Mr. Shadow

I just had a Miyata OneTen converted to a fixed-gear and wondered about the frame.
It says it uses "Miyata Special Tubing." I think Sheldon said they made all of their own
steel. This may may be one of their lower end bikes? But it rides nice with tubulars.

Anyone know anything about this model?

T-Mar

The model 110 was an entry level bicycle, but since it is a Miyata, it is undoubtedly well constructed and finished for the price range. Typically, the model 110 was about 3rd from the bottom of the line-up and was what Miyata called a Sports bicycle.

Miyata started making and using their own tubing in 1981. Special steel tubes was a term Miyata started using in the very late 1980s. The Miyata catalogues of the era do not indicate what it is, but the next models up typically have plain gauge CrMo tubes and hi-tensile steel is mentioned for the forks, so special steel is likely a manganese steel, which had tensile properties between CrMo and hi-tensile steel.

Mr. Shadow

It has a beautiful blue to white fade paint with yellow lettering. The lugs are cleanly welded and the components were like new. I highlighted that with gold anodized Mavic OR10 tubular rims with a custom
built Dura Ace track hubbed rear. It is totally silent on the road. It rides very smoothly and has good pedal clearance. Thanks for your reply.

T-Mar

That's the 1988 model. The lug and ride comments do not surprise me. Miyata's quality control was excellent, regardless of the level of the bicycle. Yes, those models did have very high bottom brckets. Depending on the frame size, they were 10-20mm higher than the top models. Are you using the original SR crankset and Dia-Compe brakes? Hopefully it still has the yellow tape and cable housing to co-ordinate with the logo. That blue/white colour scheme was the best offered in my opinion. It is very close to the livery of the Team Miyata bicycles. Definitely better than the Champagne Pink that was also offered that year.

Mr. Shadow

I still have the original yellow cable and brake up front.
The bar tape is now a blue and white marble.
I like it. I'll have pictures soon.

giant99

I have 2 of them a blue1 and a terqoes s/p? 1. that I put a few miles, nice ride.

T-Mar

The turquoise paint was called Cream Teal and is probably 1985 vintage. The blue model has several years as possibilities. If you are interested in knowing the model year send me a private message with pics and/or serial numbers.

legalize_it

at what point did miyata become koga-miyata? and whats the deal with that anyways? in our basement at work we have 3 NOS miyata frames, one is a koga-miyata, one is a touring frame, and the other is one of the aluminum 'glued and screwed' ones

T-Mar

Koga has been the Netherlands based, European based distributor of Miyata since 1974. They assemble Koga-Miyata bicycles using Japanese manufactured frames. The 1981 Koga-Miyata Team was the first European based, professional squad to ride Japanese bicycles. Koga eventually started designing bicycles specifically for the European market. After Miyata ceased distributing in North America, some Koga-Miyata started finding their way across the big pond. Recently, Koga-Miyata USA was established to import these bicycles and fill the void. Check out https://usa.koga.com/ . They have some nice videos of the Koga-Miyata operation. I believe that Harris Cyclery is carrying the Koga-Miyata line.

Miyata used two processes to build aluminum frames, welding and bonding. The bonded frames use Miyata's patented APA (aluminum-pressurized-adhesive) bonding and were marketed as Alumi-Techs. The frame could be entirely aluminum or an aluminum main traingle bonded to steel stays. The APA process allowed Miyata to bond many combinations of dissimilar materials including carbon fibre with steel, carbon fibre with aluminum and titanium with aluminum.

giant99

Sure Ill do that, Ill take a few pics no the weekend. Ill check out the serial#"s to.

Cro_Moly_Body

The Miyata 1000 Touring Bike has triple butted tubing.

I got it and it's my flagship bike.

Miyataphile

giant99

Was there a Miyata 90.

T-Mar

The model 90 was the very bottom of the lightweight line-up. Are you going to send the pics of your 2nd model 110?

giant99

T-Mar I found the word ninty on the blue one when I was out at the yard so I guess it not the 110. But Ill try and get the pic to you tomorrow. 4 new bikes today what cought my eye today was a sikine from what I could tell 60s 70s green with crome fork ends and back end, drop outs had the ajusting screw. It says made in canada. Its like brad new. I sold the wheels of it.

