Giants are actually the offspring of the Koga. In "86 Koga
merged with Myata and created Giant which is now made
in Japan,Taiwan, & the Netherlands, also mainland China
I believe. The '86 Koga mtn. bike was the 1st purpose-
bilt civilian mtn. bike made in Europe. It was a hodge-podge
of Dutch, German, Japanese, and Taiwanese parts with
absurdly over-engineered German brakes with way to many
parts that could never work well. I know this because
that's the one I have. The frame is bomb-proof.
Thanks rawly We do have some Giant bikes over here.. even remember hearing of Koga.. I don't mind Taiwanese, they can do the building as wll as anyone it's all about quality control.. All the Specialised bikes bar the very very top end are Taiwanese and it works out great for the rider beause they have their quality control sorted. Still, most companies only make a steel or cro-mo frame at the very bottom of their consumer range, and I see very few of the big brands' bottom end bikes (and I "bisected" my old GT, my first MTB in 1994 lol).
It just seems I'm living in a world flooded with "china steel" pop-to-the-shops catalogue-store bikes that aren't safe to ride as pedal-bicycles, never mind upgrading to motor-assisted. Saw one such bike for sale today, it had toptube-headtube mitring done apparantly with a hacksaw.. serious divots visible
outside the weld.. then of course the matter of the welded 3-piece quill stem.. those are known to crack dropping off kerbs etc. eek! Even a lot of the alloy frames have the 3-piece quill stem since the undiscerning cager has no idea what bit is important, and they just want "aluminium" because they think it's good. I definitely do know I can get a quill stem that's not a welded job, but it's cost and the whole idea of building onto a less than ideal frame is not appealing to say the least..
I just see it like a person with brittle bone desease taking up weightlifting. I need to find a good skeleton while I'm still totalling up my build costs and haven't committed to the whole motorising deal.
If I could find any '86 bike in good condition I'd be amazed as no one seems to value the bicycle these days.. world of cagers only want to ride once a year I guess... *shakes my head and mutters at the world*
Anyway, sorry for my total pessimism haha I'm a glass half empty man today I guess.. bad flu (as if I'm not always like this). Thanks for your input. I'll go and Goggle your Koga bike now.
Does it have a model name?