New bike. 1997 Kona refurb with new kit. Pic Heavy.

Was looking for something completely different to my 150mm Full Susser!

Picked up the frame out of the classifieds a few months ago cheers Monty.

Collected a few bits since then, got started on Saturday night.

Hope headset, XT 770 cranks with Middleburn Rings

Fox F120’s, Thomson X4, Easton Carbon Monkeybars.

Some more XT 770, X-Fusion Hilo and a Salsa clamp. 317s on Average hubs. Some Hope on the way soon.

XTR Discs… I forgot how much of a pain IS mounts are!

Bit of tweaking, finishing kit and Indexing. All done!

Cheers.

Thats lovely! cant beat an old steel Kona.

Is that a real antler on the hearth?

Cheers Yeah it is, it wasn’t the best when my mate found it. The good set are on the wall.

Corrr – that’s very nice. Enjoy!

yeah – lovely, well done:-)

Nice, I’d do something like that with mine if it didn’t have a 1″ headtube.

😕

Where did you have the mount welded on?

Thanks. I bought the frame like that but I’d been done by Argos. Great job too. Seat tube was reamed out to 27.2 by Northwest MTB.

No chance of any 1″ forks… or a Lefty adapter?

I like that 8)

Despite my thoughts on fork travel expressed in the other thread that looks sweet. I take it the fork is in 120mm mode?

Makes me think about removing some spacers from my 90mm Reba now …… 😆

Not many Konas were 1″ My 1992 Cindercone isn’t is yours earlier than that?

Looks lovely. Glad you kept the red.

Cheers.

Despite my thoughts on fork travel expressed in the other thread that looks sweet. I take it the fork is in 120mm mode?

I left it at 120mm, doesn’t feel overly slack to be honest. Our possibly duff angle meter at work is saying it’s head tube is around 67-68ish.

Makes me think about removing some spacers from my 90mm Reba now

Do it!

Pleased with the red, glad I didn’t change it too.

Like that ! Looks good left red too.

I’ve just resurrected a 1996 steel Rockhopper which a friend kindly gave me and left the frame in it’s now heavy “patina” grey paint. I’m riding it already, although really, for full effect, I still need to sort new pedals, saddle, bars stem and grips, but coming together well. Despite the fact I’d promised myself I wouldn’t make it attractive to the oiks, as it was just intended to be a hack / pub ride, I’ve inevitably become a bit over obsessed by it. How does this happen ?
I even took it for a ride in the forest last night to see if 100mm Vanilla fork worked, it did from a geometry point of view, even if as a fork, it’s about as refined as dung. Steel frame felt nice though.
Looks like I’ll have to build another unattractive heap to go to the pub on.

Looks lovely. Surprise its OK with 120 forks though, and ’97 vintage with disc mounts?

That’s definitely an Argos job on the rear disc mount, identical to mine:

I’ve got 100mm Floats on mine and it rides perfectly fine and even handles quicker than my Heckler. I’ve just put some Exotic carbon rigids on it and it’s now super light and super quick – if I didn’t know, I would not have known it was 16 years old!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/1450110_10152031220759839_2069179093_n.jpg

Sorry, last photo didn’t link properly:

Very nice looking bike there. Need to get mine on the go soon. FYI Kona never changed the geometry of their xc hardtails till around 2004 (from 1994). All they did was shorten their stems so a 100mm fork shouldn’t be an issue at all.

Bike looks great Wozza – lovely job 😀

looks real nice 😉

That looks very nice. I would like to do something like that to my old 1999 Kona explosif

Not many Konas were 1″ My 1992 Cindercone isn’t is yours earlier than that?

I think anything below a Lava Dome was 1″.

red looks great, not sure on the 120mm travel myself, id be going for 100mm myself.

considered going 1×10?

RN my 1996 Voodoo with 130 forks for a while, 120/100 are best though

I think anything below a Lava Dome was 1″.

Hmm. Don’t think so. I had a 94 Hahannah and I think that was 1 1/8in

Cheers for the replies. Yeah it feels good with 120mm, all be it around the office and warehouse at work. No chance with 1×10, I live in Kendal and don’t have the legs for that!

Nice bike Alpha, love the blue colour.

Dunno if the 1″ comment is aimed at me, mine’s 1″1/8th. I think it’s a Lava Dome or Caldera, I don’t think it’s got any exotic tubing in there.

Turned out that I made it just in time… the back end of my Tracer has just cracked 😥 x 1million.

Nicely done, looks great!

Here’s my 1995 Kona in it’s older build:

And in it’s current build, lives at work for lunchtime rides now:

Nice bike, I always regret selling my vintage 853 steel Explosif, although I know where it is!

NICE!!! That looks brilliant.

Lovely looking bikes there, lads.

Here’s mine, 1993 Explosif:

Kevhl: pretty sure I used your original build as a reference point on Retrobike when I was building mine.

Wozza: have a look at the seat and chain stays if you’re not sure if it’s a Lava Dome (same frame as a Cinder Cone I think for some reason) or a Caldera. If the seat/chain stay to drop outs are like this then it’s a Caldera (compliments to letmetalktomark!)

I have some 120 forks and a 93 cinder cone…

Would it be wrong to put a disc tab & sliding dropouts on it for its 21st birthday?

Not many Konas were 1″ My 1992 Cindercone isn’t is yours earlier than that?

it’s this

I’ve always thought it was a 1″, is it not?

Podge: are you riding it at the moment? It’s not cheap to get the work done properly – getting a disc tab and a few cable guides cost about £150 I seem to remember, plus then a paint job on top. Before you do anything, have a look at retrobike.co.uk for inspiration.

Love your bike OP and your Cindercone Kevhl

absolutely horrible 😉 i will be more than happy to take it and destroy it for you 🙂

These look nice and prompt me to think about resurrecting my 94 Cinder Cone.

That came with a 1″ fork

will the headtube be strong enough for the leverage created by a 120mm fork?

I always though you ran the risk of tearing them off……