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KOGA is a Dutch bicycle manufacturer based in Heerenveen, Friesland. The company is known for its long time partnership with Japanese frame manufacturer Miyata, producing bicycles and sponsoring racing teams under the brand name Koga Miyata. As of May 2010 the partnership ended and the company began manufacturing bicycles under the KOGA brand. [1]
The company was founded by Andries Gaastra in 1974, who had left his position at his father's company Batavus. The name Koga is a combination of his surname and that of his wife Marion Kowallik. The addition of Miyata came from the cooperation with Japanese manufacturer Miyata. Koga Miyata relied on Japanese components from manufacturers such as Shimano.
From 1980 Koga Miyata sponsored the IJsboerke cycle team which a year later changed their main sponsor to Capri-Sun. Dutch rider of that team, Peter Winnen, won the 1981 Tour de France 17th stage on the Alpe d'Huez and the white jersey of the best young rider. The next Tour he won the 17th stage towards Morzine, leading to wider recognition. [1] In 1991-1992, Koga Miyata was subsponsor of Tulip Computers and also main sponsor of an amateur team, which would be a good development team for the professionals. [2]
In 1992, Gaastra sold his company to the Atag Cycle Group, which had acquired Batavus six years earlier.
KOGA is now owned by the Accell Group.
Koga Miyata started with the use of Japanese components. The design and assemblage of the bicycles was done by hand in the Netherlands.
At first Koga Miyata only produced racing bicycles. In 1976 they added a range of randonneurs or touring bicycles, and in 1986 mountain bikes. In 1993, after it was acquired by the Atag Cycle Group, Koga Miyata also produced hybrid bicycles.
Koga now produce a range of e-bikes (bicycles with an electrical assist system), city-bikes and racing road-bikes. They have also recently started producing a line of gravel-bikes. Additionally, Koga track-bikes have seen some success in the past decade, with the 'Koga Kinsei' frame claiming a gold medal at the UEC European Track Championships. [3]
Koga bikes are especially known for assembling their bikes by hand, and for "smooth welded" aluminium frames; nearly all Koga bikes have their welds smoothed out before painting. [4]
Some of the early company brochures are publicly available for download. [5]
A summary of the Koga 2023 bicycle-lineup: [6]
The Cannondale Bicycle Corporation is an American division of Dutch conglomerate Pon Holdings that supplies bicycles. Its headquarters are in Wilton, Connecticut, with engineering offices in Freiburg, Germany. Frames are manufactured in Taiwan. Bikes are assembled in Taiwan, as well as in the USA and in The Netherlands for the local markets.
The Schwinn Bicycle Company is an American company that develops, manufactures and markets bicycles under the eponymous brand name. The company was founded by Ignaz Schwinn (1860–1948) in Chicago in 1895. and became the dominant manufacturer of American bicycles. Schwinn first declared bankruptcy in 1992 and was restructured, in 2001 Schwinn again declared bankruptcy and was purchased by Pacific Cycle, now owned by the Dutch conglomerate, Pon Holdings.
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Corine Stam-Dorland was a Dutch amateur "Old School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1981-1996. From 1996 to 2006 she was also an accomplished Mountain Bike (MTB) Cyclo-cross and Road Bike racer. Her nickname during her BMX career was "The Queen of BMX", largely for her nearly unbroken streak of a total of ten World Champions, several European Championships and an almost equal number of National championships from when she was eight years old until she was 21. She was to Holland and European BMX as a whole as Cheri Elliott was to American BMX. Indeed, her career was much longer than Elliott's garnering far more titles on the local, national and international level than her near contemporary American counterpart. Dorland would go on to a respected MTB cross country (XC) racing career. In that sub-discipline Dorland would capture three national titles in MTB and earn a spot on Holland's 2000 Sydney, Australia Olympic team. She also went on to fulfill a prediction that many had made for her in another area. Because of her stunning physical beauty, she was also a model in her adult years concurrent with her MTB career. She appeared in many racing related advertisements. As with Elliott in the United States, many a male BMXer was sad to see her retire from the world of BMX.
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Focus Bikes is a bicycle manufacturer that has its administration in Stuttgart, Germany and production facilities based in Cloppenburg, Germany and builds sport bicycles such as e-bikes, racing bicycles and mountain bicycles.
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BMC Switzerland AG is a Swiss bicycle and cycling product manufacturer based in Grenchen. BMC designs, builds and distributes road bikes, mountain bikes, and commuter bikes primarily for sale to dealers in North America, Europe, South Africa, Australia, East Asia and the United Arab Emirates.
IJsboerke was a Belgian professional cycling team that existed from 1973 to 1982. Its main sponsor from 1973 to 1980 was Belgian ice cream manufacturer IJsboerke. In 1981 and 1982, its main sponsor was juice drink brand Capri-Sun. Walter Godefroot won the 1978 Tour of Flanders with the team.
The Norton Model 88 Dominator, also originally known as the Dominator De Luxe was a 500 cc vertical twin motorcycle manufactured by the British Norton Motorcycle Company from 1952 to 1966. It was the first of Norton's motorcycles to use the featherbed frame, which established Norton's reputation of producing fine handling machines. The 88 used the Bert Hopwood designed engine that was first fitted to the Model 7 and was initially for export only. It became available on the home market in 1953. Norton were a small manufacturer at the time and without the economies of scale the model was expensive compared to other manufacturer's equivalent machines. The 88 retailed for 20% more than the contemporary Triumph Speed Twin and was dearer than the 650 cc Triumph Thunderbird.
Fangio, later known as AD Renting and Tulip Computers, was a Belgian professional cycling team that existed from 1975 to 1992.
