Spankyfart
Marin Fan
Afaik the Miyata's were Japanese frames, de Koga Miyata's weren't always iirc.
@Elev12k Is our in house Koga Guru.
I’d sell my soul for a JDM Miyata. Or a JDM Miata. Japan always got the cool, zany extras for the domestic market that their export models didn’t have. I bought a Japanese-only (China-made sadly) Casio keyboard for change at a local thrift store recently, and it’s pearly white, all the labels are in Japanese, the keys glow pink when pressed and it gives off an aura of being not of this country. The instruction manual PDF only exists in Japanese, replete with distinctly Japanese instructional drawings. How and why it made it to California is beyond me.Miyata manufactured the frames for Koga from 1974 up to 1996. In the early/mid 90s frame production in Japan became very expensive and other frame production locations gained momentum (Taiwan). Models like the 1997 Survivor of 1997 Explosion (twin down tube frame) are made by Hodaka, even though they were still offered as Koga-Miyata. I do not know what is the case with nowadays Kogas. Koga dropped the 'Miyata' name from the downtube long ago. The post 1995 frames are fine, but imo not as interesting as the Japanese frames.
In the early 90s you could buy Koga-Miyata in Europe (mainly Netherlands, Germany and a couple other markets). For as far as I know Scandanivia got the Miyata US models. Miyata in the US had a wider line up. Koga only carried upper midrange and very expensive models. Greg Herbold raced Miyata US models, what adds some coolness. For the home market and several Asian destinations there was anotherMiyata range.