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singlewhip
12-01-04, 07:54 AM
Hi,
I came across a Miyata 912 the other day. Is it a touring bike? It doesn't seem to have any eyelets.
~whip
My son rides a 52 cm Miyata 912. It has an interesting mix of features. The 14 speed era Shimano 600 equipment would place it as late 80's, early 90's. It has 36 spoke wheels - like a touring bike - with Wolber rims. It has single eyelets at the dropouts and fork ends, but no rack eyelets on the seat stays.
I tried fitting the slimmest Freddy fenders on it with 700x25 tires, and while I got them to fit, with some grinding and drilling here and there, they were so close that they would rub when you torqued the frame starting off in a moderate gear (so that tells you the frame is a little whippy for touring, as I only weigh about 148), and they would collect mud between the fender and tire if you went through any mud at all. There was also a toe overlap problem with the fenders, and I have fairly small, size 9 feet. I took the fenders off.
I have heard that the 912 was marketed at the time as a tri bike, and indeed, the chainstay protector sticker has swimmer/cyclist/runner icons on it. It doesn't have the extremely steep seat tube of modern tri bikes. I thought it was comfortable for road rides of about 60mi.
The sidepull brakes aren't proper for loaded touring.
You could put a saddle bag and a handlebar bag on it and do sport/credit card touring, but you definitely wouldn't want to use the bike for loaded touring.
Tom