The Frame!

The Miyata frame. The third time is the charm. Miyata is a large and respected Japanese company that makes, uh, fire extinguishers and bicycles. Really. Best I can tell from their very Japanese looking website, they also make blue skies and puffy clouds.

Miyata makes quality bikes and frames that aren’t very well known by the general public. Since my SAT still had analogies, maybe I can put it like this: Miyata is to bikes as Au Bon Pain is to sandwiches; or Miyata is to bikes as the Gap is the T-shirts; or Miyata is to bikes as Starbucks is to coffee; or Miyata is to bikes as ATT was to phone manufacturing.

Perhaps no one will compliment you for your original consumer choice in buying a Miyata, but at some base level, it's a quality product (And there is an upper-end Miyata called Koga-Miyata designed and put together by some cute man in Holland).

I bought this frame on e-bay and should get it in a few days. Including shipping, it cost $108. I was hoping for less, but I still think it’s a bargain.

And Miyata’s Japanese promotional video (in Japanese) is strangely entrancing. It’s got a cute Japanese girl, infomercial production value, and a driving rock soundtrack! Why does all Japanese sound to me like it comes from the Iron Chef?