RiddleOfSteel

Well, it's raining, and I'm building a rain bike (again). This seems like poor planning, right? Perhaps. In truth, I had decommissioned my Ross 294S after last year's record rain had ended, and reworked my chrome Schwinn Super Le Tour 12.2 for rain and winter duties. With geometries and fender clearances so similar, it would be a bit of Ross 2.0, but with a lot more chrome and shine. Sadly, any slight adjustment to anything brake caliper or fender related meant fender rub when on the bike and not on the stand. That frustration culminated on a Friday about a month back, and I was determined to get the whole fender to tire relationship right once and for all by virtue of building a bike with a generous brake, frame, and fender clearance baked into it. Enter the world of proper vintage touring bikes with cantilever brakes.

The Saturday after that decisive Friday had me at Bike Works as usual, in either a volunteer or buyer capacity (often....both). A tall Miyata with that (now faded) two-tone splotch bar tap, in black and yellow, wrapped on the bars, around the top tube (???), and around the seat post (???), lay against a pile of recently taken-in-as-donation bikes. I knew not the model, but saw that it had cantilever brakes and was of touring geometry. It had reflective stickers on every conceivable surface. After unwrapping the seat post and top tube, "Six Ten" was revealed. I knew this was a decent bike, but as always needed to research just how nice it was. I let the guys working there know that if they ever decided they wanted to sell the thing as is, let me know.

Less than 15 minutes later, I was informed that this was a bike that was not going to be built up and sold on their shop floor. It was mine to buy. I pulled the trigger with this very grubby, mossy, rusty, stickered, and nicked up bike. A generously low price was stated for it, and I paid gladly. Oh boy. Another bike! Another full spectrum project. I do it to myself...

As the photos will attest to, the bike was rough, but dent free. Could I restore the paint via cleaning, compounding, waxing, and touching up? Could I get that to a level that I like? Or would I face the reality of this being a prime powder coating candidate?

RiddleOfSteel

RiddleOfSteel

RiddleOfSteel

I quickly set about disassembling the entire bike. Nearly all of the tired, dirty, and/or bent pieces (ok, the rack was bent up) were donated back to Bike Works to either use, sell, or get scrap value from. I kept the formerly shiny crankset, its long spindle (replaced) cartridge bottom bracket, and the SunTour shift levers.

The all-black headset was removed, and I soon discovered I was the inheritor of 50 loose bearing balls! With a freed fork, I began the process of cleaning it, compounding and waxing the paint, and finally touching up any nicks in it. What paint was there came back to life nicely. Sadly, the number of scratches and bare sections were too many to count. The touch up paint job, while very close color-wise, just looked like a splotch-festival. Too much to do!

A look at the rest of the frame had me staring down a long road of work, with a not entirely visually satisfactory ending. The decals were rough or worn off, every single conceivable angle of surface had scuffs, scratches, or paint chips. How??? One would have to try quite diligently to do so! I suppose though, with a bike as old as me, there was a lot of time to make that happen.

The decision to powder coat was made. The next step to that end was what color would I go with? I knew it had to be a metallic. This is a classy bike, and was originally graced with a metallic paint--a deeper steel blue that looks darker in pictures, but lighter in real life. I knew the components I had lying around, and I knew that I didn't really want anther blue bike, lovely as they are. So I settled on a metallic white and handed it over to Seattle Powder Coat, who have done another bike for me. They've been doing bikes and other things for years and have a solid reputation.

After some coordination with SPC I delivered the Miyata frame to them. As they are open M-F 7-5pm, that would mean that I'd have to fire up my ever boisterous Camaro very early in the morning. Oh well, let the sound of freedom echo from that Seattle hillside. This would have to be repeated a second time when I picked the frame up.

SPC said it would be about two to three weeks to get the frame done, which was fine. What a surprise I had when they called just less than two weeks from my drop-off time to say that my frame was done! The call happened on a Friday, and I was able to get in bright and early before work on Monday to pick it up. It was a very cool morning, with condensation on all the cars' windows, including mine. As a daily bike commuter, not having to deal with that is a wonderful thing!

