2009 dew drop or 2008 kona jake price difference negligible. To be used for a mix of back roads, gravel roads, LRTs and some smoothish singletrack. Like the dew drops disc brakes, but have never used bb7s, think the jake has overall better spec but I like square taper bottom brackets! Input from the stw collective appreciated.

The BB7s are ideal for that sort of riding – I have them on my ’06 Kona Sutra which is basically a steel-framed Dew Drop. In fact, if I didn’t already have the Sutra, that Dew Drop would be a “buy” for me.

I had a Jake and sold it because I couldn’t get on with the riding position and the canti brakes (being a bit of a biffer!). If I was to get another drop bar bike it would be the Dew or the slightly more expensive Genesis Croix de Fer for the more relaxed riding position and disk brakes.

Personally I’d go with the dew for the discs (another sutra owner here)but the 8 speed gears on the dew are where the corners have been cut to meet the budget. I find with my sutra (mainly 105 speed kit) that the gears have massive gaps and overlaps due to the fact that the chainset is a roadie job and the cassette is mtb.

my jake has ridden round new zealand ….3200kms with only the front tire being moved to the rear cause it wore out …

it came 13th in an XC race of 711 people….it carrys 25kg+kit every day…and it needs a new drive train as its worn….but it just keeps on trucking … no need for disks …if it can stop 168kg of me plus 25kg of kit …..they are perfectly adaquate !

ridden around 10,000 miles on a jake the snake, mix of commuting, off road rides and even a sportive. I love it. I am thinking of putting a disc on the front though, as braking on busy roads in the rain when commuting can be a bit dicey.

I had similar thoughts… also was checking out the kona honky tonk… I’d refer you back to teh earlier arguement of “why discs on a road bike”. I bought a jake the snake and the canti’s are more than enough stopping power… you have to remember that you just don’t need the same quality of breaking for roadbikes!

Thanks all. Some interesting comments there. The bike won’t just be used on roads hence the draw towards discs. I also have an old XT 4 bolt mtb square taper chainset that I could swap out for the road one and to reduce the gaps and overlaps if they appear. That said the cantis do have an appeal. Decisions decisions!

I have a 2006 Jake the Snake, which is great. I only really use it for commuting these days (originally bought to get be back on the road, with a bit of dirt-track, after breaking my ankle). Considering selling to make space – let me know if you’re interested. It’s this one:
http://www.konabikes.co.uk/2k6bikes/jake_snake_2k6.php

Cheers,
Nick

nick[at]nickbarnett[dot]com

Cheers Nick, if it was a triple (Jake) I would have been.

if you need lower gears than the jake provides ……MTFU …

its got an 11;28 and a 30-38-50 on the front ! 30:28 you could ride up a wall !!!

Correct me if I’m wrong but the Dew is an upgraded commuter while the Jake has a cyclocross pedigree. I owned a Jake TS once over but couldn’t cope with the brake / gear lever combo thang, too roadfied. Light & and strong as F though.

But anyways, cyclo trumps commuter so the choice is clear, put some risers on it and you have the perfect bike in theory. With a Dew you’d always be worried about pushing its limits while the Jake would have none.

gtkid – what did you eventually go for?

For me, the discs would be a deal-maker. And that stuff about the ‘pedigree’ or the ‘limits’ of the Dew is nonsense. It’s strong enough, and it handles well. I’ve got a Dew which I’ve off-roaded.

the reason i’m asking is that i’ve the same choice to make. Fancy doing a bit of Road Riding on which ever I chose and not to fussed on riding off-road on it.

Although Bike would be mainly used for my daily commute along gravel paths, country lanes and some cycle paths.

Bike also need suitable clearnace to run spiked tires in Winter.

Can’t decide which would be better suited…

I bought a dew plus recently and put bull horn bars on it for my commuter.
I singlespeedededed it too, but the cassette was weird, had a massive jump to the big cog at 34T, the next biggest looked about 26 or something!

Seemed pretty cheap from Evans.

That’s the Mega Range thing Shimano put on their cheap groups.