Blog / Shinobi Miyata
Shinobi Miyata
aka Shadow Dancer
Date23/02/2026
Since a couple of years my interest in cycling has grown quite a bit. I think it started during the pandemic? Back then I started bingewatching Berm Peak videos and shortly after that I bought a second hand 26 inch mountainbike - a black anodized aluminium Cube LTD. Although it was a great introduction to my little bike adventure, when I did my first 50+km ride on it - it kind of felt heavy (small wheels, fat tyres) and stiff. My body wanted to tell me something. Nostalgia emerged and I remembered how my steel nineties Giant (Stonebreaker?) mountainbike felt.. well.. better. So I concluded I needed bigger wheels and a steel frame.
I got interested in more road orientated bikes and hybrids. My interest started to shift from Surly Ogres and Karate Monkeys to bikes more akin to the Surly Midnight Special and Straggler. But because of the price increase of new bikes I didn’t feel I could justify such a hefty price tag for another temporary bike whim. I needed to do some research for myself. Some first hand experience. Try out some things.
So I bought a second hand cobalt blue, early nineties, FM-1 Hardlite steel Koga Miyata GranLux. I loved the Campagnolo shifters and the dropbar on the GranLux, shifting was tight and it was fucking fast. Only the bike tyres made me a tad bit uncomfortable. My first road bike experience - and I just wasn’t a real roadie. I mean you need to up the pressure on a road bike right? I got kind of scared of flats with 28mm tyres. It was a sense of fragility occurring but to be honest I think that has more to do with the fact my previous bikes were all either BMX’s or MTB’s. So I was used to fatter tyres with less feedback from the asphalt.
That’s where a second hand cobalt blue, early nineties, FM-1 Hardlite steel Koga Miyata Terraliner came in. A hybrid, sturdier, more tyre clearance. Low price. It was the hack on the Fatties Fit Fine Surly option. I also prefer rim brakes instead of disc brakes anyway. So I slapped some 42mm Pirelli Cinturato Gravel H tyres on that one, and although it was still a flatbar bike - it was fast. Didn’t like the shifters though. Also didn’t really like the flatbar aesthetic. So the whole thing started to itch. I wanted something between a road bike and an MTB. The sense of speed I experienced on the GranLux on an overall more solid bike. No mountainbike, no gravelbike, no hybrid. Just a bike I could ride in any circumstance. All road, all era (most modern bike parts are ugly compared to 60s/70s/80s/90s!), all me. All fun.
So bit by bit I acquired bike parts and had a blast tinkering with all contact points to make it suit my needs. While I am at it a big shout out to Ronnie Romance and the xbiking reddit for all the tips and tricks. I even added Campagnolo Ultra Record shifters on a Shimano drivetrain and it works perfectly! Shimergo baby! I love it and I just want to ride it everyday.
Oh boy.. The joy a proper bicycle can bring. Especially if you can adjust it in such a way that it becomes an extension of your own body. The framesize, saddle, handlebars, pedals, shifters.. I mean it still is my main form of transportation especially in Amsterdam.
I dubbed it my Shinobi Miyata aka Shadow Dancer, inspired by my fascination for ninjas during the 80’s. It’s a stealthy bike as it has the Silent Clutch hubs and obviously it comes in a sort of midnight black. The frame is built in Japan and I’ve added some Nitto bar ends for some style points.
The bicycle - it is such a perfect machine. You really can get out of it what you put in.