Road Cycling - Miyata Team road bike -- value?

I'm looking at a Miyata Team road bike from (what appears to be) the early-mid 90s. It's all Campagnolo, though I'm not sure what group exactly. The rims are in nice shape -- Mavic Opens. Steel frame, no rust, everything works okay, rides nice.

Is $300 a fair price?

Looks like it's Campy Record componentry.

slop...Miyata pulled out of the american market somewhere around the year you mention. If my memory serves correct they didnt offer a model with Campy components. Framesets were available so its possible it was built up from frameset.
A Miyata frame will last you forever. Gotta a pic?

I went ahead and bought it-- figured it was a better deal than any steel frame I could build up myself (I was looking into a 4130 Surly Pacer). Here are a few pics. The rims are Mavic Open 4CDs build onto Campy Record hubs.

http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~mwaters/crap/miyata.JPG
http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~mwaters/crap/miyata%20front%20view.JPG
http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~mwaters/crap/miyata%20team%20logo.JPG
http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~mwaters/crap/miyata%20tube%20badge.JPG


Rides great so far, looks sharp. Love the indexed downtube shifting. Now I'm gonna get a longer stem, some new tires/tubes, Crank Bros Candy pedals...should ride like a dream. I'm so overexcited.

Please bring it inside so it doesn't get trashed/stolen. It would be a shame if anything happened to it. I think it looks pretty nice, especially with Campy for the price.

Enjoy the rides.

PJ

Oh, it's coming inside, for sure. Probably looks like I live in a dump, from all the trash on our porch. College students seem to accumulate beer cans and cigarette butts, you know...

My Voodoo MTB hangs out on the other side of the porch. Wish I had a garage, but we pay through the nose for rent as it is. But we're a block from the lake!

Ok.....late 80's.....maybe '86-'87-'88 or so. I have a 'Pro' miyata which is very similar and has the same style seattube decals. What leads me to say '86 or so is the seattube decal. It has 'splined' tubing. Similar to Columbus SLX but better. When Columbus cut their splines they did so at a 90 degree angle. Not good for stress. Miyata cut theirs with angled side to minimize stress. The fork has a crown on it. Later 'Team' Miyatas had sloping crowns.

the bikes were painted with 7-layers of primer, paint and clear coat. Unique to Miyatas is their triple butted tubing. Tubing manufacturers make one length of tube. When a small frame is built the ends are cut off. This causes the butted portion of the tube to be lost. Miyata made specific tubes for each frame size. By doing this they could optimize the ride characteristics of each frame. Large frames could have longer butter sections to stiffen them up while small frames didint 'lose' the butted sections.

A Team Miyata with full Dura-Ace sold for $999 in '84. In '85 when 'new' Dura-Ace came out they were $1299. Changes in the YEN increased the price to $1999 for '86 or '87. They never came with Campy.

For $300 you cannot find a better bike. Good find.

BTW....I worked at one of the top Miyata dealers for 12 years.

Thanks a TON for the info. I haven't found any real online Miyata resources, so this is really helpful.

I'm still drooling over it!

slop...your not going to find much in on-line resources. They pulled out of the american Market due to the YEN. Miyata originaly began as a gun company. Some guy noticed the barrels and thought to himself..."hmmm..maybe they can build me a bike from tubes like that", and a bike company was born.

Miyata sued Mazda over the name 'Miata' when the car came out.

After Greg Lemonds gun shot injury he approached Miyata about sponsorship. He wanted $100,000 a year to ride for their team. At the time they fielded a Tour de France team...i think. Anyways Mr. Miyata said, "we'll pass."