kona bass 2008,just bought one complete for a bargain price to strip and build into a short travel heavy duty all rounder on a diet.

im ditching the heavy fork,wheels,bar and stem ect for what feel like half the weight (or there abouts)

anyone turnerd a kona bass (or knoa cowan ds) as they are the same … into a trail machine????

Yep, had a couple of DS's, both singlespeed with 100mm Vanilla forks – cracking little bikes. Not particularly lightweight builds but weighed around 30lbs iirc. If I still had either now I'd run a little more travel up front.

ah.. i have actually got those there images on my laptop already…google images is a wonderful if slightly scary thing….
great looking bikes tho!!
i think the forks are the key.. was gonna do float 36 r's reduced to 120mm
carbon mrp and tubeless wheel set,and fit my thomson bits bla bla..single ply high rollers ect. id be chuffed to get it to sub 30lbs
got no idea what the frame actually weighs tho….
is it just me or is a 100-120mm light-ISH..speed sensitive trail fork bloody hard to buy of the peg nowadays (with a 20mm axle of course)!

Reckon 120mm up front would be pretty good – I did run 130mm Drop Offs very briefly on the second DS. What about Pikes?

mamadirt i'm working on a similar project to jae. Part of the reason was because I felt the front of my chameleon to high, I was going to drop the forks to 100mm. why would you go for more travel, any specific reasons or just personal pref?

oh and yes jae its trouble getting hold of nice short travel none dirt jump forks, rockshox u turn forks are an option.

im a fan of revelation u turns but are horribly expensive for 2010
i have a set or dj1's which came as the bike and am tempted to ask windwave if they can supply an rc2 damper kit to turn the buggers into more than a one hit wonder
i stupidly sold a pike u turn earlier this year which would have been amazing…but i have always been hankering after a big fat fork reduced in travel….my mate and i custom reduced a first generation marzocchi 66 to 100mm it was amazing..fitted the bike but still 6lbs+ and was still just a lump with less travel.

Just personal preference Tails – love d/h but I'm not the world's best so a slightly slacker head angle helps loads. Plenty of low riser bars around now to keep the front end low too.

well i'll prob drop them to 110mm as i only have 30mm worth of spacers, run them with zero sag set up firm. thanks for the quick reply. you can pick up second hand pikes/revs/rebas very cheap at the mo