Diamond in the Rough
 

I got some large frame bikes from a co worker yesterday doing some cleaning up. A couple of 80's LeTours ridden hard and put away wet. Red one has a broken drop out but DS tri color crank and technomic stem. Blue one a "Super Maxy" crank and Altus drive train. I'll harvest off those and donate the remains. The blue on actually has teeth broken off the freewheel!


The diamond in the rough is the lightly used 63cm 1984 Koga-Miyata "Traveler". Way too big for me but mostly 105 Golden arrow group with "aero" mount shifters, suede Koga-Miyata saddle in great shape, factory racks F&R, Factory mounted IKU? bottle generator and lights, fenders. Looks like consumables, clean up, and greasing is all it needs.

Nice score! At least you'll salvage some nice, usable components to use on other projects.

Yeah, that K-M is the bees knees. If I was local I'd be asking what you want for it. :thumb:

Nice pick-up. Lots to work with.

Hard to go wrong with a Koga Miyata touring bike! I'm not sure about this model year, but the KM versions typically have some cool refinements and features that the 1000 didn't.

Nice Koga-Miyata. They always age very gracefully. This is what it looked like in the original sales brochure:

https://myalbum.com/photo/B58WtxmMmiwa/1k0.jpg

"The diamond in the rough is the lightly used 63cm 1984 Koga-Miyata "Traveler". Way too big for me but mostly 105 Golden arrow group with "aero" mount shifters, suede Koga-Miyata saddle in great shape, factory racks F&R, Factory mounted IKU? bottle generator and lights, fenders. Looks like consumables, clean up, and greasing is all it needs." dedhed


Agree that this bike is the gem of those shown. But please scrap that rear rack. I believe it's an Esgee with plastic junctions. Very flexible and not very strong. This bike would be great with an early welded Minura or a Blackburn (that the Minura was a copy of). Andy

I don't recall ever seeing a front rack & fork setup quite like that before. Interesting. :) That would fit me really well, but I already have my perfect frame, I think. ;)

IKU? Is that bottle generator or does it have one of the cool Speedometers that operates off the tire rather than the spokes?

The rear device on the LH side of the tire looks to be a common generator. The rack mounted front and fender mounted rear lights suggest this too. I doubt it's an IKU brand though, I only knew them to make spedos, not lights.


The stem looks like an SR and too high at that.

I am getting on the Koga-Miyata bandwagon more and more. Scoring a 66cm frame would have me super pumped. Tall frames are great (when you fit them!). This K-M looks really nice. Great pickup!

I never fail to be amazed by the knowledge and details noticed on pictures here.
Yes, ESGE rack and a number of the plastic joints are broken. I have a fixed stay Blackburn in stock and will see if it fits otherwise maybe take this one to work and weld it up.

SR stem that is beyond minimum insertion. I had previously gotten an 80's Super sport with a broken rear drop out from the same guy where the extra long SR LaPrade seatpost was out so far it was cracked where the seat clamp casting was inserted due to leverage. So the same guy has broken two frames at the rear dropouts, don't know how he does it.

Both the braze on mount bottle gen and headlight are IKU taillight is Soubitez. Front wiring is through the frame and both use the fender as a conductor.

Noticed it has shimano branded BB cable guides.

As a "touring-ish" bike I was surprised in it is a 13-23 freewheel and 42/52 double

I have a sister in Toledo who frequently comes back here if that disrupts your thinking :)

"Both the braze on mount bottle gen and headlight are IKU" dedhed


Well I learned something new today, thanks. Andy (who was dancing to the Dead a decade before this bike was made)