Kona Bicycles Winds Down: Brand For Sale: UK Distributor Continues To Import Stock

So apart from a bit of 90’s nostalgia, have they actually made a bike in the last decade that anybody wanted enough to buy?

My 2016-ish Process 111 was excellent, and quite ahead of the game - LLS short travel 29er before that was really a thing.

Yep. 2014 Process 111 relit my MTB passion after dabbling as a Mamil for a while. One of the first mainstream LLS, that plus its 1x and dropper made it all click into place for me.

Need to stop using the misleading euphemism 'let go'.  They are not being 'let' go.  They are being made REDUNDANT.  A loss of a job and income FORCED on staff, not something offered as a kind gesture of good will.

I've previously owned a 2016 Process 111 DL, at the time it was the longest, slackest, best fitting, best handling bike i'd ever owned.

How come so many supposedly financially savvy investors didn’t realise the covid peak was a blip, not the norm?

Most investment/business/financial management is just glorified gambling, Take away the MBAs and most of these clowns would be sat in a betting shop convinced they had a "system" for spotting winners.

It's the difference between chasing profits having bought a company you don't understand, and having some insights into the markets they operate in and recognizing when a situation is unsustainable.

The money bitches ruin everything, short term gain over long term sustainability. Capitalism is doomed, etc... 😞

The Kona Process from 2015 (ish?) was the last innovative/good bike they did I think, chonky frame and build but relatively short travel at 130mm.

They did the burly short travel Process 111 29er, which I had and was amazing.

And the 650b wheeled Process 135 and 153 - I also had the latter and that was brilliant too.

Both pedalled like shit TBH, but were progressive for the time and really well balanced.

My P153 in Finale:

Process 153 you say...

loved that bike, so much fun to ride, it wasnt a great pedaller but I did the Mega, couple of EWS at tweedlove (the 1st one was ridiculously long),

The next Gen Process was much more of an allrounder, but by then everyone was doing progressive geometry

I have a 1997 Lava Dome (semi-retired)

a 2002 Bear D-L (semi-retired)

a 2006  Dew DL that I got rusted to a standstill off ebay and now lives at Euston

a 2013 Dew DL that I use for commuting to the station every day

a 2014 Unit- Used loads for towing kids to nursery, family adventures, long off road treks

a 2018 Process 153 29 - ridden and raced all over the UK, getting a bit old now , but it has an angleset and suspension Ive got just right so seeing no need to change

a 2021 Honzo DL- I ride it more than I thought I would, 2.6 tyres and its insanely capable for a hardtail

That's a decent collection Kimbers, have you considered buying the brand as well?

You'd probably do a better job than the recent owners who ran it into the ground (IMO).

In seriousness, I guess someone will pick up the brand and do a tighter range of gravel & trail bikes, a bit like Marin has been brought back as a credible brand.

This was the planned price list for 23/24, some of these not released yet

I know what bikes Id like them to make, but that doesnt necessarily relate to what turns a profit

Its cool that they make a fatbike like the Woo & Wo, or even the new Ouroboros bikes, but how many do they sell?

^ thats a huge range of bikes. And to think people were laying into Orange (me included) for their range being too confusing... 17 different adult hardtails?!

Seeing as we are doing the rose tinted history lesson - this was my first 'proper' mountain bike, an upgrade when I was about 15 from the various BSO's after months of pleading and saving. Can still remember driving down to JE James and handing over £279.99, and staring for hours at the Marin B17 on the rack.

I went absolutely mad with the upgrades on the bike over the next couple of years - it ended up with Manitou X Vert Pros, Easton bars, Race Face cranks, Mavic D521 rims, Tioga Facotry DH Tyres (rear knobs trimmed off with side cutters to clear the frame), an XT parallel push rear brake and - behold - the very first XT 4pot hydraulic brake on the front (remember those? BR M750?)

Glow in the dark decals too.

And then I got it nicked off me at knife point in Leeds.... I still live in hope that all those enornous stoppies and jumping it off bus shelters were putting the strain on the headtube and that as the perp rode off, it snapped and implaed him to the ground.

thats a huge range of bikes. And to think people were laying into Orange (me included) for their range being too confusing… 17 different adult hardtails?!

That's obviously a big problem, I think some of the models might be due to over ordering in the COVID boom and then not being able to shift them with the glut that followed.

Kona have a bit of a problem, what is their core product? is it quirky/ niche gravel / bike packing models like the unit or snake with iconic P2forks ?  Is it the freeride park bikes like the Stinky's of yesteryear ? and everyone needs some ebikes in their lineup these days

and what do most brands sell the most of, sub £1000 hardtails with budget specs to hit the price point?

Id love to buy the brand of i won the lottery but its a tough market to crack and right now there's some huge discounts on RRP out their,  my local specialized concept store was selling stuff at half price or better, big brands might be able to handle that, but smaller ones ?

So the G3 processes have appeared a year late!

Id like to try the 153 in mx

Video is good too

and RRPs on the new Processes are a fair bit cheaper than they have been for a while

https://www.konaworld.com/en-uk/pages/kona-processg3

Update from the owners....

sadly Thanks to Trump Im looking at a non US brand for my next bike, but its encouraging

Kona Chapter Three – Ten Months Later What an intense time this has been for the bike world! If we start by looking back at the Sea Otter festival last April, most of us will remember the crazy happenings – and here at Kona, we’d like to forget! In the intervening 10 months, we’re very happy to report that the newly re-founded Kona Bicycle Company is well on its way to re-claiming a meaningful place in the world of bikes. When Dan and I raised our hands and said we were up for the challenge, there were so many of you who voiced your encouragement to lift our spirits and let us know that we were making the right call. We cannot express how thankful we are for your dedicated support! The recovery started by bringing back some of the key staff members in product development, marketing, sales and customer support. Many left or were forced to leave Kona during a remarkably difficult period for the bike business and the company. It continues through a renewed interaction with our key suppliers who went out of their way to give us the crucial support we needed. As Kona bike production re-started and fresh new bikes were delivered, we were able to carry that support in the form of aggressively priced product to Kona dealers who remained loyal to our brand. During the first four months, we were finally able to introduce the ground-breaking Ouroboros gravel bike, an entirely new generation of our renowned Process dual suspension MTB’s and release the long awaited Remote dual suspension EMTB platform. At the same time, many of the critical information and customer support features on KonaWorld.com that were abandoned when the focus of the company switched to a Direct to Consumer model have been rebuilt. On the retailer side, our first move was to eliminate the DTC platform, rebuild a robust Dealer Portal, and reconstruct our US sales rep force which was mostly eliminated by the DTC purge. The Kona Ride Online, our dealer click-and-collect program was revamped to give dealers their full margin for online orders, and will be reintroduced in Europe and Canada in the coming months. Our product team based at Kona HQ in Ferndale Washington has continued the work of creating new category-leading models, three of which will be introduced over the next two months in Gravel and Dual Suspension MTB, representing the first completely new designs with contemporary specifications we’ve introduced since 2020. There is so much more in development that we can’t tell you about at this time, but another 15 new models in EMTB, E-Commuters, Gravel, Transportation, MTB and Youth categories will be ready to rock by the end of this year. Dan and I and the entire Kona Crew continue to be motivated by our love for cycling, the positive interaction we have every day with people that ride and sell our bikes, and the love and support you share with us as we continue with our journey to spread the word of the Long Sweet Ride.

You know what's really nice and made me smile? The website font on the Remote page. It's the font from the 1997 brochure, along with the cartoon flower images. It actually triggered that sense of desire I got when I opened brochure on the Manomano page way back when.