jamesdak 

The bike had sat from around 15 years or so. It was pretty grubby with clamp on aero bars, a boat anchor for a seatpost and an upright style gel saddle. Skinny, plastic feeling tires too.

First thing I did was a major cleaning and then started degreasing the components Hubs cleaned, new bearing, regreased and adjusted. Same for the headset although to be honest it was really clean inside. The chain on the other hand was a rusted mess. Even after soaking it with PB blaster it broke the pin on my chain break tool as I tried to remove the chain. It's now sporting a shiny new KMC chain.

Shifting was surprisingly spot one to include the indexing. Was worried about the brakes pads but they are actually super grabby so they're staying on. The only issue I couldn't deal with on this were the spokes. The rims look great and cleaned up well. The spokes worry me though. They look like corroded or something. Usually steel wool scrubbing down did nothing for them. Nipples look rough too. I wish I had a set of wheels I could have used to replace these. Then I decided to use a set of Continental Grand Prix 4 Seasons I had on hand to complete this. Wanted to give her a relatively trouble free tire that was still light and rolled well.

The owner originally brought it by to see if it was worth upgrading. While in my case I have done this to multiple bikes I think in her case it's not a good idea. This is a good STB frame but the parts and labor to do it would still yield a bike not worth much. The real kicker is this frame is too big for her. She's 5' 5" and this measures as a large 54 cm bike in my book. As you can see in the pics dialing in my saddle position was no problem. When I fit her too it that saddle is going to be much, much lower. The other complaint was being too stretched out. So I did swap out for a 30 mm shorter stem I had. Hopefully it's better for her. Oh, and I had a women's saddle from a purchase years ago that matches up pretty well to this.

Anyway a few pics of the best. This is a 1988 model with the much maligned bio-pace cranks.


Not too bad looking but does have that 80's vibe

Pretty stem. I can raise it up more if needed

Biopace and in good shape

Brakes work surprisingly well, need to give the shiny bits one last polish

Index shifters feel good to me

Nice color

This is a nice saddle that is a pretty good match

Cushy cork bar tape. Won't stay clean but will feel good on our rough roads.


I need to go over it one more time and wipe it down but basically it's ready to go back. I took it out for a test after doing 25 miles on the Nova Special, this ol' girl is one smooth ride and certainly did not feel slow.

clubman 

That saddle is the grace note on that build. Nice.

ryansu 

Nice job, I would suggest she ride it - a lot -and then reconvene with you, You can tell her what you think of the size and perhaps suggest selling it to use the proceeds to buy something that fits. I just went through this with a buddy who was looking for a dedicated trainer bike, I found one a co-op sale that was just a bit to small and after having him take some measurements of his main bike that fits well I was able to compare it to what I found and made a good case for taking a pass on my find and looking for a better fit because in the end, its all about fit.

jamesdak 

Yep, those are my thoughts too. I wanted to set this up well enough to get her enjoying riding and then if she does take to it suggest selling this to get something that fits better. A few hundred around here will get her something like a Lemond with 9 speed in her size. Should be able to get at least $100 for this I would think.

polymorphself 

You should be able to get a good deal more than $100 for that right now.

I’ve got a 1985 310. They’re just really good and great feeling bikes.

cb400bill

I had that same bike, but in black. While not a weight weenie bike, it sure rode nicely.

polymorphself 

Nope, but mine probably weighs 24 lbs. Not bad.

jamesdak 

This one was 28 lbs 12 ozs when I started with it. Removing the clip on bars, reflectors, old chain, old tires, heavy gel saddle and original seatpost got it down to 24 lbs 8 ozs in ready to ride condition as in the pictures.

BTinNYC

Thread, Come Alive!

I couldn't resist the paint scheme and garage sale price so I took home one like @jamesdak's pictures. It's a bit of pig, eh! I think the Miyata Triple Butted tubes meant they went from thick, to thicker and thickest. But the paint is in great shape, classic colors, so it'll clean up nicely and I'll pass it along.