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I’ve been on the look out for a short reach, tall frame for awhile, so when this 63x57 popped up locally on CL, I grabbed it. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of information out there on these, so I figured I’d fill in what I could for anyone that comes across another. Koga has all of their catalogs back to 1976 on their website (https://www.koga.com/en/service/broc...2000-1976).htm). They're basically useless for this era, containing neither geometry nor build details. Shop sticker says this one was originally sold by Furio Rad-Sport in Erlangen, Germany. My guess is that it was brought back by an American serviceman in the early 90s.

From what I can deduce, despite this being an a 1989 model, the frame is essentially a 1986 Miyata 1000, with the same triple butted splined tubing, which Koga called "FM-1". However there are several unique changes specced by Koga. So far I’ve found:

- Chromed fork and rear stays. The chrome on the rear stays goes up to at least the brake bosses. I can’t tell if the rest of the frame is chrome, though I lean towards not since the paint isn’t flaking off.
- Internal brake housing routing.
- 130mm spaced vertical dropouts
- Shifter boss on the seat tube for a 3rd shift lever used to engage and disengage a bottom bracket dynamo.
- Threaded bosses on under side of seat stays for a Dutch style ring lock.

While Miyata made the frames for Koga, the rest of the assembly occurred in the Netherlands. From the factory the build is mixture of 600 Ultegra and XT

- Ultegra 600 stem and seat post
- Ultegra 600 (aka tricolor) brake levers, down tube shifters, and bonus down tube shifter for the Dynamo
- XT BR-M732 cantilever brakes
- XT headset with the sturdiest cable stop I’ve ever seen.
- XT FC-M730 BioPace triple, 170mm. The crank rub on this one is extreme. Like, 2mm deep extreme.
- XT M732 derailleurs
- XT M730/M732 hubs laced to 36H Wolber M59 rims. (Mismatched wheels on this one)
- SR Road Champion bar with internal brake housing routing.
- Union bottom bracket dynamo (working!) with union headlight and fender mount tail light
- ESGE/SKS fenders with dynamo wire routing
- Koga/Miyata branded rear, front and low rider Jim Blackburn-esque racks. The front rack as an arm for mounting the headlight
- Maruichi Dural 7 kick stand (removed)
- A quite wide, but very firm, sprung saddle.
- Bell. Unbranded, but identical in every way to other universals I've seen
- Should have matching frame pump, but missing.

Unfortunately I’m on the road for awhile, so i won’t have time for the full tear-down/clean-up/rebuild for a month or so. I’ve attached a few shots in as-found condition, minus the headlight, which was unfortunately broken, and the kickstand. It didn't come with pedals so I stuck some random ones on it so I could ride around. I'm looking forward to rebuilding this one and taking it on some tours and long day rides.



Here you can see the internal cable routing along the top tube, as well as where the housing exits the bottom of the bars. All of these points are reinforced with stress relieving inserts.



The saddle is at a wacky angle, I'm going to swap it to my grocery getter. It has a profile very similar to a B-17.



Here's the original catalog page. It's in Dutch, but you can pretty much make out what it says, which isn't much.

stardognine

Very nice! 👍 Lots of Miyata fans around here, and from what I've read here, Koga is like a higher-end spinoff company(?).
I like that front rack setup too, would like to put something similar on my Cannondale. 🙂

The Golden Boy 

That's Fantastic!

I have a 1990 Miyata 1000LT- I think it's interesting that your bike is a 600/XT build- but the 89 and 1990 1000LT are both 600/Deore DX builds- so one step below XT (when XT was top of the line).

Just out of curiosity- why do you believe it to be based off an 86 Miyata 1000?

bikemig 

When I lived in the Netherlands, I bought a Koga Miyata touring bike. It was my first good bike but it was not as good as yours (it had centerpulls and mangalloy tubing). Miyatas are terrific bikes.

BikeWonder

I want that bike. It's so cool and quirky.

cs1

Kind of Japanese practicality meets Dutch aesthetics.

fliplap

The geometry, lugs, braze-ons, internal wiring harness, rear brake cable stop, chain slap guard, are all spot on for a 1000. The 1986 theory comes from pouring over the the catalogs. 1986 seems to be the only year in which the 1000 had both STB (splined triple butted) tubing and the older style seat stay rack mounting tabs, vs the barrel style of the 1987. Also, while the 85, 87, 88 and 89 catalogs all clearly show semi horizontal dropouts, it seems like the 1986 Miyata 1000 might have been the only year to receive vertical dropouts. This catalog scan, while low res, seem to suggest that is the case.



I also managed to dig up a photo on Pinkbike (https://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/213...0&lastredirect) and a gallery on imgur that show vertical dropouts on the 86 (https://imgur.com/gallery/AJzPkNM)

tyrion

Dream bike.

What's the lever on the seat tube? Parking brake?

edit: nevermind

dedhed

Dutch company that sourced their frames in a branding partnership with Miyata. They bought, and I believe often speced, frames from Miyata and assembled the bikes to their own specs. I have an 84 Traveller waiting to get to. Often with racks, dynamos, fenders, and lights as standard equipment on non "racing" models. Most I've seen have great specs. The Traveller I have, while a bit lower end has a full golden arrow group and suede saddle.

