kona satori

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

by 6

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.

Satori DL
Fresh Goods Friday 694 - Why UK fro...
Latest Singletrack Videos
Satori

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

Satori DL
  • 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
Not quite a complete SRAM Eagle groupset.

Kona Satori – £2,499

Satori
  • 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
A big over-the-bar remote to activate the dropper post.

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.’

New shock set up.
FUSE suspension.

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.

Kona Satori
Geometry – Kona Satori
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
External cabling will please home fettlers.
Which do you fancy? This one…
…or this one?

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?

Author Profile Picture
Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.

More posts from Hannah

Comments (6)

Leave Reply