Sometime last Autumn, on a drunken whim, I pressed the BUY button on the great CRC Kona Clearout sale, ending up a few days later with a frame sized cardboard box that sat in my attic for months. Using geological time as a reference I slowly began to stick/bolt bits to the frame. This morning, approaching my second slowest bike build time on record, I got up early at 6am to cut the steerer down and fit the bar tape before riding the beastie into work.

So cheers to various STWers for selling/swapping me the necessary bike bits and thanks to my old 531 road bike for donating the drive chain. Special thanks also to Highpath Engineering for selling the spacers necessary for Campagnolo gears to run on a Shimano cassette.

I’m now looking forwards to pedaling it around Brittany in a week or so on an onroad ‘bikepacking’ jaunt.

Lovely bike, bloody stupid name. My Kona Honky Inc….

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8308384@N06/7935578060/

Nice work, looks like a great bike for long days in the saddle and a spot of cx racing.

That is gorgeous. Want a disc tourer now.

^
This!

DrP

thats lovely. are those ‘big’ tyres?

are those ‘big’ tyres?

They’re 28mm Continental Gatorskins, callously ripped from my 531 Donohue Audax that now lies neglected & rotting at the back of the shed 😈

Do the Campag levers work ok with the mech disc brakes?

Does the spacer kit work well?

Very nice – what fork is that/does it have mudguard eyes/does it still have the top hole for a caliper brake?

Nice looking bike (I like white frames)

I am very very interested in this:

Special thanks also to Highpath Engineering for selling the spacers necessary for Campagnolo gears to run on a Shimano cassette

I’ve been trying to find a way to re-space a SRAM/Shimano 8-speed cassette to work on 8-speed Campag.

I’ve been building up to buying one of these from the States : http://www.bikewagon.com/wheels-manufacturing-camp-sh8-kit-shimano-8-to-campagno

But it looks like Highpath can supply the same thing for half the price?? (When Chris gets back from cycling 3500 miles to raise money for http://cyclistsfc.org.uk/)

If you’re looking for guards for it I can highly recommend these (fitted to an almost identical bike) http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bontrager/ncs-road-mudguards-ec026714
Easy to fit and only required a slight bend around the caliper (instructions have a section for fitting to disc-equipped bikes). Sturdy once on to and plenty of clearance with 28mm GP4seasons.

@bristolbiker – it’s a Kona carbon fork (assuming it’s the original fork that came with the Honky Inc.) and yes has eyelets + caliper hole + a ton of tyre clearance (could run 35’s easy)

@bristolbiker – it’s a Kona carbon fork (assuming it’s the original fork that came with the Honky Inc.) and yes has eyelets + caliper hole + a ton of tyre clearance (could run 35’s easy)

Ah, OK – Running DC19’s on both my disc’ed road bikes – one pair is looking a bit tired, so I’m ‘exploring options’….. criteria are that they have mudguard eyes, and retain the brake hole for fitting dynamo lights to the forks.

Do the Campag levers work ok with the mech disc brakes?

Yes. They’re BB5s and I’ll probaly fine tune them before the ride home this evening. I swapped the original cable outers I fitted for Jagwires as, when testing the brakes in the confines of my loft, there seemed to be some sponginess in the rear brake. I kept the original cables as the Jagwires came with MTB cables 😕

Does the spacer kit work well?

I’ve been trying to find a way to re-space a SRAM/Shimano 8-speed cassette to work on 8-speed Campag.

It seems to. I haven’t actualy indexed the gears yet as they were working almost perfectly from fitting. Once again I’ll do that on the ride home. One problem with the spacers was having to lose one cog (running 8 & not 9) as the Miche casette would not fit on the Shimano freehub when respaced for Campag. I also tried respacing a SRAM MTB casette and that wouldn’t fit. One of these would allow 9 cogs but it costs twice as much.

what fork is that/does it have mudguard eyes/does it still have the top hole for a caliper brake?

The more recent Honky Inc forks are a bit shorter, otherwise you’d need a deep drop caliper brake for the front. The rear should be fine though.

it’s a Kona carbon fork (assuming it’s the original fork that came with the Honky Inc.) and yes has eyelets + caliper hole + a ton of tyre clearance (could run 35’s easy)

35’s would be OK in the front fork but might be tight in the rear.

If you’re looking for guards for it I can highly recommend these (fitted to an almost identical bike)

Cheers, I’ll make a note of that. Can’t afford any guards at the moment and I’m fitting a rack to the rear for my forthcoming adventure. I’ve had to alter a cheap rack ‘borrowed’ from my GFs bike with a big hammer and a drill to shorten the thingummy downward bits as the eyelets are halfway up the seatstays to avoid the disc brake calliper. (I see that more recent models have eyelets on the dropouts)

Cheers for all the positive comments ^^^^^ 🙂

Lovely bike.
I’m about to get a complete Honky Inc but can not decide on the size. I’m 5’10” (178cm) and most of my friends recommend the size 53cm (which has in fact relatively long top tube at 55cm). What do you reckon I should be getting – size 53 or 56? Would be great to hear from you. Cheers!

That is a very nice build!

Nice. Been looking out for a disc-capable road frame to suit my size and shape for some time, but they’re thin on the ground to say the least 🙁

Mine was a 56cm (I’m 5’11”), not sure what the ETT was though. On paper I’d say a 55cm ETT was big enough for you, it’s not really the type of bike you want to be stretched out on

You’re going to Brittany in January for a bike tour? Rather you than me, even in this relatively warm weather for the season, I’m guessing it’ll be quite windy.

Nice build tho (apart from the saddle) 🙂

Oooh very nice. Any breakdown of costs?

Been looking at a complete Kona Honky Inc at Evans, currently £925 in their sale:
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/kona/honky-inc-2012-road-bike-ec034487

You’re going to Brittany in January for a bike tour? Rather you than me….

This thread is 4 months old. I actually went to Brittany in September but ended up taking my trusty old Condor MTB as I became a bit nervous about touring on the Kona when I realised the back wheel only has 24 spokes.

I’m 5’10” (178cm) and most of my friends recommend the size 53cm (which has in fact relatively long top tube at 55cm)

I’m also 5’10” and mine’s a 56cm. I’d of thought that the 53cm would be a bit cramped. My Kona definately has a more upright riding position than any other road bike I’ve owned. So a 56cm for you I reckon.

Oooh very nice. Any breakdown of costs?

I got the frame for around £200 from CRC in a sale and with further discounts. BB5 calipers were also from CRC at £15 per end. I bought the wheels, seatpost, discs and headset off the STW classifieds. Most of the gears and drive chain came off my old roadbike. That’s about the best breakdown of costs I’ve got. That Evans price don’t sound too bad for a new bike.

Also, since I built the bike with Campag gears and a respaced Shimano cassette I’ve now respaced the cogs to Shimano and put a JTEK Shiftmate on the derailleur. The trouble with the respaced cassette was indexing the gears through the entire cassette – I could either get near perfect shifting from one end of the cogs or from the other, not the whole cassette (hope that makes sense). Acceptable for a hack bike or commuter but not for my nice, new all-day-out-on-the-road beastie