The Golden Boy 

The rack tabs and the seat stay caps are very indicative... I've never given the lugs that much thought, and have never measured angles on a bike-

My 1990 had the barrels and Miyata branded seat stay caps:


Miyata seat stay cap by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr



As well as the vertical dropouts:


1990 Miyata 1000LT by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr



This is another interesting thing that goes towards the idea that the touring market PRECIPITOUSLY crashed in 84/85/86. The best, most glorious and grand touring bikes came out in 1985- Then Trek dropped touring bikes for a year, Schwinn roped the Voyageur SP and Voyageur models into just the Voyageur- pretty much every company, except Miyata rolled back the classical "grand-ness" of their touring bikes. If Miyata had prepared a metric ****-ton of glorious triple butted 1000s- but couldn't sell them- and since they changed a few of the design elements- getting the leftover frames to Koga for dressing up as "new" model would be a great idea to use them up. Upgrading them to the current model of XT, and chroming the stays gives it a very *new* look.

Unless, of course, other models of the Koga-Miyata bikes also had rack tabs and spoon caps- if that was still a Koga" thing.

stardognine

Yeah, it's kinda weird that Cannondale got started right about then, and they were primarily focused on touring bikes (and gear). Good thing for them, they also got into other types, like MTBs. 🙂

JaccoW

Koga-Miyata (and later just Koga) buyers are generally older people that are willing to spend for high-quality pre-made bikes. Models seem to stay around for a long time and retain their value pretty well on the second hand Dutch bicycle market. They are generally well-thought out and offer plenty of innovation without going full proprietary like Gazelle has a tendency to do.

While I'd have to check Koga's folders to be sure they kept making the steel Koga Randonneur all the way until 2015 when they finally phased it out in favour of their aluminum WorldTraveller and GrandTourer models... the last version was a fully featured 16.9kg (37 lbs) chromoly version of the bike.

When you compare brochures you can tell around 1986 mountainbikes started becoming more popular and around 1995 even the most high-end models started being replaced with aluminum models.

The Golden Boy 

Cannondale was started in the early 70s- Their packs, panniers, trailers, tents and gear fueled touring and camping. The bikes came out around 84- the "tourers" were sport touring bikes with caliper brakes for the first 6 years or so.

https://vintagecannondale.com/catalog/

fliplap

Good catch on the seat stay caps. I figured Koga might just not have wanted the Miyata caps, but didn't want to pay for custom ones. On the other hand, the fork crown has "K-M" cast into it, so Koga was speccing branded bits in some places. That does lend some weight to the idea that these were left over 86 frames.

Interestingly the serial number begins with an 'R' which would be an 89 in Miyata's serial number scheme. Maybe they didn't stamp the serial numbers until the frame actually went out?

The Golden Boy 

Or it was a Miyata 1000- but differentiated by using the spoon type caps, tabs, chroming and KM fork crowns.

stardognine

Ha, I see why you corrected me, I didn't type what I was thinking. 😁 Actually, they started putting serial numbers on their frames in '83, so started building in either '83, or "possibly" '82, to build up a small stockpile. 🙂

Lascauxcaveman 

Holy Moly; that thing is hot.

If I found one of those, I may be tempted drop all my other touring bikes -- except the '90 Cannondale, of course

fliplap

The internal rear brake routing, with brazed in reinforcements, is another differentiator. In any case, a nifty foot note in the Miyata 1000 story.

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Bringing this back to riding shape. This will be my bike for long days, be that touring or just riding around. I pulled everything apart, greased, repaired, replaced anything that needed it. While the original racks are cool, I don't need them every day, so they're in the parts bin waiting for touring duty. Much of the build came from a bike I'm getting ready to move out of the stable. New stuff includes

- Shimano 9 speed bar ends shifting an Ultegra 12-27 cassette
- Velocity Dyad rims laced to White Industries MI5 hubs
- Nitto Technomic stem and Noodle bars
- Brooks microfiber bar tape
- Deore MT-60 46-36-24 crankset, SR SP-100AL pedals
- Gilles Berthoud Aspen saddle
- Koolstop salmon pads
- Brass crane bell, Zefal HPX pump

Currently fender-less and wearing 38mm Vittoria Voyager Hypers for summer forest service road rides.

TropicStudios

Great looking bike. Have slowly been building up my Japanese frame collection- started with a Miyata 512, now a Miyata 912.

JaccoW

Great looking bike and good looking roads over there too.

FrenchFit 

I sold a smaller Miyata frame, replaced it with a very nice Koga Gentsracer off eBay. All the components were a direct swap over, though longer cables were necessary of course. Excellent frame and fork, it's nice to know that the Miyata universe includes pretty much all of the 80's, 90's Koga's out there.

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Camp site scouting around Humphrey's Peak.

For giggles, stuck it on the scale as pictured, without the bag. 26.6lbs.

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An update on what this bike looks like these days. Currently setup for "comfortably light" touring. Paselas, VO faceted fenders, triple bottle cages. I'm really happy with it as a general rider, and as a tourer. Here it is on a November overnight out at McDowell Mountain northeast of Phoenix. I alos took it on a few day tour in Colorado a couple months ago.

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And in rando mode, middle of a 300k after being chased by 3 different packs of dogs down the road to this old mission. Rack is a Nitto M18 supported by Rene Herse 170mm cantilever post mount struts. Had to work on the struts and rack tang a bit, and use double ended bolts on the brakes, but’s it works really well.