Miyata - History and Today

History and Today

Miyata was founded by Eisuke Miyata, a gunsmith employed by the Hitachi Kuni Kasama Clan. Miyata built Japan's first conventional, modern bicycle at the Miyata Gun Factory in 1892. He recognized the future of gun manufacturing in Japan was not strong, and got the idea for a new bike design after being asked by a foreigner to repair a conventional bicycle. Unlike modern-day bicycles, it was built from proprietary tubing in the same factory where guns were made. The tubing was bored out lengthwise using a round steel rod, mean the inside of the tube is rifled like a gun barrel. Many say Miyata pioneered triple butting, and revolutionized frame building techniques. The first Miyata’s were bolt-upright town bikes. Over the decades, Miyata established a good foothold in the bicycle market, becoming contracted by multiple local brands to build their bicycles and ultimately attracting Panasonic Corporation to become a shareholder in 1959.

Panasonic Corporation, for a period the manufacturer of National and Panasonic brand bicycles, had been Miyata's largest shareholder since its 1959, selling its remaining stake in Miyata in 2008.

The Miyata brand still exists and, while it is no longer distributed in the United States, it remains popular in Europe under the Dutch "Koga-Miyata" brand. As of 2008, there is limited availability of Koga-Miyata bicycles in North America.

Koga Miyata was a joint project. By A. Gaastra (Koga) and Miyata. The bikes are built in the Netherlands.

Koga-Miyata is a Dutch bicycle manufacturer, established in Heerenveen. Koga Miyata is nowadays part of the Accell Group. In the early seventies the company was established by mr. A. Gaastra. The additive Miyata came of the Japanese frame builder, with whom Gaastra cooperated.

Miyata has since reworked and reopened the Japanese factory but on a much smaller scale. Using the frame that won the a L’Alpe-d’Huez stage in the 1981 TDF, you can now special order a "new" hand build steel frame.