Miyata was founded by a Japanese gunsmith in 1892 who, thankfully, realized that bicycles were a more sustainable industry. It is now a Dutch joint venture, Koga-Miyata, with all bikes created in the Netherlands. The Miyata Century, “essentially a pimped-up version of the Koga-Miyata Skyrunner”, was a limited edition built to commemorate 100 years of bicycle manufacture.
This Century is in the possession of a Swede, Ragnar Jensen, who managed to acquire one of two brought into Sweden from what was then the country’s largest Miyata dealer. He bought it new in 1990.
After a couple of years he replaced the original Tange Hi-Ten fork with Rock Shox Mag 20 suspension and upgraded the brakes to Shimano XTR calipers but has since restored it to its original spec. The frame is carbon fiber with gold plated alloy head tube, bottom bracket shell, seat cluster and dropouts. That’s a special edition Turbo saddle that also has gold plated accents.
Massive thanks to Ragnar Jensen. Head over to his flickr stream for more detail shots and while you’re there, have a look at his Chesini X-Uno, which is another work of art…
