New bike to play with

M

mwerner

Joined
Apr 23, 2002
Messages
5,354
Well, new to me...Actually dates from late-70s/early 80s:
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It's a Miyata "Pro", 2nd down from their then top-of-the-line "Team" model.

Double-butted Cro-Mo frame, lugged. Has Suntour "Superbe" (top of the line from the defunct company) and Shimano 600 components. The seatpost is even oval in cross-section at the top.

Needs a bit of work; the aero brake hoods are shot or missing, the wheels need to be trued up, and there's a lot of dirt and a little corrosion. Looks like a good project to keep me out of trouble!
 
Nice vintage ride, what's the plan for it, keep it vintage and restore it, use it for a city bike, beater?

does it have horizontal rear dropouts or vertical?

if it has Horiz. drops you could yoink off the deraileurs and turn it into a really nice Singlespeed....
 
This has the horizontal dropouts with the little screw-adjusters, as does my about-the-same vintage Cilo.

No single-speeds for me, thanks! :D At 59, I just got diagnosed with "mild" arthritis in my right knee and I'm going in for cortisone injections Wednesday.

The more gears the better, IMO. This one, BTW, appears to have a rather "racy" cluster (seven speed) in the back, and the common (for the time) 52-42 crank. I just put a 52/39 on the Cilo, and it's ever-so-much more knee friendly.

Most likely I will try to restore this one pretty much as-is, and see how the gearing agrees with the knees....
Perhaps I can find a new cluster for the rear; I know they made a number of touring models back then.
 
mwerner said:
No single-speeds for me, thanks! :D At 59, I just got diagnosed with "mild" arthritis in my right knee and I'm going in for cortisone injections Wednesday.

The more gears the better, IMO.
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pshaw! puppykicker has it right, make her a fixed gear! you've got a bum knee-- that's ok. just run a lighter gear ratio, like 48/18 or so.

looks like an awesome project.
 
Hi GarageBoy-

A vintage Japanese bike would be better with vintage Japanese parts. An old Campagnolo Super Record gruppo would be slick on a DeRosa...

~ Blue Jays ~
 
Some of the detailing on this bike is pretty cool, some just sort of odd. Each frame lug has a "crown" cutout and is nicely scalloped, looks pretty cool. Instead of the usual short piece of cable housing for the DR cable to run through at the final bend, there are short pieces of what look like wound spring; no covering at all.
The brake calipers are very well detailed, with little plastic angle adjusters which are held in place by a setscrew. But the brake levers are really cheesy Dia-Comp jobs with no quick-release.
 
Miyata? Wow, I haven't heard that name in a while! (And it's now considered "vintage"? :( ) I have a green Miyata "Shredder" mountain bike in the basement that has only been ridden about 5 times. Time to look for the helmet! :)
 
From reading the "vintage" threads over at Bikeforums, it's apparent that the Miyatas are not yet in the "collectible" class; just well-made bikes with decent components.

There is a growing interest in vintage mountain bikes, however; maybe you should hang on to the old critter.
 
mwerner said:
This has the horizontal dropouts with the little screw-adjusters, as does my about-the-same vintage Cilo.

No single-speeds for me, thanks! :D At 59, I just got diagnosed with "mild" arthritis in my right knee and I'm going in for cortisone injections Wednesday.
Click to expand...

Actually, if you go to the Singlespeed forums on Bikeforums.net or roadbikereview.com and ask the question about SS'ing and arthritis, you'd be surprised at the results, there are a few riders with arthrutis that found their symptoms actually *lessened* after they started riding SS....

unless you have a lot of hills on your ride, you could probably have a lot of fun SS'ing that bike....

just think of the simplicity, no deraileurs to drift out of alignment, clatter or grind, no deraileur cables to snap, just the simple efficiency of you and the bike, two pedals, two wheels, a crank and rear cog, (oh yeah, and brakes too, can't forget brakes ;) ) what could be simpler

you can simulate SS'ing on the rig the way it is by selecting a good, middling gear ratio and just not shifting, it won't give you the true SS feel, but it'll be close, and if you don't like it, you can go back to gears risk free

at least give it a try, you may find it's not as hard as you think...
 
Actually, the area I do most of my riding in has a number of hills, and I find I make considerable use of the gears. I'm rather "mechanical" in outlook, and I love the feeling of having that drivetrain shifting easily and quickly, snicking from gear to gear to keep my well-trained spin going.

Also, at 200 pounds, I'm not much for "dancing on the pedals" either. Not much of a dance, I fear. I'm more like an Ullrich, find a gear I can manage and pedal away.

We had at least one student last semester with a single-speed, a girl! Very nice little bike, light and simple as you say. She goes about 110 soaking wet, I'd say... The campus, where I do bike patrol, is reasonably flat, but I carry 12 pounds of gear on the old bod, and the bike is no feather with the extra police gear. I find I use perhaps four gears normally.
 
Looks like a great project, no rush, source parts off ebay if you need them, a great thing to have when you need a little 'alone' time. ;)

As for the arthritis look up something called MCHC and then buy a load. In clinical tests it reversed osteoarthritis in post menopausal alcoholic women. No mean feat!
 
Hi All-

I'm tempted to build a fixed-gear bike because I think it would have a positive impact on training. It sure would encourage leg muscles to remember how to "spin" effectively each season! Based on the number of steep hills around here I would be compelled to have at least one brake to prevent accidents.

Can one exert "backpressure" against the spinning cranks to help slow the bike pretty quickly? I know the purists hate to put brakes on these bikes...but I don't see how that can be done outside of Iowa or someplace flat like that!

~ Blue Jays ~
 
Wait, on a fixed gear, you can't freewheel, so if you stop pedaling, don't you lock up the rear wheel?
 
Hi GarageBoy-

You're absolutely correct, you can't freewheel on a fixed-gear bike.

As the wheels spin, the cranks spin via the chain connected to the rear cog. The concern is that if one is descending a steep hill, those cranks can get to spinning very quickly! If the bike has brakes, it can be slowed...reducing the revolutions per minute of the attached cranks and pedals. At a certain speed, even great riders would lose coordination and be unable to maintain the RPMs.

~ Blue Jays ~
 
GarageBoy said:
Hey Midget, what fixed gears are those?
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hey garageboy.

they are both conversions.

the black, traditional was a fuji frame, random fork, misc. parts through and through. except for the fixed cog and new tires, i built it for free on parts i found + elbow grease. her name is "tapeworm."


the one with "compact" geometry was a trek 1000, nashbar carbon fork, look carbon seatpost, ENO eccentric hub + custom wheel build, sugino 75 cranks, richey pro 85mm stem, syntace stratos bars. her name is "fluke."

one of them i built for almost free, the other i spent entirely too much money on. go figure.

both are out of my hands, however. "tapeworm," i gave to my roommate. she's still going strong-- no new parts or rebuilds, and she's ridden every day. what impresses me the most is he went from riding an old, beat up mountain bike to riding a fixed gear, road cycle, brakeless, and he made the transition like overnight.

"fluke" is grounded in missouri in storage. i dunno why i could never bring myself to ride her, it's kind of sad. i put all this effort into building her into this sweet, light, perfect ride for me, and then i was too afraid of letting her go on the street. it's like dreading those first few scratches on a graphic sebenza.


now i ride a bonified track bike. windsor frame, soma 18t cog, old chopped horns, bg saddle, mks pedals + clips, otherwise stock parts. painted black.


windsor.JPG
 
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