finish equal to my custom frames. In retrospect it was probably underpriced for the amount of work that went into it. The John Howard frame was only produced for a little over a year and in 1984 when my contract with John ended that's when I started the Fuso line of frames to fill the void in my frameshop production. With lessons learned from the John Howard frame the original Fuso had less frills. The design and workmanship was the same, so the Fuso would perform the same as anything else I built. But to cut cost and keep it affordable there was no chrome or engraving and the decals were simple vinyl stick on type. Later around 1986 with experience gained I was able to improve the finish. I needed to give this model a new name to distinguish it from the previous model, so I dubbed it the 'Fuso FRX.' FR stood for Fuso Racing and the 'X' was for the Extra work that went into the paint finish. Apart from that the frame was the same as it always was. Some people had always lamented the demise of the John Howard frame and so about the same time, 1986 I introduced the Fuso Lux (Short for luxury) with the chrome and the engraved seat stay caps. The Lux also had the decals 'buried' under 8 clear coats, hand sanded as did the John Howard, a very labor intensive process. Dave Moulton."

Angel Garcia, noting that Dave Moulton has been very gracious in answering many questions, Long Valley, NJ