Stevensb 

Purchased from original owner. The bike has apparently seen active tour duty throughout Europe, New Zealand, Australia and North America but has spent the past 10 years in a basement. Purchased the bike along with Blackburn low rider front rack and Coast Mountain panniers for a very fair price.

At 29 lbs 15 oz without racks it is not exactly svelte.

it will pair nicely with my 1986 Miyata 710.

Will tear it down and rebuild although perhaps with a different spec than catalogue. The foam bar grips are already gone. Can’t stand the look of them.

Ordered some 35 mm pasellas to replace the vintage 35 mm tires it came with.

Looking forward to riding it this summer.

cheers.

Brad

John Nolan 

NIce! Just like mine!

mstateglfr 

Looks like a fun winter project. Some new tires, dropping the fenders, new bars, new tape, new saddle, and an overhaul will lighten the bike and have it ready for a full second life.

polymorphself 

Awesome bike! The catalog puts it at 26.6 lbs, not that those are always reliable. Some choice components/upgrades will bring the weight down easily.

Stevensb 

Progress report:

Stripped the frame completely, cleaned, waxed and polished.

Rebuilding with many original parts for now with exception of brake pads (waiting for Koolstop Eagle 2 salmon pads to be delivered), tires (still waiting for the Paeselas), Campy seat post and B17 saddle. New cables, housing and chain installed.

Need to do something with the chainrings - currently have a 50 Biopace outer, 44 round middle and 28 biopace inner. I'm thinking of a TA or Stronglight 50.4 double because I like the looks and don't plan on any heavy touring.

The Sansin hubs are sealed but feel a little gritty so will have to do something about that, along with checking the wheels for true and spoke tensions. The PO told me he converted the original Ukai rims to schroeder valves when on a tour, flatting several times and not being able to find replacement presta tubes. Apparently bought a round file and did the job at his campsite.

Setting up the cantis when the new brake pads arrive will be the next challenge.

Having some problems posting images so will do so in a bit once I figure out the problem.

Cheers.

Brad

Stevensb 

niliraga 

Super sweet ride. I am working on same size 615 from a couple of years later, and sadly too small to be a keeper.

But looking at where the engraving appears in these pics, you may want to check that your granny ring is set the right orientation on the spider. I found out that there's a wild (and not useful) bouncing effect when the biopace rings are rotated away from their ideal, and it's very noticeable with the granny!

ps. mine also has hubs that say "Sansin Sealed" but they are very much loose-ball type bearings.

polymorphself 

Yep, Biopace rings all gotta be the same orientation.

As for the hubs, I had a 1988 615 for a minute and I kept the wheels because they were in mint condition. Definitely loose ball bearings, they just have a nice little rubber seal over the face to help keep gunk out. I'm moving the wheels to my Voyageur which currently has the original 27s on it.

Hobbiano 

Nice bike! Here's an interesting little tidbit of information - to me anyway. I have an '84 1000 & two '85 610's. The '84 1000 has Suntour sealed cartridge bearing hubs, and, according to the catalog, the 610 had the same that year. Both of my '85 610's have Gyro-master hubs with sealed cartridge bearings, which, the 1000 also had in '85. Apparently, they changed it up again in '86 and used loose balls with a seal instead of cartridge type.