Eurobike 2012: Kona Bikes

Kona always puts on a show at Eurobike, with a big, themed booth every year. Last year was a Native American theme, so it seemed logical that this year would have a Wild-West saloon kind of vibe going on. Lining the saloon walls was a huge number of new and revamped Kona bikes. Luckily we had a guide…

Let’s start with the Process DL. This is a bike that Kona reckons should find favour with the gravity enduro style of ride. It’s a 150mm bike with a 160mm fork and should be ready to go out of the box. It comes with a Lyrik fork (with Two-Step for climbing), a chainstay-mounted front mech to keep shifting under duress and a double and bash-ring transmission. 66° and 73.4° angles and there’s even a Stealth Reverb post. There’s a 60mm stem and 785mm bars – basically, it’s how a bike would probably be after a year of riding and upgrading, only new and without the wear and tear.
It’ll be £4399 for the complete bike with the downspecced Process coming in at £2599.

 

 

 

This here is the Operator. Not really what most of us here ride as daily drivers, but if you’re after a bit of downhill fun, this is probably one of the cheapest ready-to-race DH bikes we’ve seen. It’s £2399 as you see it, with Boxxers, Avid Codes and even 2.4 High Rollers. So, how about that Fort William Endurance 6hr that you promised you’d do after reading this month’s issue of Singletrack?

The Kona Honzo is Kona’s fun, slack and gnarly cro-mo 29er. With a 1×10 set up, 760mm bars, Revelation 120 fork and and low BB, it now gets a better standover for 2013, plus 142mm Maxle dropouts.  It’ll be £1599.

 

We’re hoping to get one of these in soon: a Kona Satori. Basically it’s a long travel 29er bike with a 140mm fork and 130mm rear suspension with 142mm Maxle, tapered head tube and Crank Bros dropper post. Kona claims it climbs like an XC bike, but descends like a downhiller.

The Kona Unit has been in the range for years now and shows no sign of going anywhere. It was one of the first ever production singlespeed bikes back in the ’90s and has been pepped up with a big head tube and a raw steel frame finish.

 

The Kona Hei Hei Supreme is ‘the fastest cross country bike we’ve ever made’ according to Kona. 29in wheels, 100mm front and rear, carbon frame and all the bells and whistles. You still need to add the speed yourself though. £3899

Kona’s Cinder Cone (and indeed Fire Mountain) has always been in the range as a great intro to mountain biking. This year’s one continues that tradition and is £899.

 

This is the bike that almost makes it worth having children for – the Kona Stinky 24. A 24in wheeled mini freeride beast. It’ll cost you £1399, but that’s cheaper than the kids getting into motor go karting, right?

Kona’s Abracadabra has had a major makeover for 2013. This is its bike that ‘climbs like a 4in race bike, but descends like a 6in trail bike’. For 2013, Kona has done away with the frankly cobbled-together-looking coil spring that made up the secondary suspension system and replaced it with a tiny air shock. This saves weight, plus it gives the system some rebound damping at last. £4399.

 

And finally, the Tanuki – it’s a £1299 ‘what more do you need?’ kind of full suspension bike. 130/130mm, 26in wheels (with Ardents) and a Sektor fork. An all round good base for starting in the world of full suspension.

We mentioned that Kona likes to do things a little differently. Their staff were all wearing their best Western wear clothing. Quite tellingly, most of the time, they already had the boots, shirts and hats… So that’s what they do in their time off. Kona Rodeo anyone?

 

 

There are many other Kona mountain bikes in the range, plus road, utility and cyclocross. We’ve covered some of those in our skinny wheel story.

For the rest of the range, look at konaworld.com

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