Miyata 914 Townie/Fixie Conversion
Miyata Townie/Fixie Conversion (A Constant Work in Progress)
This bike has taught me a ton about bike maintenance and repair. When I bought the bike it was in it’s original road bike condition, drop bars, lightweight wheels, seven speed cassette, dual chain rings, two brakes. I got a great deal on it and decided to convert it to a fixed gear because it has horizontal dropouts. I stripped it down and replaced the wheels with some heavy duty Weinmann DP18’s, the rear has a flip-flop hub for fixed and a freewheel. I took off the rear brake since I’m only running it as a fixed gear, removed one of the front chain rings and put some moustache handlebars on it. I rode it around San Diego for about and year, it was a nice quick bike that required little maintenance.
With the Bars Flipped for A Lower Riding Position
When I moved out to rural Colorado I realized I wouldn’t have as much use for it in it’s current setup. While I’ve taken it on some 20-30 mile rides it’s just not as practical out here. It was setup to zip around the city, not go for recreational rides (especially down hills). So now I’m working on converting it to a Townie.
Since it was originally a racing bike it’s not perfectly suited for this, but I’ll make do. Not much has changed yet, but I’ve flipped the moustache handlebars over to give it a more upright riding position which makes a huge difference. I’ll be ordering a folding Wald Bicycle Basket for the back soon, to make grocery shopping easier. I’ll be adding some new pedals soon, just some old school clips and straps to allow for riding in regular shoes (but still providing some foot retention). I’m hoping to get some fenders soon, but this bike was never intended to have fenders on it, so it might be difficult to find some that fit and keep the bike and myself clean and dry.
It’s still a work in progress but it’s a functional bike to ride around town, and with the addition of the baskets it’ll be great for grocery shopping.
Original Setup (And the Way it Looked When I Bought It. From miyatacatalogs.com)
You should keep it fixed and use it for training when its icy. BTW I could almost hear you cringe as I ordered a factory direct Taiwanese fixed gear bike sight unseen online yesterday. At least its name brand steel.