RiddleOfSteel

The color is officially Pearlized White in high gloss, but it has a very fine metallic-like flake look to it when viewed very closely. This is not too dissimilar to my Schwinn Peloton's red paint. I will have to see if that pearl look shows any more in real (sun) light instead of indoor light.





The coating is very tough, but still showed the engraved "Miyata" text on the fork crown clearly. Sweet!

RiddleOfSteel

The headset's crown race installed very easily, even with just a mildly-sanded crown. This I can get used to! The cups went in with little fuss as well. The black was slightly faded in areas on them, but what am I going to do about it? They're 33 years old!





I had decided that I would re-employ my first pair of Vuelta Corsa Lite wheels, knowing that they would hold a 32mm tire just fine, as well as knowing that their light weight would be most appreciated. Colors looked cool, too.

A decision on the drivetrain was also made. Since I wanted to use a pair of 10-speed Dura Ace STIs, a 2x10 setup was locked in. But I wanted range, specifically low range. If I could match a triple, then that would be great. And as usual, a trip to Recycled Cycles (ok, after a few times of scouting) yielded fruit of the 11-36T kind. If I could pair this with anywhere from a 34-39T small chainring in front, then I could really crawl up some hills. Have my low gear cake and eat it too.

So this is the how she looks with 700x32mm Kenda Kwick Roller Sport tires and the aforementioned 11-36T 10-speed cassette. I'm liking it!

mstateglfr 

Interesting rear rack moints on the seatstays.

And cool fork crown- nice the MIYATA stamping still shows.

AustinFitz

Nice work! Looking good so far. I would not have ditched that rear rack though. It looks as though it was probably original equipment, and specifically fit to that frame being that it has fixed mounting stays.

RiddleOfSteel

That was the question that popped into my head as I put numerous other ("lying around") parts onto it. High contrast white and black, shouty wheel graphics, super sporty looking go fast components.

For the bars, I employed a quill stem to 1 1/8" threadless stem adapter, and ran a threadless stem to 31.8mm (clamp diameter) bars where the 7900 Dura-Ace shifters were mounted to. I took the 26.8mm seat post from my Super Le Tour and got a great deal on a barely used Fizik Aliante large (aka wide--155mm) saddle. I have an older Aliante saddle in the standard 145mm width and like it. I test fit this before buying, and have re-tested it and find it to feel quite nice. I am excited to see how it really is once on the bike.

You will also notice a very long cage rear derailleur. After browsing ebay for used XTR and XT RDs that could handle a 36T large cog, I settled on getting a non-latest-generation XT brand new for essentially the same money. I had tried Recycled Cycles and Bike Works, as per usual, before resorting to Craigslist and ebay for this particular item. It is of the "Shadow" variety, and as you will see, is quite tucked in. Pull ratio remains the same as a standard non-Shadow RD, so fear not!

mountaindave 

ACK!!!! Run back quickly and tell them you made a mistake with the rack - it was custom fit for this bike!!!! People would pay dearly for a matching rack to go with their Miyata.

RiddleOfSteel

Thanks! Yeah, I'm pumped that it retained that much detail. My previous powder coating with SPC, was on an '81 Trek 610/616 frame whose paint was mega toast. The "TREK" on the tops of the chain stays got less defined. Glad this coating didn't have that issue.

Thanks! I realized that the rack was specific to the bike, but it, like the rest of the bike, was in bad shape. Bent on the cargo bed/rails, and when looking at it from the rear, was noticeably bent/skewed to the side. I wasn't about to trust a rack like that with weight, let alone after realigning it. Nice things get broken, and we are all saddened. I would have kept it otherwise.

RiddleOfSteel

Ah, you just missed my reply to the others. It was very bent!! If it was pristine I would have kept it!

Thankfully there are more racks out there.

mountaindave 

OK, only if it was trashed. The bike looks pretty sick, BTW, and would make a killer CX bike. Maybe some black lug lining just to make them pop? Or perhaps red to match the highlights of the rims? I sense red cable housing... I'm liking the black/white/red motif.

