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01-26-09, 06:38 PM
Help me clarify my thinking if that's possible. About a year ago I bought a couple of badly neglected bikes @ $10 ea. to flip the frames & whatever else I could salvage (not much, as it turned out).
One is a Miyata 90 from the early 90s IIRC. It was metallic red with "Ninety" in script on the top tube. It had so much surface rust that I took off most of the paint, but the metal is sound (yes, inside too). A pic, in this case, would be worthless.
It has a chrome Tange fork that I strongly suspect was a replacement (the catalog I saw online showed the bike in all red). The cracked headset suggests a crash but the frame is straight & true. No trauma around the head lugs.
I was going to build it back up for my niece w/ some better components but she lost interest. So it's been hanging in the basement. I just keep thinking I should do something with it.
Rambling question #1: In spite of being a lower-end model w/straight gauge tubing the frame seems light compared to the few comparable frames I've known. Just my imagination or was there something to their "Magnalite" tubing?
Rambling question #2: In spite of its low-end pedigree might it be a "diamond in the rough" as a rider & worth the trouble to build up & do a better than spray bomb repaint?
Rambling question #3: Should I replace the Tange fork - or might it be original to the bike - a mid-production run substitution, perhaps? The rusty chrome polished up fairly well.
One is a Miyata 90 from the early 90s IIRC. It was metallic red with "Ninety" in script on the top tube. It had so much surface rust that I took off most of the paint, but the metal is sound (yes, inside too). A pic, in this case, would be worthless.
It has a chrome Tange fork that I strongly suspect was a replacement (the catalog I saw online showed the bike in all red). The cracked headset suggests a crash but the frame is straight & true. No trauma around the head lugs.
I was going to build it back up for my niece w/ some better components but she lost interest. So it's been hanging in the basement. I just keep thinking I should do something with it.
Rambling question #1: In spite of being a lower-end model w/straight gauge tubing the frame seems light compared to the few comparable frames I've known. Just my imagination or was there something to their "Magnalite" tubing?
Rambling question #2: In spite of its low-end pedigree might it be a "diamond in the rough" as a rider & worth the trouble to build up & do a better than spray bomb repaint?
Rambling question #3: Should I replace the Tange fork - or might it be original to the bike - a mid-production run substitution, perhaps? The rusty chrome polished up fairly well.