please dont do anything to your bike, right now your bike is beautiful... dont start taking it apart. If anything sell it (and im sure you could get a decent price for it) and build up your own fixie/single speed from a bar frame... youll have alot more fun picking out the parts etc... Just please dont take that bike apart!

a conversion wont have that "snappy" handling, if thats what you are looking for.
however, conversions can make great town bikes since the heavier tubes and slacker angles of old road frames are great for soaking up lumps in the road. proper tool for the job afterall...
i personally think conversions should only be done single speed (freewheel) because of pedal strike issues.
that bike looks to be in really good condition, so if it aint broke, dont fix it.
just ride it till (if) the shifters blow up, then think about single speeding it.

and you dont have to strip it down to try fixed. borrow a fixed wheel from someone and pop it on there with a shorter chain. the derailers wont keep you from riding it with a fixed wheel, itll just look a bit weird while you try it out, but it might save you a ton of trouble if you are only curious about it now...

and you can always just never shift if you want to know what single speed is like.

one last thing. that bike has a lot of style as it is, id be proud to ride it with gears and all.

hi~~

I have a Miyata 610, and I converted it to fixed gear before the winter. A few days ago, I became bored of fixed gear and its limitations (TREACHERY, I know) and regeared it, upgrading many of the parts in the process. Reattaching the components took no longer than removing them, and everything is working fine.

So, I recommend you convert your Miyata for now. I haven't found any of the modern purpose-built fixed gear frames to ride as nicely as my old Miyata, and if you end up disliking the new setup, it's rather trivial to restore it to the previous condition as long as you don't lose anything.

The bike is beautiful, and it'll be beautiful converted to fixed. Bikes that are too rare or significant to tamper with are few and far between, this is not one of them.

the 912 was not TOL is was second or third rung. Shinamo 600 while nice was also not TOL. It was meant as a general purpose road bike that could be used either for light touring with an occaisional race. This type of bike is IMO the perfect canidate for conversion. Responsive enough to be fun to ride yet stable enough to not be exhausting, light enough to carry yet strong enough to lock up and give light abuse. Fender eyelets too. As and added bonus aero shifters make dealing with (NOT REMOVING) the braze on a snap.

I say convert it. It's a nice bike and it will be nice fixed. If you don't like it it can be nice geared again. Whatever you do don't listen to the hipsters and "get a track bike" when a conversion will suit you better. Unless you want a bike to ride a mile or two to a bar and then look good locked up outside or you plan on racing on a track a track bike is not going to be the right choice.

The story ends like this . . .

I couldn't bear to convert the Miyata because I don't
want to drag a 52-tooth chain ring around on a single-speed
and I want to keep the Miyata as is to go fast with said
dinner-plate sized ring. I'm selling my SOMA to make room
for a screaming deal I got on a like-new SOMA rush.

Thanks for all the feedback. Just for the record the Miyata
is a great bike for the prices they go for now--get one if ya
see one.