USAZorro

No offense Giant, but I think you just disappointed T-Mar. He has a special fondness for that brand of bicycle.

giant99

bigbossman 

I have a Miyata 215T that I bought new in 1987. Still in spectacular shape, and still rides well. Where does it fit in to the Miyata line? Mine is a grayish silver, with teal decals.

John D.

Mr. Shadow

https://groups.msn.com/BicyclingForum...o&PhotoID=9662

https://groups.msn.com/BicyclingForum...o&PhotoID=9659

No serial number under the bottom bracket.

T-Mar

Regardless of the lack of a serial number, if it's a model 110, then it's a 1988 model. The paint and decals are a match with the catalogue.

T-Mar

The closest match I found was a 1988 model 215ST. The colour is Dark Platinum with blue logos. However there is a teal coloured stripe behind the model number on the top tube. It was the bottom model in touring line-up, which consisted of three bicycles. It's a little harder to rate them in the overall line-up as their were 10 different categories with a total of 37 models! However, if we restrict it to Lightweights and do not include ATBs, Hybrids, etc., then I would place it 13th from the top, out of 18 models.I would consider it the lowest of the mid-range models.

bigbossman 

That's it - a 215ST. I just re-checked the decal.... Dark Platinum sounds like a match. Thanks a bunch for your very informative reply.

I just picked up a Specialized Expedition for cheap, so I may be switching bikes. We'll see how the Expedition rides......

John D.

T-Mar

The Expidition is a more expensive bicycle than the 215ST. The components will be higher level and there will be more touring fixtures (front rack mounts, internal lightning harness, spare spoke mounts, etc.). The only area where it may suffer in comparison to the Miyata is the frame workmanship. It will be well built, but may not be as nicely finished. You should be very happy with it, provided it has not been abused or worn out. The Miyata 1000, would be the comparable model, and it is arguably the finest, steel, production touring bicycle ever built.

Mr. Shadow

Thanks T_Mar.

grolby

Miyatas are lovely. I bought a used 210 about a month ago, and have been very happy with it (the brakes needed replacing in front, but that was no big deal, since I have replaced the original levers and foam with aero levers and tape). In fact, it was T-Mar who was able to tell me that it was a 1986 model built in November of '85, and what a great find it was. The 210 is the lowest end of the Miyata touring series, which I believe includes the 210, the 610 (?) and the 1000 already mentioned. Still pretty good, for being the lower-end frame - it has the same triple-butted frame construction as the 1000, 40-spoke rear wheel, etc. It has less frame fittings, though. My only complaint is that there is only one set of eyelets on the rear dropouts. I am curious, though, as to whether the 210 has the same wheelbase as the 610 or 1000. My chainstays don't seem to be any longer than 16.5-17 inches. T-Mar, do you know anything about this?

Of course, now I want a 1000... or a 610. But I won't complain about what I have!

T-Mar

Unfortunately, Miyata's 1986 literature does not specify the chainstay length for the touring series. However, in comparing photos with the competition and sports series, the touring series has a notably larger gap between the rear tire and seat tube. By comparing it in relation to the diameter of the seat tube, I'd estimate the gap on the touring series is 3/4" - 1" bigger.

All the 1986 touring series appear to have the same geometry, based on the photos. This is to be expected. It is very expensive for the manufacturers to develop separate tooling for every model. In Miyata's case the the each category (sports, touring, competition) would have it's own jig and the different models would be created by varying the tubeset and/or components. There could also be some further variation created by the amount of braze-on features applied to the frame.

In the case of the 1986 model 210 and 1000, they both both used triple butted tubing, but the model 1000 had additional splines to stiffen the tubes. It also had a CrMo fork versus Mangalight on the model 210. As for extra braze-ons, the model 1000 had a holder for spare spokes, a 3rd set of water bottle bosses, bosses for a low-rider front rack and an internal wiring harness for lights. While the components were a couple steps higher for the model 1000, its weight was only 0.2 lbs lighter than the model 210.