My bikes (2022)

Currently, I have two bikes. A road bike and a trekking bike. It’s my pleasure to introduce them to you.

Koga Kimera Premium Beat

The road bike is a Koga Kimera Premium Beat. A full carbon bike, black with blue accents. Well, Koga says it’s blue. Maybe I am a little colour blind, but I don’t see blue. I see green.

This bike is assembled with Shimano Ultregra with mechanical shifting, and disc brakes. It’s the same bike, BEAT Cycling – a UCI Pro-Continental team – rides on. Their kit uses the same blue/green.

I ordered this bike October 15, 2020. Delivery was scheduled for week 27 in 2021! It was actually delivered to me August 28, 2021. Yep, it took Koga 45 weeks to make that bike. As I understood from the updates from my bike shop, mainly because of delivery problems with Shimano.

Covid was a big disrupter here too. The entire supply chain scaled the production down – voluntarily anticipating a decline in demand, or forced by outbreaks – while more people than ever started cycling.

Anyway, I am happy with this bike. I use this bike the year round. Generally, I ride three times a week with the Kimera. On Tuesday and Thursday, I ride an hour before work. And on Sunday, sometimes on Saturday, I make a longer trip with it.

And I use it for bikepacking, of course.

Koga GrandTourer S

The Koga GrandTourer S is a pine green, full aluminium trekking bike. The GrandTourer is equipped with Shimano Deore T6000 and Magura hydraulic rim brakes.

Initially, I was considering a carbon fork, but apparently, carbon forks are not advised when you are planning to make tours with low riders.

I ordered this bike February 29, 2021. Delivery would take 4 weeks. Referring to the issues with the Kimera I was quite sceptic about that term. And yes, it took longer, two weeks longer.

March 26, shortly after my birthday, I received the bike. I was so happy, I took a day off and cycled to an outdoor shop in Breda. That was a nice maiden journey.

The ‘S’, by the way, refers to Signature. Koga allows you to assemble the Signature bikes yourself from a number of options. And you can have your name, or your life spell, written down in the top tube.

That signature is of course not the reason why I picked that bike. I didn’t like the ‘ordinary’ GrandTourer for two reasons; I didn’t like the blue/orange colours of the bike, and it had a much longer delivery term than the Signature version.

The GrandTourer is my bike for commuting, shopping, and bicycle touring.

Why two Koga bikes?

Most bike brands design their own frames, have those produced somewhere, and assemble them with a Shimano, Campagnolo, or SRAM groupset. Koga too. So, why Koga?

In 2017, when I wanted to pick up road cycling again, I purchased a second hand Koga Team Carbon Edition, assembled with Shimano 105. This was my first carbon bike, and I liked it. I rode about 18,000 km on that bike.

Koga used to sponsor the Skill Shimano cycling team, nowadays, they sponsor BEAT cycling, the Dutch team does well in track cycling on Koga bikes, and Mark Beaumont was able to break records on Kogas.

Hence, Koga makes great bikes. It’s a Dutch producer owned by Accell Group. And yes, I am a bit chauvinistic.

But the most important reason for buying Kogas, is that I wanted to buy my new bikes from my local bike shop.

Buying a bike is easy. There are enough web shops where you can get bikes for very keen prices. A bike requires maintenance, though. My bikes are serviced by Van Oord in Raamsdonksveer, I guess since 2005.

And I think they do a great job. Not only are they technically well versed, I also have the feeling that they put the customer first and think along proactively. That is why I wanted to purchase my new bikes from them.

When it comes to road bikes, Van Oord offers two brands; Koga and Jan Janssen. Both brands have their pros and cons. After careful considerations, I opted for a Koga.

With regard to the trekking bike, I could choose from Koga, Batavus – also part of the Access Group – and Gazelle. My previous trekking bike was a Batavus Kayenta. I rode that bike for 15 years, without any failures.

In my opinion, however, Koga is the better choice. So, it had to be a Koga.

That is how I ended up with two Koga. And so far, without regrets!