Friday, March 16, 2012

1989 Miyata Sandstorm

1989 Miyata Sandstorm road bike we refurbished here at Bike Boom. If your'e not familiar, Bike Boom is a used bike shop in Davis square, on the border of Cambridge and Somerville , near Boston MA. where we specialize in restoring and refurbishing used and vintage bikes and offer professional bicycle repair services.
 The 1989 Miyata sandstorm was marketed as a bike path or a light cruiser, basically a bike you can easily ride on the weekend with an upright riding position. It was made to look similar to a mountain bike which at 1989 were starting to be very popular. It has a mountain bike frame and wheels but is equipped with caliper brakes and a 1x6 drive train. It also had a one piece crank and chain guard, similar to a cruiser.
We received the bike with a torn seat and dry tires, installed a nice cushy mattress seat off an american 3 speed columbia and fully refurbished it with thin , semi slick tires, new cables, housings, brake pads and grips. here is the 1989 Miyata catalog, it does show a different crank and handlebar/stem set up
Back in the late 80's and early 90's almost every manufacturer had this kind of bike in their arsenal, some even came with cruiser bars. The 1989 Miyata sandstorm is a cross between a comfort bike and and an old school cruiser with a very similar geometry to the Bridgestone BB-1 even though the Bridgestone BB-1 had more features of a mountain bike with the cantilever brakes and a triple crank. We love bikes like the Miyata sandstorm because they are already set up as upright commuters with the high stem and riser bars and that allows us to sell them cheaper. Very often we get nice rigid mountain bike but the have low stem and flat bars which result in a crouching position and then we have to spend time and replace parts to change them. People around Cambridge and Boston seem to like the relaxed up right riding position which is more suited for the beginner commuter who wants to see the road and cars around him at all times. Sold to a student in tufts university.






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