1990 Koga-Miyata World Traveller

[mr_gumby]

Hello everyone!

A regular customer of the bike shop where I work is selling his Koga-Miyata World Traveller touring bike. According to his rather vague descriptions, it is a 1990/1 model; anyways, he's bringing the bike tomorrow. I've been looking for a decent touring bike frame within my budget for quite a while now and this seems like an opportunity. I don't know the frame height yet, but I hope it's going to be 55cm max.

Even though this is not exactly a "road bike", I thought I might find some competent advice here. How much should I reasonably be prepared to pay if the frame/rest of the bike is in decent shape? Those frames seem to be sought after and I suspect that it'll be something around GBP 260 / € 300.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,

-Dan

 

[hamster]

I would think £200-300 sounds right. They are fairly sought after, are great for handling big loads over rough terrain. Unladen they handle like trucks and are pretty dull to ride.

 

[mr_gumby]

Re:

Thanks for your input - high load capacity is exactly what I am looking for!
From what I gather from pictures online, those frames seem to be quite long as well.

 

[Jamiedyer]

I would think that is a very fair price.
They are great machines and one of the very very few machines I regret ever letting go. I had a new old stack frame and had the full build donor parts taken from a Koga randonnuer, racks, everything.
These frames come standard with the dyno wires already in the frame and ready to go. Finest quality build and just beautiful. I loved it but unfortunately once I got it built it was too big, which, I knew it would be at my outer edge size wise I just had to try. It was just a bit too big to safely have it fully loaded and used in anger. As well as being tall it was also quite long. It was a long time ago and I thought I might still grow a bit.
I sold it a long time back to a gentleman in Canada, along with everything that went with it, except the XT groupset and the Axa lock that I still have. The day I sold it I ordered my Long Haul Trucker and I love my Trucker but for sheer class and old school 700c tourer, I still wish I had that Koga. This frame second hand paid for my new Trucker, they are very well thought of.
So after that long rambling reminiscing sentimental post, I say buy it, buy it, ride it, and don't look back

Jamie

Class all round
DSC_1298 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr

Dyno wires front and rear
DSC_1297 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr

So much niceness The covered mount on the back of the seat tube is a downtube lever mount for mounting the lever to pull the Dyno on.
DSC_1291 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr

Here is the Randoneur that the bits for mine came from, all except the groupset. Mine came from Mel in Holland who found a small NOS frame on his travels and thought of me.
4866430334_cd74051b66_b by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr

 

[mr_gumby]

Re:

Good morning Jamie,

those pictures look familiar - when I googled the frame the other day, those came right up - I just love the details. And from what you say it might well be the perfect frame for me. Let's just hope the height is right.
In case it fits, I'll keep that last sentence in mind when my negotiation strategies fail

-Dan

 

[nnc283]

Re: Re:

Thanks for your input - high load capacity is exactly what I am looking for!
From what I gather from pictures online, those frames seem to be quite long as well.

The reason the frames are long is they were designed for flat bars, if that isn't stating the obvious. Even with a short stem you might struggle to get a good position with drop bars, IIRC the complete bikes had very short stems even with flats. I suppose this typifies the Dutch approach to a touring bike, at least in that era.

 

[hamster]

Good point on length. A significant reason was to get a long wheelbase for stability and docile handling when loaded.

 

[mr_gumby]

Re:

Ah, the guy cancelled :facepalm: . Hopefully he'll make up his mind. What a disappointment.

 

[Jamiedyer]

Hopefully he'll come back to you.
The Traveler is long as has been mentioned but it's only slightly longer than the Randonneur, if any and I had a drop bar with a short stem. I usually use a short stem anyway but this was a 70mm rather than my usual 90mm. Super stable loaded and unloaded, but like all nice touring/randonnuer machines, the beauty is only appreciated when you have a load, large or small and don't notice anything different.


Jamie