Road Bike Restoration

                 This was my first attempt at restoring a bike.  I knew nothing about taking a bike apart and much much less about putting one back together.  I was nerveous. Over the next 18 months I You Tubed, sought advice from all manner of forums, pestered and tested the patience of my LBS's head mechanic, Marshall (God bless you sir for dealing with this idiot in a professional manner.) but most of all, made a million mistakes restoring this bike.......but I loved every minute of it.

I bought the bike for $5 at a garage sale.  I wasn't in the market but hey, why not?  After a little research on the webby thing, I found a site that had original brochures for Miyata bicycles (what luck, right?).  I found out that my bike is an 1983 710. In complete original specs!!







The overall condition of the bike was horrid.  Paint was scraped and scratched all the way to the metal in a lot of places. It had paint overspray all over it. Tires were even original still. 

I had a vision of what I wanted the bike to look like, I just didn't know if I could make it happen.










         I began my stripping of the bike and that stuff. Parts laying everywhere, in labeled Zip-Loc baggies (a tip from You Tube video).  I decided it needed to be repainted so I had it powder coated.  Huge lesson learned here.

$140 for what I thought was 2 coats and a sealant....ummm, no.  $140 for a bead blast of the frame and fork and ONE powder coat....coat.  DOH!. Sucker-Bob!



The rear derailleur's "B" screw and housing was sheared off somehow.....you can see how bunched up it was.  My lovely and talented wife found a N.O.S. (New Old Stock) derailleur that was an exact match!!  Cool!  $35 on Ebay.




















I relaced the wheels with new 14 g. spokes and let me tell you, that Sheldon Brown site is awesome and let me tell you as well.....THAT was one frustrating night!!  I honestly don't think I will ever lace again.  Some things are worth paying someone else for.

New tires, Schwalbe Marathon touring tires at $60 each.

New bar tape and hoods, all new cables and housing, saddle and brake pads, chain, custom decals,  cassette, etc.....

Custom panel decal with original manufacturer font style.

            I wont bore you with all the details, lets just say that even with just the few items I priced out above, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that I spent way too much.  No way was I going to get my money back out of it and even much less so on making a profit!

How did it ride?  Like silk.  Oh so smooth. I enjoyed evening neighborhood rides on it. To be honest, compared to todays bikes, this was superior.  They just don't make bikes like this anymore.
But alas...I had too many bikes and ended up selling it to a good owner.

Like I said above, I loved every minute of this process and learned so much!  It really was a great experience for me.

Check out the video (click to expand and watch full screen) and I hope you like it.  Thanks for watching it and visiting my litle corner of the web.