Classic & Vintage - index upgrade to Miyata 710, need recs

I'm working on a restore and upgrade build for a friend. I picked up a Miyata 710, maybe '86 or '85 (extra bottle brazons) and I'm cleaning and swapping parts. It was very clean all around.

She'd do better with index and barends than the stock friction and downtube. I haven't done this kind of upgrade yet, so I need some recommendations on the direction and combination of parts. It has a stock Suntour 6-speed and a Suntour short-cage Cyclone. I'm willing to swap this out for Shimano if it would make life easier for myself, and her future maintenance without me around. Budget is tight though, and I'm already leery of the cost for new barends.

thanks,
-Michael

anoter option,a pair of suntour thmbies and a 7 spd wide range freewheel,those nice micro adjusters that go on the shifter bosses , new tape and bar plugs. good to go,ps I like barcons got both combos.check in your area for recycled bike parts

I can see things getting a little pricey here... SunTour 6 speed accushift is a little difficult to find. Depending on the cyclone model, it may not be able to index well. Your best bet is to go Shimano. I assume your hub is a 126mm freewheel? That means you are generally limited to 7 speed if you want indexed. Those shimano barends are a little hard to find, but not as hard as the 6 speed accushift.

There is a set for sale on Ebay right now and, should you want them, you will be bidding against me. I want them too and I started the bidding. Let the luckier man, or manette, win.

Tight budget? 6 or 7 speed barcons? Very doubtful. Depends what you call tight. Indexed DT shifters are much easier to find, or friction barcons.

6 or 7 speed Shimano.

Shifters: $20
RD: $15
Chain: $15
Freewheel: $15

And it'll shift better than anything Campy made in the 80's.

My 1986 Miyata 710 came with a Cyclone front dr. but Shimano 600 dt shifters and rear dr. It ran great indexed with a 6sp freewheel.

My 1986 Miyata 710 came with a Cyclone front dr. but Shimano 600 dt shifters and rear dr. It ran great indexed with a 6sp freewheel.

This is the only place on earth where i've heard the rumor that older RDs dont index well. The indexing is where the shifter allows a certain amount of cable out or in, to correspond with the appropriate freewheel/cassette. The RD shouldn't matter, and imle, it doesn't.

If i were the OP, I'd get some suntour indexed DT shifters, 6 speed to match your freewheel. get some of those things from either riv/dia-compe or jagwire, the things that move DT shifts to bar-end. But, then again, that's the whole "how tight is your budget" thing...

-rob

Just to be clear, I'm suggesting Shimano 600 downtube shifters and rear dr. the same vintage as the bike (or keep the Cyclone) as a good indexed 6-speed option.
(Surreal: apologies if I've misunderstood your intent while quoting my previous post.)

i hear ya, dundas. It is, however, my understanding that the spacing on suntour 6speed freewheels will differ from a shimano 6speed, so it will be important to match the shifters to the freewheel, both the number of cogs and the spacing/brand. It is my assertion that the cyclone RD will shift indexed just fine, given the proper combo of shifters and freewheel.

-rob

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I was running a Suntour Perfect 6 speed with 600 - no problems. But if the original RD is in good shape it might be cheapest to pair shifters with that.

The other problem with mixing is that along with different cog spacings Shimano and Suntour derailleurs use different cable pull ratios. Shimano has kept the same ratio for all indexed stuff except the 74XX era Dura Ace. So you can often mix different eras of Shimano stuff and have it work correctly. I have some indexed 8 speed down tube shifters coming to me in the mail, but in the mean time I have a ghetto fabbed setup of some Shimano 6 speed downtube indexed shifters shifting 7 speeds (no click on the biggest cog in back)on an 8 speed cassette (not using the 11t currently) all done with a 9 speed Ultegra derailleur.

I built up my '81 Miyata 710 with Shimano 7-speed barcons and cassette shifted by Deore LX mechs. The Bar-ends might be hard to find nowadays, but the rest could be picked up in a cost-effective manner.

Top

This is the only place on earth where i've heard the rumor that older RDs dont index well. The indexing is where the shifter allows a certain amount of cable out or in, to correspond with the appropriate freewheel/cassette. The RD shouldn't matter, and imle, it doesn't.

If i were the OP, I'd get some suntour indexed DT shifters, 6 speed to match your freewheel. get some of those things from either riv/dia-compe or jagwire, the things that move DT shifts to bar-end. But, then again, that's the whole "how tight is your budget" thing...

-rob


Wrong. Please keep the bad mechanics advice in the mechanics forum.

Wrong. Please keep the bad mechanics advice in the mechanics forum.

cool it, tiger. it might help the OP, myself, and anyone else involved in this thread if you explained exactly how my "bad mechanic's advice" is wrong....

-rob