jonwvara 

Due to a combination of ignorance and conclusion-jumping on my part, fueled by a couple of crappy cell-phone photos, I recently made what was in retrospect not a brilliant trade: I exchanged a lovely Lotus Classique (but at 57 cm not my size) for a 64 cm Miyata 610 (my size).
As billed, the Miyata is in clean, rust-free, all-original excellent condition (though with a few minor paint chips). But it's not the much sought-after mid-80s touring 610, but a 1981 precursor to it. Not a bad bike by any means, but it has center-pulls rather than cantilevers, 27-inch wheels, and some other oddities, such as turkey-wing brake levers and an SR crankset with the obsolete 118 bcd and 52-47-36 chainrings . The main tubes are labeled as Chro-mo, but it has a hi-ten fork.

My instinct at this point is to take it apart and ebay the frame and at least some of the components, saving some parts for other projects. Who knows, maybe the 118 BCD cranksets have some sort of cult following? Okay, probably not. Or should I try to sell the bike as a unit? Not sure I want to get into shipping a complete bike to an ebay buyer. Any advice gladly accepted.

swen0171 

Sell it as a unit to someone would wants that era bike, or put some inexpensive VO upright bars on it and the fattest 27-inch tires you can find and use it as a city bike. Maybe turn it into a sleek looking city bike by making it a single up front, adding a bar mount friction shifter, etc. I'm just saying because I saw a similar era bike the other day set up like that and realized that I don't have a sleek, relatively skinny tired, vintage city bike...?

Post a pic, I bet someone will PM you with interest (and I know you're not selling on this post!).

Drakonchik

Sell complete bike on craig's locally.

That hi-ten fork is the nail in the coffin, and 118bcd cranks sell like death warmed over. Selling on ebay would eat up possibly over half the value of the bike in the form of shipping costs.

Soma Roark

CL it as a whole (I don't think the parts will bring much? could be wrong...) or as Swen said, city bike, that's what I did... rides nice. Tires are 35s (maxes out frame). Sorry about the trade though that sucks.

jonwvara 

As requested...Miyata low res 2..jpgMiyata low res 3..jpgMiyata low res 1..jpg

wrk101

+10 Parting out is best suited when it has higher end components and a higher end frame. This bike has neither. Its best value is as one complete bike.

Its a shame manufacturers have no consistency on bike models. Most improved them over the years, but some models actually got worse. So a great bike one year can be average on another year.

The large size will work against you on selling the bike. At the same time, a touring bike, even one like this that is more like a kinda-sorta touring bike sell at a premium. Between the touring bike and the Miyata name, should be relatively easy to sell (again, the large frame size is more difficult).

+ 1 Think Craigs List, unless you are really adept at shipping a bike. The fees and cost of shipping make ebay unsuitable for this level bike.

Good luck.

And the good news when looking for its replacement, you should be able to find a nice bike at a hefty discount at your large frame size.

illwafer

there is a miyata 1000 group on yahoo. someone would be interested in the 610. it is preferred by some over the 1000 for its stiff frame.

jonwvara 

Okay, thanks for the advice, everyone. The consensus, it seems, is to try the local CL. I don't have a lot of confidence in that, mainly because there are only 750,000 people in the whole state of Vermont, so the potential buyer pool is pretty limited. Still, worth a try, I guess.
Another issue, I'm realizing, is that I'm not a hard-boiled flipper like some here, so my tendency is to want to hang on to things. In particular, I'm a bit of a "parts miser." I don't actually mind letting the 610 go, but I'd really like to keep the VGT Luxe rear derailleur, Vx front, and the clamp-on downtube power ratchet shifters, which would be perfect for another project of mine. I suppose I could find the parts elsewhere, especially if I sold the bike for a reasonable price, but a bird in the hand....

cyclotoine

The 610 had 27" wheels right till 1985 and only had 700c in 1986. In '87 it was replaced by the 615. In addition it had a hi-tensile fork till 1985 at which time it was replaced by a mangalight (or whatever). Bottom line is a hi-tensile fork is not a deal breaker as it is still a very nicely made frame all around if a bit heavy, better than a lot of other production touring bikes. So there is only really one year that comes close to meeting the 610 you imagined and that is the 1986 610. In anycase the centerpulls may be too your advantage! You can convert to 700s and run a 37mm tire! With cantilevers your braking power would suffer from the conversion and most 1980s touring bikes that come stock with 700c don't have enough clearance for 37m tires AND fenders. So really this isn't a bad bike at all so set up for touring. With good kool stop pads those centerpulls can be as powerful or better than many 1980s cantilever setups.

But if you do with to sell, I agree, sell complete. I have DT power ratchet shifters and a Vx front I think if you are interested...

Soma Roark

Well that certainly makes ME feel better =) Although for my frame 700X35s maxes out the frame... and I want fenders.... sniff...

BigPolishJimmy

That right there would be enough reason fo rme to keep it as a back up or grocery getter. It's a nice bird to be holdin. Right now my main ride is a Fuji Monterey and my backup is a Schwinn Traveler, neither very valuable, but they're both 68cm frames and comfortable, so valuable to me. Sometimes I wonder if I could just leave them not locked up because it'd be difficult for a theif to ride them... not difficult to toss it in the back of a pickup though.

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

I know the feeling.
If you've got other, less desirable parts why not swap them out for the V-GT Luxe and the Ratchet Shifters (Vx FD's are a dime a dozen). Its not like you'd be doing anyone a great disservice by swapping the derailleurs....plus its fairly quick work and then you can flip the bike AND keep the derailleurs.

Jimmy - thats why my grocery bike is a Varsity with Wald Racks. If you can lift it into your Pickup, you can steal it...but I doubt you can lift it

Chombi

I'm sort of oing throuh the same thing where I'm starting to build up a component group without a bike to hang them on yet.
Problem is, I'm coming across real cool and rare components but haven't come across the dream framset that I'm watching out for yet, so the build-up is proceeding sort of backwards on me. Now if anyone can hook me up with a VGC Peugeot PY10-FC frameset (in 54ish CM size), maybe sometime later this year for the right price.......... Another cool new "Tout French" 80's bike for my stable may be born by Christmas??!.............dang, this wait can go on for a very long time though......

Chombi