RiddleOfSteel

But I am really liking it!

Some measurements:

HT angle: 72.2°
ST angle: 72.7°
BB drop: 72mm
Top tube length CTC: 58.0cm
Chainstay/rear center: 44.2cm
Front center: 62.5cm
Wheelbase: 106.0cm
Fork rake/offset (calculated): 56mm
Trail (calculated, 32mm tires): 54mm

This should be a lovely riding and handling machine.



For my second foray into cantilever brakes, and having dropped from 27" rims to 700Cs, I chose (and found) Tektro CR720s front and rear. The slots offer a lot of range and my brake pads will be easy to set up in the correct place.

You can also see a cable stop for the housing that's mounted to the brake bridge. This will provide better feel and power (or power to be applied) while also allowing a smooth bend from the under-the-bar-tape cable routing to the vertically-oriented cable stop.



This is what one does when there are no shifter bosses and one wants to keep it low profile. They even say Shimano! And yes, I am well aware of the bolts used--they were part of the old worn out friction shifters (a while ago) and thus their thread pitch matches the downtube clamp shifter mounts.



A very good deal on all these components has me still excited to finish the build. I have the rings and just need to install them.



"We have clearance, Clarence." We do, indeed. If only by a bit. Honestly, this is clever engineering by Shimano to use unused space. It's analogous to someone talking too close to you: there's space, and it's ok, but it's unexpected and a bit uncomfortable. In mountain bike land, tucking the RD away from rocks, roots, and snag threats was a good move. I won't have that on my commute, but it's good extra margin of error. Shimano's 9100 Dura Ace groupset uses this RD architecture, presumably for risk-of-damage avoidance as well as for aerodynamic improvement.

RiddleOfSteel

Thank you, again. Yeah, vintage aluminum already bent in several directions. I knew it was one of few bikes that have custom-fitted racks, especially with mounts the way they are. I just didn't want to fight it and risk further weakening it.

I am contemplating the lug lining. The decals are on order and will be here Monday. The colors of the letters will pay homage to the original blue color. A build like this does not lend itself to being low priced, even if I had a number of components laying around to begin with (how did I get this many??? ). I've been selling framesets etc. to balance it out, and thankfully can sell more. As it is, black housings will be used as it's generally what I have extra of. Red would be cool. For now, it's panda colors time, haha.

Lascauxcaveman 

Completely different direction than I would have gone, but then you are a modernizer, and I am an old touring bike fuddy-duddy. Always love to see where you take these old frames.

Funny I am sorta/kinda building up my first cyclocross bike, too. Also sorta/kinda accidentally.

RiddleOfSteel

The white color and black components put the aesthetic in the more modern category, with graphics and red accents further modernizing it. I was contemplating completely swapping over my 3x10 Campy setup from the Super Le Tour, but was a bit tired of it as it was becoming fidgety on the FD end of things.

When the fenders are mounted and the decals installed, that will settle things down a bit. It will look purposeful...and fast. With the Campy components and the other wheels, it would have been more subdued. I contemplated several groupsets for this bike, including down tube shifters. It was that black headset that was the seed of the 'panda' color scheme, and I wanted to see how far I could carry it.

I anticipate the weight, sans fenders, will be 23.5-24.0 lbs. We will see, though.

jpaschall

Following.... are you having any issues with those cantilevers on the fork? Working on an ‘85 210, and the posts are SO narrow I wasn’t sure I could use the Tektros.

mountaindave 

Very interested to see how the 27”-to-700c conversion goes with the Tektro 720’s. I have a Nashbar Toure MT that would greatly benefit from such a conversion. 4mm is nothing with calipers, but can be a devilish thing with canti’s

scale

nice work. I have the same bike in my size and it was in about the same condition. I was able to clean it up A LOT and it is just about done. I left the original wheelset for now. I got mine for a really fair price considering how nice these bikes are. I am still running the original rack, crankset and other small bits as well. So far i love it.

