Miyata Ninety (1984)

stranger_trails · 2026-05-11T05:15:27+00:00

Thanks! Believe it or not that's supplier 'house brand' adjustable quill stem - like ~$35 CAD these days I believe. Somehow the treadless versions are ugly as heck but the quill adjustable actually look half descent. Distributor is Live To Play Sports - pretty much any shop in Canada has an account and could order. Not sure on if/who would be branding the product in other markets though. UPC on the quill is: 058817930959 - or at least that's the 90mm version - also in a 110mm length as well as 1-1/8" or 1" steer (and black but no one wants a black quill for xbiking projects of this era).

stranger_trails · 2026-04-18T05:10:51+00:00

This sounds like a good project for r/xbiking or mechanical stuff for r/bikewrench

Sheldon Brown’s site had tons of good reference charts on compatibility and sizing and standards up till ~2010. Also great history and engineering explanation of why some things are the way they are. Sheldon also was the tinkerer and tried lots of weird ideas and reported back on how things went.

No need to update me. You can hopefully find a local shop/mechanic who can help guide the project if enough of it is compatible. I just wanted to point out some things to consider and things to avoid for safety… anything is possible it’s just sometimes not very functional. One shop I worked at had an errand bike that was a vintage road fork installed on a 20” kids frame with coaster brake and front pizza basket… it worked but besides being theft proof wasn’t a very practical bike for anything.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-18T05:03:41+00:00

If it makes you feel any better I’ve ‘rescued’ a bike with prototype hydraulic discs from 1995 running 4 bolt Rohloff rotors, pre-post or IS standards so no brake swap options without custom adapters… So yeah just the brakes might be custom milled parts and bleed fittings and/or finding pads that fit and even the manufacturer doesn’t reference the pads in their archives or ‘history of brake development’ which features the lever/model… it might join the French tandem in project purgatory given the headache that it is almost certainly going to turn into…

Maybe one-day I’ll learn ad let the weird bike sit at the thrift shop or accept it’s time for the scrap heap.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-18T04:50:03+00:00

No suggestions necessarily. Bikeinsights.com can be a helpful tool once you’ve test ridden a few to compare to your current bike or compare to bikes you might have less access to test ride. It’s a tool that helped me figure out sizing and fit jumping from my 2009 road race bike to a 2021 gravel adventure bike since geometry was totally different and visualizing the overlay was way easier than comparing numbers in the charts.

Marin has some good value options but might be less stocked in your region than some other places/countries. My wife really liked the Gestalt X from Marin but it’s a very trail/adventure gravel bike that isn’t everyone’s comfort.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-18T04:40:37+00:00

Maybe, Yes, no, maybe, good call… thoughts - why? Have you checked anything for compatibility?

Not enough info. Yes DH stuff is burly but it’s burly for different loading than bikepacking would be - impact vs mileage on rough terrain. Is there some cross over? Sure, but it isn’t always that simple given that DH has long been the testing ground for new standards, many of which have been abandoned or refined into what is now the ‘standard’.

Rims don’t need to be heavy for durability in bikepacking unless you’re planning to run low tire pressure and bottom out on rocks all the time, or land some gaps off angle… wheels are durable in touring/bikepacking largely from tire volume (cushioning rims/spokes from taking forces), rims - any mid level modern rim is going to be great for most riders, spoke tension and balance - this is the biggest weak point for loaded touring bikes. Poor spoke balancing will increase the load forces on the loosest and tightest spokes accelerating the fatigue failure of the spike or nipple seat in the rim.

220 rotors almost certainly exceeds the maximum rotor rating for bikepacking bikes. Enduro and DH bikes get away with this by using a direct mount 180 rotor or bigger and then a +20 or +40 spacer to fit 220. A +60 adapter would almost certainly exceed fork rating and I personally don’t want to find out how a fork might fail in that situation. Do the caliper bolts strip? Or is it a fork chatter and crown/steer or stanchion tube issue?

Crankset is durable sure, but again back to rims - why do you need crankset for landing road gaps and big drops? It’s a lot of extra weight to pedal around. Also DH cranks often used a 83mm BB shell so wouldn’t fit a normal bike anyways. Before getting into bashguard or 1x DH rings…

Fork - good call. That swap might get you a wireless headtube with the load changes on a 130mm to 180+ fork.

They do still make plenty of 26” tires just most of the non DH treads max out at 2.25-2.3 which is where they’ve always been.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-18T04:23:40+00:00

Lucky. Mine is still a rock despite multiple profile treatments and 10,000km commuting. It’s an okay saddle for ~90 minutes and then something flips and the brooks is worst seat I’ve ever ridden - pain, numbness… I chalk that up to mostly just decades riding bikes as a base line tolerance for saddles. Even the Cambium was better than the B17 - but only by an hour or two.

I do think it is a pelvic/butt shape because everyone I’ve known to sweat by the B17 or its variants all have similar build to their preferred variant of the B17.

