Connor311

Hello All, and thank you for any advice you may be able to give me.

edit: if this is not the best sub-forum could you point me in the right direction?

I was on my way out of the neighborhood today and saw a set of road bars sticking out of a garbage can so I wheeled around and pulled out a complete frame and a pair of wheels. I saw it was a full Deore DX group except a 105 front mech, so I took it figuring I could use the spare wheels for my ride, knowing nothing about the bike.

I posted on another forum and got the suggestion it was stolen. It is not. There were 2 other bikes and a ton of garage clean out crap with free sign.

I start looking online and come to find out the Miyata 1000lt seems to be quite the sought after vintage bike.

It was covered in dust and dog hair and had a 2 year old LBS repair tag on it. Its a little nicked up and the seat and bar tape is smoked but over all not bad.

I pumped the tires up to 100 and took it for a ride and it seems mechanically great. Its a 60cm seat post, maybe 58 top tube, can't remember exactly, either way I ride a 54-55cm.

What is it worth?
I restore stuff all the time and I am trying to figure out what the market is for them now? i.e.- is it worth my time to restore? clean it and ride it?
sell as is?
I was a mechanic for years and the work (sans paint) would be done by me.

cb400bill

Nice find. Thread moved from C&V to C&V Appraisals.

Cyclist0108

That looks to be in remarkably good shape, and I don't see a compelling need to repaint or restore anything apart from the bar tape and saddle (and robably routine maintenance items like the chain, brake pads, tires, etc).

I don't know what it is worth, but it was a great bike. I got mine in 1981 and it was stolen 10 years later. It was a great bike, and took me all over the US and parts of Europe. Like you, I take a 54cm, or else I would be tempted to buy it from you. I don't think you would have any problem selling it.

GrainBrain

Daaammmn go back and grab those other two bikes! What a find! I would think around my area that could easily fetch $500, and I bet that's low.

Clang

Appears to be a 1990 model in "Silver Sand" color. I think everyone wants to know what the other 2 bikes were if they were willing to toss a perfectly good touring bike in the garbage.

billnuke1 

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Puts a smile on my face everytime I ride it! If it is your size, keep it. Getting kinda rare. Owners tend to hang on to them. Put some miles on it and you’ll see!

Connor311

The other bikes were nothing. Junk road master and a roached out old ladies bike. They must have assumed it was worthless now??

Connor311

Sadly it is too tall for me. Going to clean it up and sell it I guess. Any thoughts on value or a starting price tag. I'll post more photos as I get it fixed up.

It rode sweet though 😁

Fahrenheit531 

Value will depend largely on your location/market, unless you get enough posts to sell it here... I wouldn't be at all surprised if somebody was willing to pay to have it shipped. Extremely nice rescue either way.

rgvg

Dang. I paid 230 US at current exchange rates for mine last november. The only thing different I can see are the tires on mine were still the original miyata radials and the front derailleur matched the rear (deore dx). Well, that and mine is 54cm.

cycleheimer

Thank goodness it was saved from going to a land fill! Greatest production touring bike ever!

oddjob2

Score of the year, even beating my good friend @Danbianchi881!!! Congrats and don't paint it.

By the way Dan, did you score the well underpriced PX-10 in Ypsilanti yesterday?

ramzilla

It's true. One mans trash is another mans treasure.

Connor311

This morning i stripped it to the frame. Everything is in great shape except the fixed cup of the BB wouldn't budge. Have to get out the Big A$$ wrenches this evening. The bearings were in great shape, the bike was obviously professionally maintained up until the date on the repair tag.

I'll be ordering the front derailleur this evening and a couple replacement decals from velocals.com and try to find some matching touch up paint. 50% of the blemishes on the frame came out with some buffing compound on a microfiber.

1990?! my birth year, gotta love that.

I have been scouring the web for photos and info, and I love the look of brown leather, I think I will have to go that route.

Thanks for all your input thus far.
This is the sort of thing I love doing, even if I won't be the one to enjoy the end product.


Photos to follow this evening.

3alarmer 

.
...sweet. Fixed up, it would probably go on the SF Bay Area CL in the $6-700 range. How much interest and what you might sell it for depends on where you live, whether spring has sprung, and what the close up inspection on the paint looks like. It looks pretty good in the photos.

Beautiful bicycle, and sadly just my size.

Connor311

I don't suppose you would have a paint code for Silver Sand would you?

It is probably irrelevant at this point though judging by the fading of the decals, this thing has see some serious Texas sun.

Pemetic2006

That is nice. It's probably my favorite 1000 model. Petty sure @goldenboy has this same model.
If you're selling, and I was buying, I'd want the original decals just as they are. But that's just my opinion.
Great score either way.

3alarmer 

...if the bearings are in good shape, and a visual inspection of the fixed cup looks like the race is good, there is absolutely no reason to remove it. Just clean it in place and repack/reassemble it.

Some of those babies are in there pretty good, and without a fixed cup tool or the special wrench setup you can find in the types and tricks thread in mechanics (using a fixed cup wrench, fender washers, and a long through bolt of the appropriate size) there's an excellent chance of buggering something. There's no reason to pull it other than replacement with something else.

brian3069

Chain stay protector? Never seen that before.

himespau 

If you're just going to sell it, just clean/repack bearings and make sure it's all working (or sell as frameset with parts separately). Especially if you're willing to ship, don't bother putting anything new on it and definitely don't do anything to the paint or decals.

zukahn1 

I haven't seen one exactly like that but similar chainstay can on a lot of nicer 80's touring bikes. This is a good example of the great detail this frame set has a lot of nice refinement that you just don't find on other production bikes. As for value I would put it at $500-600 nicely cleaned up with a good saddle in a better market.

coolkat

I've seen it mentioned that chainstay loop was there on touring bikes because of the little granny gears. My univega has it too

rgvg

I like my miyata and I like the chainstay loop though I think my kuwahara caravan had a slightly more practical solution ... they put spare spokes along the top of the chainstay.

billnuke1 

Someday, someone is going to invent a seat that goes down, over the seat tube that extra couple of cm that keeps someone from keeping that great bike that is just a little too tall to ride...

StarBiker

I wonder with some extra cash and this bike you could swap this bike to an LBS for a nice bike. Maybe.