WHoever invented that crappy yellow stick on reflective tape............that stuff is a nightmare! I had that crap all over my frame too.

RiddleOfSteel

Ahhh, does not the eye deceive?! Upon resuming my brake assembly duties, my assumption of mount plane to rim brake track being sufficient was thoroughly refuted. First, some specifications:

Front canti post CTC spacing: 64mm
Rear canti post CTC spacing: 70mm
Rim width (exterior): 20.0mm
Squared up brake track plane to Tektro brake slot plane - gap F/R: ~8mm/11mm
Kool Stop Salmon Thin (threaded) long tail brake pad thickness
(from pad face to angle adjustment 'washer' - thinnest spacer): ~16.7mm

It all seems so elementary now, if one measures and simply adds things up, doesn't it? Sigh. Witness my optimism:



Now witness how close these surfaces/planes are with no pads mounted:



I thought this would be fine, right?



That (the above) looks close, but....not a chance.

RiddleOfSteel

The rear was the best chance I had. The front? Disaster!



Yeah, it's bad. We're not even in the same country as far as how close we need to be...



Surely, though, could a standard side pull caliper pad shave those needed millimeters off? To the back brakes we go! This looks promising:



Hoping.....



Oh, dang it. No chance in anything that these could be even close to square upon contact.

jpaschall

Yeah, the posts on these Miyata’s are obnoxiously narrow. I believe people have had success with Shimano Altus cantis in the past.

RiddleOfSteel

At this point I am disappointed, and facing the reality that the lovely Tektro units will not be permanent members of this build. Long reach calipers as a solution are immediately dashed for aesthetic, performance, and principle reasons. I will solve this!

One of the things I did not donate back to Bike Works was the complete set of original Dia Compe 981 cantis and their post-style brake pads. Good move, Previous RiddleOfSteel. Were the canti pieces dirty, and corroded from time? Yes. Would the chance that if they worked, they would stay on this clean, shiny, newer-parted bike, and RoS would have to deal with the aesthetic discrepancy? Very possibly, but not without some heavy duty cleaning and polishing!

Vanity! It snags us all! (or just me...) Industrial designers, can't let good looking go, can we....

Ok, back to solutions. I took a grubby canti unit, disassembled it, and wiped it with a well-used shop rag I had. It cleaned up better than expected. Not bad! Still, that is not the ultimate point of this avenue of experimentation.

I figured that if I'm going to get this to work, it was best to stare the worst scenario in the face. That scenario was the narrower-set front posts.

BAM:



Like I didn't even have to try:



Nailed it:



This was very encouraging, to say the least. Look at that first photo, what do we notice?

1) Outboard-of-canti-post mounting - the Tektro units have the brake pad mounting plane well inboard of the posts, with limited allowable angle adjustment.
2) Vertical adjustment - about 5mm or so's worth of it, allowing it to easily accommodate 27" or 700C wheels.
3) All that pad angle adjustment - nearly a full 180° sweep (technically), though why bother as the actual needed range is small.

This could work with slightly wider rims--something like a 24mm exterior width. I wouldn't go much or any further, but one could certainly try.

The Dia Compe canti return springs are quite strong--much more so than the Tektros. I want to see if I can lessen that spring tension as I prefer brakes that don't massively resist my efforts. Overall, this is a big victory amidst a huge learning experience. I hope it helps all of you guys, as well as future builders. Time to move forward!

RiddleOfSteel

It seems this was an early touring bike issue. Due to my inexperience etc, I thought it didn't look too bad, especially as I've seen many cantis on mountain bikes and their posts are set slightly inboard of the fork blades. But, you know, those fork blades are pretty wide. The MTB rims are wide as well, but in the end, it was a failure of assumption (optimism?) on my part.

I did a good bit of research, or as best I could. Pictures were a bit scarce, as were some hard specs and measurements. I had to do the physical work to find out if it would work or not. Looks like 'no' as far as narrow posts and Tektro CR720s. Oh well. Now I will need to sell them.