Miyata

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Page from the '84 catalog showing Team Miyata SL
Greg Herbold's 1990 UCI DH Worlds winning RidgeRunner.
Greg Herbold going fast on a Miyata Elevation 10,000 in a dual slalom run.

Miyata is a bicycle manufacturer from Japan.

Somewhere late 1800s a British passenger asked Mr. Miyata to perform a repair on his bicycle. Rifle manufacturer Miyata helped the man and the bicycle triggered Mr. Miyata's interest. Mr. Miyata reasoned that who can build good slots for rifles, will also be able to produce good bicycle tubing. So it happened that Miyata built its 1st bike in 1890.

By the 1970s Miyata entered the US market. In quality they made big leapes rapidly and soon they were able to impress the picky American customer. Helped by a favourable exchange rate these bikes from the land of the rising sun became very popular in the 1980s. Miyata was a committed company with huge resources. This made offerings of untill than established names look somewhat amateuristic put together. The success lasted untill the Yen skyrocketed and the focus shifted to Taiwan as production location for bicycles. Miyata left the US market in 1995.

Apart from Scandanavia Miyata never put foot on European soil as a brand. Miyata did supply frames to Koga-Miyata of the Netherlands instead.

Miyata celebrated its 100th anniversary as a bicycle manufacturer with a limited edition model called the Century. The bike came in both road and mountainbike versions and had carbon overlain aluminium front triangle tubing with aluminium lugs and rear triangle. The lugs were plated with 14 karat gold.

MTB models

RidgeRunner

Elevation 2,000

Elevation 5,000

Elevation 7,000

Elevation 8,000

Elevation 10,000

Elevation 12,000

Century

Miyata Team 'Greg Herbold' signature edition

Road models

Team Miyata

Aero Miyata

Pro Miyata