Kona Surprises With The Return Of The All-New 2019 Satori Full Suspension Mountain Bike

The Satori has been out of the Kona range for a few years now, but has been relaunched today in an all-new guise. Sitting between the Kona Hei Hei – one of Wil’s favourite products of 2017 – and the Kona Process, the new Satori will offer riders a longer travel XC/trail/long distance mountain bike that we suspect is going to be of particular interest to a broad range of riders.

Based around 29in wheels, the Satori is essentially a big-wheeled version of the Hei Hei Trail. It’s got a similar four-bar suspension layout, with loads of room in the mainframe for a water bottle and/or a frame bag for those chasing longer distance miles.

Featuring a 140mm travel fork paired to 130mm of rear travel, the Satori will suit the kind of trail riding that many of us do – not breakneck downhill tech, but not breakneck XC speed either. Just normal race your mates and messing about type riding, with the potential to hit drops, but still cover the miles. The parts specification reflects the Satori’s technical trail intentions, with capable 2.3in wide Maxxis rubber, 29mm wide (internal) WTB alloy rims, 1x drivetrains and dropper posts providing all the mod-cons for a trail bike in 2018.

There will be two models for the new Satori range:

Kona Satori DL – £3,199

• Frame Material: Kona 6061 Aluminum Butted
• Wheels: WTB STP i29 TCS 29”
• Suspension Platform: Fuse
• Front/Rear Suspension: 140mm/130mm
• Rear Shock: RockShox Deluxe RL DebonAir Trunnion
• Fork: RockShox Revelation RC Solo Air 140mm
• Crankset: SRAM Descendant 6K
• Drivetrain: SRAM GX-Eagle 12spd
• Brakes: SRAM Guide R with 180mm front / 160 rear rotor
• Seat Post: RockShox Reverb w/Plunger Lever
• Cockpit: Kona 35mm Bar/ Kona XC/BC 35 Stem with Kona Lock-on Key Grip
• Front Tyre: Maxxis Minion DHF TR DUAL 29×2.3
• Rear Tyre: Maxxis Tomahawk TR DUAL 29×2.3
• Saddle: WTB Volt Comp

Kona Satori – £2,499

• Frame Material: Kona 6061 Aluminum Butted
• Wheels: WTB STP i29 TCS 29”
• Suspension Platform: Fuse
• Front/Rear Suspension: 140mm/130mm
• Rear Shock: RockShox Deluxe RL DebonAir Trunnion
• Fork: RockShox Recon Gold RL Solo Air 140mm
• Crankset: RaceFace Aeffect
• Drivetrain: Shimano Deore 10spd
• Brakes: Shimano Hydraulic with 180mm front / 160 rear rotor
• Seat Post: Trans-X Dropper Internal
• Cockpit: Kona 35mm Bar/ Kona XC/BC 35 Stem with Kona Lock-on Key Grip
• Front Tyre: Maxxis Minion DHF TR DUAL 29×2.3
• Rear Tyre: Maxxis Tomahawk TR DUAL 29×2.3
• Saddle: WTB Volt Sport SE

The Satori models are both built around the same hydroformed alloy frame, along with a new Trunnion-mounted Metric rear shock. The spec is on-point, with even the base model being designed to give a straight out the box ready-to-ride package. The marketing material reads:

‘Don’t call it a comeback… The 2019 Satori is the best of both worlds old and new. On a five-year hiatus, the Satori reinvents itself in the best way possible. Our original longer-travel 29er, the new Satori has heritage derived from the Process, the Hei Hei, and the Hei Hei Trail. With updated geometry, longer reach, a shorter stem, and a trunnion shock, the Satori is as awesome as it was before, only with the benefit of a time warp. 140/130 travel, FUSE suspension, and all the goodies, it’s the ultimate all around machine.’

Geometry

With a 68° head angle and 450mm reach in a medium, the head angle stays the same as the previous model, but the reach in a medium is now almost as long as in the old 22inch frame/XL equivalent – so things are longer but not slacker.

	S	M	L	XL
1. STL	370	420	470	530
2. TTL	550	577	605	642
3. Reach	425	450	475	510
4. Stack	609	618	627	637
5. SO	726	763	763	783
6. HTA	68	68	68	68
7. HTL	95	105	115	125
8. STA	78.4	78.4	78.3	78.3
9. CSL	430	430	430	430
10. BBD	29	29	29	29
11. BBH	339	339	339	339
12. WB	1143	1172	1201	1240
13. FC	715	744	772	811
14. FL	551	551	551	551
15. OF	51	51	51	51

While the Kona Process is the bike that gets most of the attention from media and Instagram shredders, this new Satori appears to be a more modestly priced and modestly featured bike that’s likely to appeal to those who don’t necessarily want to exit every single corner in a shower of loam kicked up by their rear wheel, but rather those who would prefer to go on a 4-hour exploration mission on a variety of trail surfaces. As to how it rides? We have no idea, but we’re hoping to get a closer look at one very soon, so stay tuned for more information as we get it.

For more information, make your way to the Kona website for the nitty gritty details.

But enough about that – what do you think of the new Satori? Is this the trail bike you’ve been looking for?

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