Finished aligning the brakes (see below for more on that), and wrapping the bars this morning. First two are after pictures, second pair of photos are the before shots.
by LaPlataPig
Finished aligning the brakes (see below for more on that), and wrapping the bars this morning. First two are after pictures, second pair of photos are the before shots.
by LaPlataPig
1 Comment
This was a fun project.
Most of the work was done myself, though I did drop it off at the shop for some assistance as I didn’t haveall the BB and headset tools (yet). They checked the original Araya 27” x 1 ¼ rims and spokes which were in mostly good order I was told. The shop also used a sonic cleaner on the 5 speed freewheel which made a world of difference! They didn’t charge me for the wheels or sonic cleaning. But I bought the Altus M310 derailleur, new brake hoods, cables and housing, and some other small parts/tools from them.
I picked this bike up for $90 at a nearby buy/sell/trade shop. Overall, it was in good conditions but the tire sidewalls had rotted through and the bike had a lot of garage grime on it. I can tell at one time this was someone’s beloved rider. Besides the grime and a few spots of paint repair, it was well taken care of and still had the hooks in the front fork eyelets for the shock cord suspension straps on the old style handlebar bags.
Original specs are found here: [~https://www.ragandbone.ca/PDFs/Miyata%20Catalogue%20PDFs/1981%20Miyata%20Catalog.pdf~](https://www.ragandbone.ca/PDFs/Miyata%20Catalogue%20PDFs/1981%20Miyata%20Catalog.pdf)
It’s a classic sports touring frame, which I feel were about 30-40 years ahead of the curve. Wide gear range (stock 52/46/28 x 11-30, so wide for the time), ability to fit wider tires (this will clear 42 mm – if they made 27” tires that wide anymore), and bottom bracket bottle mounts, plus all the eyelets for fenders and racks. Sounds pretty modern to me.
Besides the work the shop did, here was my sweat work:
1. Stripped, disassembled and cleaned all parts (that the shop didn’t take care of) including canti brakes, shift levers, derailleurs, and crankset.
2. Replaced the old Suntour Mountech derailleur with Shimano Acera M310. While I would love to replace with era-correct parts, it’s hard to argue with cheap and functional. I don’t think it looks too out of place either, and it’s just so smooth.
3. Replaced inner chainring bolts which were in bad shape. It’s like someone took a file and ground them at a slant towards the bottom bracket. This left them mushroomed over and a bit rusty. I can’t figure that one out. It wasn’t contacting anything on the frame.
4. Swapped out Suntour downtube shifters for Suntour barcons and fitted with NOS Suntour cable stop.
5. New cables, housing, brake pads.
6. Other new parts are: Tanaka 8 Moves bottle cage, VO Sabot pedals (stolen from my Miyata Valley Runner but will probably buy Stamp 1 Gen 2 pedals in blue), Nitto M10 – 80mm stem, Nitto B135 – 45cm handlebars, Soma Thick and Zesty tape, Cane Creek brake lever hoods, Thomson titanium seatpost (also stolen from other Miyata) and **GASP** a Brooks saddle.
7. The widest tires I could find were Swift Sand Canyons (made by Panaracer) in 27 x 1 ⅜. They seem to ride well.
By far the greatest headache were the cantilever brakes. I could not for the life of me figure out what the hell was going on. No matter how careful I was, they would slip out of alignment when tightening. I decided to pull apart the entire assembly and finally found the reason. The previous owner or a mechanic had over tightened the bolt and the half moon washer against which the non-threaded brake post sits, had developed divots and mushroomed over. Whenever I would tighten the bolt, the brake post would sit back into those divots and undo the alignment. I took a file to the washer and filed them flat and it was finally a piece of cake.
This isn’t the final build for the bike, but I’m leaving in a couple days for a two week work trip and since I’m driving, I wanted this bike for my townie so I don’t have to drive a massive F250 work truck with company decals through town. This will also allow me to hit up some breweries since I can’t park company fleet vehicles at bars.
The final build is planned to include a Soma Rakku rear rack, Soma Lucas 3 front rack, fenders, a conversion to 700c wheels, an 8 speed 11-34 cassette, and a chainring conversion to 46/36/24. The 36/24 chainrings are already ordered, I’ll just swap the 46 to the outer position. I do plan to tour with this rig, so I’m trying to get to 18/19 gear inches. I also have a lead on a silver Zefal frame pump that would fit with the seat post-mounted pump cap.