Miyata Trail Runner shake down cruise and a Reckoning

Friday started with a trip to the hardware store to find a nut for the seat-post QR and a M6 nut with the right thread pitch was found.

And it was too big to fit the recessed hole in the frame, I could probably try sanding it down some but didn't want to tackle that yesterday, it could be the original set up was with a smaller QR bolt with a M5 nut or it could have been a custom size.

So I ended up just using what I bought at bike works to secure the seat post with no nut.

And bingo I've got a saddle and seat post mounted on the bike.

With the seat-post set up I decided it was time for shake down ride to a local pub for dinner, about a 8 block round trip so easy to walk in case something went off the rails.

First my nits to pick:

• Saddle nose was a bit too high
• I think the bars need to come up and back a smidgen.
• I notice that there was a slight slip in the seat post from beginning to end of the ride so either the QR needs tightening or maybe the 26.6 post is the way to go.
• The FD wouldn't shift to the big ring
• The brakes were mushy because I'd not spent the time fine tuning them, the front straddle wire carrier needs to come up so it isn't resting on the front rack stay.

The good stuff

• The fat tires just floated over the pavement which is what I was hoping for
• Despite the need for tweaks I am in the ball park for fit, the frame is the right size, and I think will be very comfortable once I get things dialed in.
• Pretty easy to swap the front bag from the HD over to the Miyata.

I am at a bit of a cross roads with the bike, what it really needs it a complete tear down and rebuild but there is the temptation to make some small tweaks and do some gravel/trail rides in the next few sunny months.  We'll see.

Reckoning

One of my goals for my "free" time during unemployment was to de-clutter because A) the apartment needs it and B) in a worse case scenario I would need to move and having less stuff would make that easier.  I'm starting a new job next week so option b is off the table but I still have work to do.

A big part of de-cluttering is dealing with bikes and bike parts which are in every room of my apartment, including the balcony, except for the kitchen and bathroom.  And that is with the caveat that the Kitchen has the sonic cleaner which is only used on bike stuff and the bathroom, due to a quirky layout, has a two bike rack.  I decided that storing steel bikes in a place that gets lots of steam is maybe not a good idea but rack is still there.

I have some ideas around moving bikes, selling off parts and going to the scrap yard to make things look a bit less like an episode of vintage bike hoarders but I also started to think about the bikes that have come through the apartment in the last five years.

In thinking about it I came up with about 30 bikes:

2012			2013
Bike	Status		Bike	Status
2009 Handsome Devil	Go to workhorse		Motobecane Mirage Frame	In queue
1980 Peugeot UO-10	Sold in 2014		Schwinn Traveller III Frame	In queue
Miyata 912	Sold in 2014		Schwinn Le Tour III	Built for sister-in-law
Curb find Raleigh	Frame scrapped parts to Mello yellow		Soma Smoothie	Built up for me then economics forced a sale
Raleigh Ladies 3 speed	Sold in 2014		Raleigh Reliant	Sold in 2013
Raleigh Men's  3 speed	Sold in 2014		Peugeot AO-8	Sold in 2014
Raleigh Record Mixte	Built up for my Niece
Fuji Royale	Sold in 2013
Velo Orange Rando	Sold in 2014
2014			2015
Bike	Status		Bike	Status
Torpado Alpha	In queue		1968 Raleigh Supercourse	rebuilt for friend in 2016
Peugeot UO-8  sports	sold in 2014		Peugeot Mixte	Built for daughter
1998 Cannondale Saeco	cleaned up and sold for friend		70s Motobecane Mirage	Half way through the rebuild process
Motobecane Grand Touring	In quiver		Raleigh Rapide Mixte	In queue
1970 Takara Sport	Flipped
2016			2017
Bike	Status		Bike	Status
Raleigh Junk bike	destined for scrap		1986 Miyata Trail runner	rideable
Gitane TdF	parted out in 2017		1984 Nishiki Cascade	In queue
1986 Passage	In quiver		1992 Ritchey Road	awaiting sale
1974 Nishiki Professional	frame will be scrapped and parts sold

I hope to get to a stage where I have my own bikes and then take on projects one at a time, that's the plan anyway.

Ride.Smile.Repeat.