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Signature is Koga-Miyata’s custom build system, and it’s very clever - you order a bike from a massive online selection of frames, forks, gears, brakes, luggage options, lighting and accessories, and Koga hand-build it for you - you can even have your name on the bike!

It was a Koga Signature that Mark Beaumont picked to use for his record-breaking ‘round-the-world cycle ride - a Rohloff-equipped Signature took Mark over 18,000 miles in 194 days. He’s now using another Signature to travel the length of the Americas.

Once you’ve placed your provisional order with Koga, the order is copied to me - I’ll then get in touch to sort out payment and the like, and give Koga the go-ahead to start building your bike, which takes about 4 weeks on average. For more info, see http://www.koga-signature.com

A visit to Koga’s factory: A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to visit Koga’s factory in Holland to see how they assemble all their bikes, including Signatures. It’s very different to most other bike factories - there’s no assembly line, for a start. Each bike is built completely by one mechanic, who is very skilled and has gone through years of apprenticeship at Koga.
The first stage is the parts pick - the mechanic receives a build order (your Signature order) and goes to a giant parts robot - this machine is about three stories high. The order number is typed in, and a few seconds later the robot delivers a plastic tray containing all the parts needed to build the bike.
The mechanic then builds the bike from scratch in is own build bay, and signs the tag attached to the bike - you can see who put your bike together. To keep quality high, random bikes are selected from each mechanic and checked - any problems are sorted of course, but more importantly the mechanic can be told off ;-)
This system means that it takes a bit longer to build each bike, but it means one highly skilled person is responsible for it, instead of a line of people who only know one job.

The Important Small Print: All of this website is ©1995-2010 by Kinetics. Don't even think of pinching bits without asking. All prices, specifications and other information are subject to change without notice. I do my best to keep this site correct, but sometimes I get things wrong, and sometimes things change very quickly so I cannot keep up.