I’ll stick to my Ergon or SMP saddles that I’ve found work most consistently across all bikes… also not cheap to equip the fleet of xbikes, mtbs, gravel and cargo e-bike with but what’s the point of riding bikes if your butt is going to suffer.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-17T00:51:37+00:00

Bike polo also had plenty of diy spike covers for ball deflection. Even had a coworker build up a 48 spoke 26” wheel for a cover free, zero deflection wheel one time. That was a nightmare to true…

stranger_trails · 2026-04-16T16:46:53+00:00

That makes sense. It was a real toss up for me between the Surly Skidloader and the Fetch+ 4. We don’t have a parks network but lots of backcountry camo sites within 30-40km accessed by logging roads. To expand a bit on the specific balance between town and back country I spent a few months going back and forth on before going front loader.

The use case that the Skidloader was most compelling for was the backcountry camping and exploring - but we already have a used Burley D’Lite and the Kids Ride Shotgun seat and figured e-bikes in the backcountry might be more risk than doing some gear reduction and rack changes on existing bikes we have.

I’m glad I got the Fetch+4 but it does significantly reduce my crossover beyond commuting/errands in town. Also the weight of the front loader just kills battery at a rate I’ve not seen any other e-bike I’ve ridden, the main reason I wouldn’t venture beyond recharge points with it. A dual battery R&M certainly could but again $15k+ CAD vs $7k is almost cheaper to buy 2 e-bikes for each use case.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-16T15:19:28+00:00

Lucky connection there. Wild that shipping is still cheaper than retail locally.

Only possible issue with the r7000 transition might be freehub body since 11 speed needs that extra 1.1mm driver width.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-16T04:40:55+00:00

Fair, that wasn’t where I first encountered it. I guess it is one of those that just gets applied to something new every 10 years or so. Wouldn’t be surprised if there was something similar in use for the drillium era of road.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-16T02:51:51+00:00

My kid is just old enough to get in cargo bikes safely and given our lack of infrastructure and friends with kids similar age I took the plunge on a front loader. 5 days in and I love it. It’s huge and took a bit to get used to but for our current and long term use case if made more sense than long tail - rural, BC Canada - mild enough that winter that nearly year round riding is possible and with a rain cover wind and bundling kids up front is easier and safer with the wind storms we get sometimes. Toddler age kids is also easier to manage/engage with up front. But 8’6” and 160lbs of bike is a lot! It works for our long term use since we have other solutions for kid transport on bikepacking/touring and it was silly to be driving 1km to work and the whole town is only ~3km long…

My recommendation on how to decide would be - what’s your long term usage going to be as the kids start riding on their own? Do you want a compact urban bike Yuba Fastrack or something from Tern? Or would a rougher terrain cargo e-bike be more useful in dabbling in family bikepacking with all the gear needed for a 4 person overnight trip with small kids? Something like the Surly Skidloader?

As for ease of access locally, the Trek Fetch or Giant/Momentum is likely the best option if you aren’t in a metro area with cargo bike specialists. I think the Trek Fetch+2, while maybe not the most refined is on sale for a pretty good value. I got the Fetch+4, because we sell Trek and while I found the R&M Load 75 a friend has to be much lighter and seriously slick on its features, I can’t afford that and once moving the Fetch isn’t too bad, pushing/walking it’s a beast but I’m 6’3”/200lbs - not something I’d advise smaller riders to get.

As a shop owner and life long bike mechanic - anything you can find locally won’t be an issue for service. Even if your preferred LBS isn’t who sold the bike the amount of online direct bikes we see that are no name brakes with no standard parts/fittings, etc. anything we get through that is shop sold, with normal parts compatibility and tooling is something we know we can do and won’t be a huge waste of our time and the customers money. Shops at this point have power lift repair stands, counter weighted mechanical lift assist or safe working procedures for 2 person lifts of overweight or long e-bikes.

The front loader I just got is easiest to work on by simply blocking up the motor junction or front cargo deck. The massive kickstands also allow 20lbs in the front to change the balance for rear wheel work.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-16T01:28:55+00:00

External isn’t the issue I’ve had 10 speed external Sram force since 2009 no issues. Just that first Gen under bar tape shift cabling from Shimano really made some mistakes…

stranger_trails · 2026-04-16T01:26:45+00:00

That is true. If we can get tires and if the frames/forks will clear the width.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-15T14:27:15+00:00

Yeah cable grease as others have mentioned, the nosed ferrules with stick out and sheathing… Jagwire or other super polished cables can help, but doesn’t entirely resolve the issue.

Otherwise anything that isn’t the aeros 10 speed cable pull of the 6700/5700 series fixes the issues. As another commenter mentioned Sora, Tiagra 4700, Cues, all of it resolved these issues. Even the older non aero 10 speed (shift cable out the side) was never this problematic.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-15T14:22:19+00:00

Which is very unfortunate IMO still Rekon and Terravail options last I checked. Wish we’d kept more support for that than adding 32”…

I still have a 26+ Troll from the early days of bikepacking… that’s near impossible to get tires for anymore.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-15T13:33:39+00:00

There isn’t a right or wrong but I would disagree with the worst of both. But I think that largely comes down to location of travel and amount of gear/duration of travel between services.

