'koga' miyata?

US member here, so please bear with...

does 'koga' denote something additional? we had plain ole' miyatas over here for quite a while, but never koga. is that just their euro corporate identity, or is it an extra distinguisher ('waterford' paramount, 'pre-trek' klein, 'somerville' fat, etc.)

my very first mtb was a late-80s terrarunner somethingoranother. lugged miyata house-brand chromo, 'triple butted' as i recall. grey tubes, with greyer (charcoal?) headtube/lugs maybe? it was the deore-equipped version, not the blue/white/yellow XT version. quite stout, but not at all in a bad way. i remember a 140mm tioga t-bone and ground controls as the hot setup. herbold!

i have a modest 'collection' of interesting riders, and the only one outstanding that i still feel strongly about is a really nice japanese steel roadie...superbe pro please. a team miyata would be spectacular. zunow? god forbid, nagasawa...

Miyata is Japanese as you know. Koga is Dutch. In 1974 Andries Gaastra (which was employed at Batavus) did start his own bicycle company with his wife Marion Kowalik. Girst letters of noth names became KOGA. Frames came from japan, and were completed in Holland. They also intoduced Shimano to the Dutch market.

Both Miyata and Koga-Miyata carried a wide range of products, but US Miyata covered low-mid/mid/top segments, while KM was mainly focussed on the high-midrange and top segments. They were also positioned that way in a broader way, for example advertising. Their catalogues were glossys and their exhibition stands all black and distinctive.

Till 1996 Koga acquired their frames from Miyata in Japan. The frames arrived finished in Heerenveen where the bikes were assembled by hand. One bike, one worker. Most Koga had a US Miyata equivilent. For example the Team Miyata you're mentioning was pretty much the KM FullPro in Europe. The US catalogues use images of Capri Sonne FullPro in racing. Dito for the Pro Miyata vs KM ProRacer. A FullPro-A is a chromed Aero Miyata. The Miyata 912 often showed much resemblance with models like the GentsLuxe-S. There were also Kogas that didn't have a Miyata equivilent or something that came even close: Examples are the e-stay RidgeRunner or the Columbus Max tubing FullPro-L and FullPro-S of the early nineties.

Often the KM had the nicer equipment for the given frame, what had a lot to do with that KM was distributor of Shimano too. There were a lot Dura Ace models always. In the early 90s many bikes, both road and offroad, were specced with Syncros equipment. I think that this had a lot to do with that Andries' son, Gerrit Gaastra, lived and experienced the MTB'ing scene in Canada intensively.

I happen to have a couple frames available for sale, like a Tulip pro team FullPro, a couple ProRacers and probably more, but I am afraid I would not be able to help you as TNT has changed its max dimensions per 1 January what makes reaching US quite difficult for Dutch.

Koga used to have a line of audax bikes all through the 80s. In the 90s they were replaced by heavier touring bikes. So not only racingbikes marketed by Koga-Miyata.
I must say that even now the audax bikes of Koga have a superiour ride.