1983 Miyata 210 Touring Bicycle

                               

I've been working on other projects for a while, and it was time to put together a new bike for the spring. I recently found a decent condition Miyata 210, which by its serial number appears to be a 1983 frame.

The Miyata 210 was the entry level touring bike in the Miyata line, with straight gauge cromoly frame tubes and a hi tensile steel fork. After working on bikes that fell much higher on the model hierarchy in the Cromoly, double butted Univega Specialissima and the columbus tubed Italvega last year, I was expecting the 210 to feel very heavy. It doesn't. It's a very similar ride to the Univega Specialissima I rode last year, with possibly a bit more top tube length, although I haven't measured. It's a reminder that the improvements these bikes made were incremental, and the actual reliability and performance differences between many of these frames are probably not as extreme as their advertising materials indicated.

The nice thing about this bike is that I've got a nice riding, decent condition cromoly touring bike with alloy components for a very low price, and it's a low enough model that the low resale value will probably keep me from flipping it, allowing me to finally hold onto one of the bikes I build!