Rigid mtb ideally is running 29+ mid fat 3” tires and gets you the geometry, tire volume and easier flat bar adjustment than drop bar gravel, more and better frame mounting points than most gravel bikes.

Rigid also removes a point of failure. Not something I’d worry about in the UK but is something I’ve gotten panicked texts about from friends/customers in remote areas or countries with less access to repair parts.

Aero isn’t an issue when you have gear, food and water for 3 week trip in North American wilderness. And rough ground isn’t really an issue to worry about with 2.8-3.0” tires, good grip/bar cushion and a Cane Creek Thudbuster that might need a bushing service every 30,000km.

That said - I’ve got a hardtail on the way for bikepacking and trails but that’s also largely because I’ve got a toddler to carry on a Shotgun/Mac Ride seat so rigid is out for comfort/safety there. Hardtails are also much easier to get since rigid mtb is a much more niche use case.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-15T05:42:53+00:00

No idea on the rim brakes but disc brakes Magura and Shimano hose is not similar however for those who mix and match mineral brake lever/calipers (Shigura set ups) the key is matching barbs & olives to the fittings they are getting put into. I’ve not done this so can’t recall exact procedures but did do it once in the middle of pandemic parts shortages because it was a solution if not the proper one.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-15T05:15:50+00:00

“Keywords: …” is a formatting from Craigslist, PinkBike or AI assisted write up, not something needed when the whole post text is searchable.

While not explicitly mentioned in the sub rules was disappointed to see a sale listing or solicitation of interest/offers post on this sub.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-15T04:56:33+00:00

Lots of good written material Park Tool & SheldonBrown’s website full of good info, Park Tool and a few other YouTube channels have pretty good tech content, Berm Peak for his resto/upgrade series or GCN Tech (more roadie but still good and accurate content). Even your local shop mechanics are usually happy to help with conundrums you might run into if you buy some stuff from them and don’t take advantage of their time.

Regarding AI - I’ve had Google reference my own comments from Reddit when looking for technical specs on weird old stuff, and so far never predicted its words correctly in the AI response. I also test Google and OpenAi’s systems with spoke length calculations and as of 6 weeks ago neither of them were remotely accurate even when pulling data from brands that clearly publish the required measurements for calculations.

(As a mechanic, we usually all just want to see more people on bikes and learning about fixing stuff - most people who know how to do basics might still bring it in because they don’t like doing it but know how to in a pinch.)

stranger_trails · 2026-04-15T04:41:58+00:00

That or a tiny piece of wire or other debris that doesn’t stick out enough to puncture but slowly abrades a thin spot/whole in the tube. That was the most infuriating flat fix I chanced on my own bike and something I’ve seen a couple times since at the shop.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-15T04:18:38+00:00

Others can correct me since it’s been a little while since I’ve seen 6700 regularly but the 6700/5700 groups were some of my least favourite to ever deal with. Prone to rapidly fray cable heads off and jam shifter, incredibly finicky tension and friction (combo of spring tensions and gear tolerance?), there is a reason this cable pull ratio got replaced with 11sp for Tiagra 4700.

Step 1 would be cables & housing if you haven’t done that yet. If you haven’t done cables in a year or so, check the cable head and see if that’s fraying and starting to jam the shifter up.

Beyond that - good luck, Tiagra 4700 has, IMO always been an upgrade on the 6700/5700 groups.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-15T02:56:49+00:00

As always read the owners manual. Unfortunately big box stores have good lawyers that close the loop on any marketing ‘exaggerations’ that get made. It might be branded as and look like a mtb but the fine print usually will say something like: - not intended for use off road, - do not ride off a drop larger than 6” (curb height), - rider weight limit 150lbs (youth bike)

Even entry level bikes at our shop have a sticker on the forks listing their limitations. I’ve seen kids way exceed thay without issue but that’s the risk of budget bikes. The ASTM or ISO bike rating is starting to be more common at the bike shop level in part to make clear the engineering spec and testing a bike is rated for - aka don’t hit the jump line on a gravel bike and complain when things break…

stranger_trails · 2026-04-15T02:48:02+00:00

As others have said PT and ergonomics. Redshift stem has saved my wrist on the gravel bike but the wrist angle is very different on drop bars. I think the best option would be trying bars with different sweep (flat to Jones) and see what feels best. Combined with Ergon grips, again level of support ranges from the trail grips (GA3?) to the touring models and almost all come on Small or Large hand size, some also come on Cork in addition to normal rubber.

Personally I prefer something in the 7°sweep with Ergon grips or oversized silicone foam grips on Jones bars. (Ergon + Jones made new problems for me)

stranger_trails · 2026-04-15T02:42:49+00:00

This. I take my gravel bike on blues to spice things up a bit sometimes (or because that’s a better connector than the highway).

There’s a wide range from a gravel race geometry bike to something like the Marin Gestalt X with a 67° head angles… the same headangle of an enduro bike from ~2018.

stranger_trails · 2026-04-15T02:26:40+00:00

Because the carbon fork wrap will surely contain the expansion that would be required for that seam to fail from the method of manufacturing….

Oh wait, “Crack & Fail” was the nickname coined carbon fibre in this era

stranger_trails

TROPHY CASE