Parts Availability
 

Are parts readily available for this vintage Miyata 310? 27" tires, bearings etc. This would be a rider for me.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d51a19de07.jpg


Thanks

Yes. The most difficult thing to find for a bicycle like that are hoods for the brake levers, but they are still around so you should be good to go.

Hoods can be difficult but if sticking with downtube shifters I personally like the newer chunky aero Tektro levers. Not period correct but much more comfortable and pretty cheap. https://www.jensonusa.com/Tektro-RL3...v-Ergo?loc=usa

Absolutely.

There's myriads of options for standard maintenance/repair, rebuilding, upgrading, retromodding...

Probably the hardest thing is finding tires- but, thankfully, there's been a thread for that!

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...ce-thread.html

It's a bit ironic that things we did not value too much back in the days like brake lever hoods are turning out to be the hardest things to find when restoring a C&V bike.It's just their very perishable nature and the fact that many brakeset makers from back then are long gone, means we eventually hit dead ends in our search for these parts......
Heck, even brake hoods made by the biggest companies that are still around are becoming unobtanium, like Shimano's 7400 series brake lever hoods. Shimano made lots and lots of those brakesets and you can find them easy enough......but it would be a different story for the lever hoods.

It makes me wonder if a future development in 3D printing might be if/when they create whatever the raw material is... in pliable materials resembling rubber and "gum". There must be myriad applications, not just bikes. Imagine not only brake hoods but shifter covers and bar plugs all "panto'ed" with DeRosa, Colnago or whatever brand of bike you want.

Within the last year, I got a set of 7402 hoods, NOS, in white, no less. I've also seen a set come up in black. They are available, but you better be prepared to drop a C note for a set.

You also asked about bearings. Your hubs are ball-bearing hubs, and those sizes have not changed. They are readily available. It is not even hard to repack the hubs with new balls and adjust the hub. Do you know anything about the history of the bike and how much it was ridden? From the single photo, it looks in good shape. If you wanted to replace or up-grade anything on this bike, it should not be hard-at-all, to do. What is the condition of the tires?

In my experience, most of the time spent is crawling around on the shop floor looking for the one bearing that rolled away. Thus: MAGNETIC

The only thing Miyata made on your bike was the frame and fork. Everything else came from the same suppliers that sold to all the other brands in the world. Lever hoods are the only part that is hard to find. But you can always buy brand new brake levers with hoods, just not the exact model.

Example, 1/4" bearing balls (in your BB and rear wheel hubs) are still made of course, and can be bought on Amazon or your choice of shopping places. Other sized bearings are still available too. Cables, tires, tubes, rim strips, freewheels, and more are still available new.

Bike looks complete as is?

I haven't looked at it yet, seller says it's "hardly used". As far as the brake hoods, could these be replaced with modern levers? I'm sure it will need tires, this seems the norm for used bikes I look at, usually they have been sitting and deteriorating for years. Thanks for the info.

Velo Orange and Soma Fab Shop have brake hoods for non aero levers, and I'm sure lots of other places do too, but probably not your local bike shop.
Same thing with 27" tires. Widely available - but maybe not so much at your local bike shop.

You could go this “Moderne” route:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f9ac9c036.jpeg
GC202Q | Diacompe

To expand on Hobbiano's comment above: FWIW, OP, both non-aero hoods and 27" tires also appear to be available on Amazon and eBay. Just make sure whatever tires you buy are the correct BSD (should be a BSD of 630 for a Miata, or the older standard 27" x 1 1/4" size and not the new so-called 27.5" type..

Also FWIW: in the photo, the brake hoods on the bike look to be in quite good shape (like the rest of the bike). If they are - and you end up getting it - maybe get a spare set of hoods for future use and use those on the bike now until they need replacement. Cane Creek non-areo hoods aren't terribly costly; neither are Dia Compe hoods. Some other "knock offs" are even cheaper. And having a spare set should set you up for the foreseeable future in case they go out of production.

Regarding replacing the existing brake levers with aero levers: aero levers (and aero cable routing) has advantages, but also complicates matters and isn't without disadvantages. My take in this case would be: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Personally, I'm a fan of the Tektro aero levers. I wouldn't use them on my 1974 Paramount. But I have used them on other vintage bikes. Picture from an ebay listing. These come in black or gum. Functionally, I prefer aero levers. But on a top of the line, vintage bike rebuild, not so much. By the late 1980s, many bikes came with aero levers.

I have them on my 1988 Cimarron drop bar bike. Which of course, was a flat bar bike originally.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d8cfcc69c.jpeg

That bike is very clean and as others have pointed out, parts are readily available. If the bike fits you and the price is right, Miyata made a quality bike. This would have been at the lower end of their line up but still a solid bike. Those look to be good quality suntour derailleurs for example (though hard to tell since the pic is not from the drive side).

I agree that Tektro makes good levers - I have a new set of 34X's in the parts stash (decided to go with STIs instead of those and bar ends), plus a couple of sets of Tektro calipers (one installed and in use, the second in the parts stash). And I personally like aero levers and cable routing too - I have them on one late 1990s-vintage bike.

But between removing the other levers, unwrapping the bars, likely replacing the cables and housing, buying and installing the new levers, re-wrapping the bars, and readjusting everything . . . well, to me it just seems that's more work than the modest aero advantage is worth if the existing brakes are in good shape and work well enough. In that case, I'd just put a new set of good shoes on the existing brakes and lube the cables. YMMV.