Pinkelephant64

I am starting a new thread to show off my Miyata 610.

(Original thread: https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ta-610-rebuild )

In my younger and skinnier days, I was a bicycle tourist in east Texas. I was doing weekend campouts with The Houston Bicycle Club and going to "The Easter Hill Country Tour" outside of Austin.
I have had this bike parked since 1987 and I am finishing a full rebuild.
I have very little play time. We just had a baby and I am remodeling the house. so I let my local bike shop do most of the work.

I started off by stripping all the old parts off the frame and dropping it off at a motorsports shop for sandblasting and powder coating.

Here are some "before" pics of the condition of the frame before the paint job:



I went with Deore XT drivetrain for durability. Now I see that the top gear is MUCH lower than it used to be (Deore XT is off road, mountain bike parts) but since I no longer have any steep grades to play with in central Illinois, it is good for where I'm at.

I built some bullet proof wheels with an Orange rear hub and a Shimano Dynamo front hub. I used tandem rims. I also used puncture resistant tires.

I have two bottle cages on now and I'm adding a third cage to the seat tube.

I have a Brooks touring saddle with matching Brooks handlebar tape and cork end plugs. I put a "co2 bottle/hand pump" combination pump under the bottom cage.

RetroShift levers with friction shift, down tube shifters

I was able to reuse the handlebars, neck and seat post.

I'm still using the original diacomp cantilever brakes. I had to buy some similar brakes to replace my rusty parts. my springs are weak though, so it may need upgrading in the near future

The pedals on the pics (below) are loaners. I have some metalic blue crank bros pedals but I don't want to put them on until I buy some shoes.

To finish, I need racks, panniers, handlebar bag (ortlieb), tool kit, speedometer, lights, shoes, gloves and bike clothes

I plan on getting the big 3 pound Surly Nice front rack and for now I will use the rack that comes with the baby seat I'm going to get (topeak?).

The differences I can tell when riding it is more tire drag than my old setup (fatter tire) and lower top gear. other than that, it is SWEEEET. I may grab some cyclocross wheels for day riding.

As she is set up right now, she weighes in at 34 pounds!
I used to do 60-70 miles rides with her, loaded up to 250 pounds (26 years ago)

The third bottle cage and third insulated bottle should be mounted this week

I just took my first ride on her in 26 years!!!

Pinkelephant64

illwafer

wow! sweet before/after. i had originally thought the frame had been crashed, but since it is yours i guess not.

Mariner Fan

Well done! It turned out great!

I just upgraded a 1986 Trek and installed wider handlebars. I found them much more comfortable than the stock bars.

allysdad531

very nice job,miyatas are sdtill great touring bikes by today"s standards and their durability is great........thanks for sharing info and pics.......

Pinkelephant64

Thanks everyone!
it sure doesn't look like a 29 year old bike with 2500 miles on it

clasher

Nice story, I recently rebuild a 1000 for myself. Do you like the retroshift levers? And do you have any tours planned?

Lenton58 

A very handsome, clean rebuild. Congratulations!

jjhabbs 

awesome .. great job

Bruce Enns

You did a fantastic job! The powder coat looks much nicer than typical, or at least the photo's make it look that way.

I've got an old (1981) 1000 I hope to do some touring on.

Sweet bike you have there!

The Golden Boy 

Looks like a great rebuild. I'm a big dummy for passing on a 610 a while ago...

Let us know how you dig the retroshifters.

Pinkelephant64

The paint is for four wheelers and dirt bike frames. when we got it back and tried to trim the paint with a box cutter, we couldnt cut into it. I think he used a lock blade and hammer to trim the excess paint. it's a sweet paint job

Pinkelephant64

There are countless crashes on this bike. I have the stories...

Pinkelephant64

We (my LBS) talked about brake lever shifters but everything was plastic and I ride hard. I think it was someone on here who suggested the retroshift levers https://retroshift.com/

I really like them. I mounted down tube levers on them because I'm not a fan of click-shift.

I have no tours planned. I'm a trucker and I'm only home on weekends. my whole life is a constant tour. I do plan on getting in some weekend campouts.

The bike is being rebuilt 18 miles from home and I lost 45 pounds already getting ready for the ride home. there is no way I'm packing my touring bike in a car to get it home. I'm not physically ready for that trip but I refuse to haul my touring bike home in a car! Half a lifetime ago, I didn't warm up until about 15 miles down the road

Pinkelephant64

Your rack looks like the original design and I see you found a matching front rack.
Are those the original dia comp brakes?

Bruce Enns

The racks are the originals that came with the bike. The bike as bought was 100% box stock other than the grip tape, very low use on this bike. I have the original seat, shifters and the original Dia Comps canti's in a box. I replaced the dia comps with a set of NOS Suntour XC Pro's, they work great. The seat and shifters have also been changed.
Some guy on e-bay was selling the XC pro's for 50.00 a set, brand new, in the box. I haven't seen him listing anything for quite a while.