Barn find: what year? and what to do with it. (retro kona content)

I remember having a Diamond back ascent which I’m sure had “Exage 400EX” or something, and what looked like dinnerplate sized Biopace chainrings, my mate only had “200GX” on his fluro pink Scott I think, no idea what difference this made, it all worked and none of us died…

Sigh…. [/Nostalgia]

You’re right about the back tyre – I remember choosing a Marin over a Kona in 1992 purely because of the lack of mud clearance on the Kona.
Oh, the Marin had an alloy stem too, & purple bits as standard. 😀

Don’t remember mechs wearing out as quickly as they do now, but wheels certainly needed trueing a lot more often.

And the brakes were pretty awful.

“200GX”

was it not 200GS?

I had a series of 3 Marins Pallisades Trails over 3 years as they kept getting nicked. I think they had 200GS, then Alivio, then STX, unless I upgraded the rear mech the last year.
Do you think there’s someone who has one of every Shimano rear mech every made?

LX is very much alive but a touring set up below the XT touring stuff. Cranks look more like road cranks etc.

It was dropped as a MTB line when SLX came out with SLX taking the place of Hone and LX (Hone cranks were LX cranks in black).

Even the new style shimano disc brakes come in LX guise.

But 2007 is as far back as my bike knowledge goes I’m afraid.

What about Alivio SE? I had a bike with 200GS, the shifters were nick named piano keys, due to be black and white.

Hasn’t LX moved onto the touring world now?

There’s an odd (unusual) mix of graphics there, so there’s maybe some history to it.

As far as I recall … 🙄

Upto and including ’91, the seatpost bolt was captive in the seat-tube – for ’92 onwards it was a separate clamp – so it’s later than ’91.

Black was an alternative paint option to the splatter pattern in ’91, and for ’92 it changed to black or one of several solid colours (depending on the model – The ’92 Cinder Cone was red).

Fade options come in in ’93.

The ‘Joe Murray’ sticker and the ‘K’ on the top of the seat-tube are related in age, and are ok to about ’95/96 when the logo changed (but the downtube ‘KONA’ isn’t tho’, and actually, doesn’t look like any Kona font that I recognize).

It’s wearing a mixture of stuff which has been upgraded as needed (or not!) over time, and I’m [finally] coming down to the frame being a 1994.

If it was mine, I’d put it back to fully rigid, SS it using whatever modern stuff you have to hand (or need to get) to make it work, and ride it around for the pleasure of it. They are great to see restored, but I dunno that I’d bother.

(I ride a fully rigid, SS ’92 Fire Mountain and it’s a great ride).

There’s an odd (unusual) mix of graphics there

I wondered about that, downtube KONA looks a bit like the decals on the 94 lava dome but not quite right plus the seat tube K was different on those.

Can’t tell from the pics but doesn’t look like an impact headset which AFAIK most of the early 90s stuff came with and were pretty good, a lot less faff than normal headsets.

(brakes on those 94 lava domes were rubbish, levers seemed to be long pull, worked well with V-brakes that I fitted a few years later but bugger all leverage for cantis)

update…

Stripped and cleaned… just got to get it back together with a new chain and bb.

The KONA downtube graphics turned out to be carp copy stickers. Nasty, so they have come off. The K on the headtube (done in the same sticker) was over the top of of another sticker.

The guy who used to own it told me he got it new in 93.

Q: what to do with the mag forks? do people restore these? funny thing is they still work!

There may be an interest in Mag21s on retrobike. I doubt spares are available, but if they’re not corroded nor worn, should still work.

If they are corrded under the paint (I can’t tell) not a lot you can do with the magnesium.

Hard to believe that people thought that snowflake lacing pattern looked good or was a good idea (even for just the short fad period it went through) – especially for a rear wheel!

Upto and including ’91, the seatpost bolt was captive in the seat-tube – for ’92 onwards it was a separate clamp – so it’s later than ’91.

Correct. 🙂

Black was an alternative paint option to the splatter pattern in ’91, and for ’92 it changed to black or one of several solid colours (depending on the model – The ’92 Cinder Cone was red).

Partially incorrect. 91/92 bikes had a solid colour or black option. Black was pretty popular.
Earlier 89/90 bikes were splatter paint or nowt!

The bike in question is ’93. No doubt there
But it’s fairly scabby. Best splitting it to sell.
Roughly:
Frame and P2s £80
XT rear mech £20
Bars £15
Forks £30

And, seriously, if that’s a nice Kona O-Beam 27.0mm seatpost, PLEASE EMAIL ME! If its in nice nick I’m very interested! 🙂

If that’s a full set of Dia Compe 986 cantis there’s a few quid in those
Stem maybe £10-15

Flite saddle??

Pik n Mix – Member

I really want that DCD if you want to sell it? Been looking for one for ages.

got one in the shed somewhere, black iirc

PP thanks for the info and yep it is an orignal flight ti saddle. no cover or foam tho.

As for the post. Not sure, it has been cut down so dosnt have any markings… ~300mm now… hense the question at the start of the thread. Do you have a pick of the one you want… I’m not fussy so if it it would finish your build off you are welcome to it.

Neil.

Ahh. No, not really interested in that case then. I need it to be nice, and long, for my Explosif.
WHich, as you can see, is rather niiiiiiiice! 😉

[/url]
IMG_3493[/url] by PeterPoddy[/url], on Flickr[/url]
IMG_3207[/url] by PeterPoddy[/url], on Flickr

I alway wonder if I should do up my 92 cinder cone

was it not 200GS?

It was.

If it was mine, I’d put it back to fully rigid, SS it using whatever modern stuff you have to hand (or need to get) to make it work, and ride it around for the pleasure of it. They are great to see restored, but I dunno that I’d bother.

Me too. I’d also sell the forks, bar and stem on Retrobike – I certainly wouldn’t trust the bar to ride on.

[/url]
IMG_3493[/url] by PeterPoddy[/url], on Flickr

That’s beautiful!

Cheers. 🙂

It was my dream bike 20 years ago. Now I have one. I was lucky with some
Of the parts (wheels, brakes especially) and put some needless bling on it too (Royce BB, Ringle cage) and the paint and frame mods cost a fortune, but I’m very very happy with it
After a lot of buying and selling it owes me in the region of £550

Since the pic it’s got a silver seatpost and I have some XT thumbies waiting to go on too.

Dunno if it helps at all, but my ’93 Hahanna seatpost is a 26.6…

Yeah, they had different sizes. Most of the older Konas at the top of the range were 27.0mm

I have a possibility of buying my old 1990 splatter paint explosif….I dont think I could let myself do a restoration job! I know the fever could set in. Might just have to be a case of hang the frame and matching track two forks on the wall of the bike room!

Here it is, new bb and chain, ready to role.

Bit tatty, but mechanically spot on. I am even starting to like the ‘rat’ look.

I used to have an Explosif ‘Pro’, think was a ’93 – I would go silly money to have one again, in any nick.

Re gearing from this era; wasn’t it:

200GS
Altus C20
Altus A10
Deore DX (which went all ‘cool’ weirdly)
Deore LX
XT
XTR

I seem to remeber something else used the A10 & C20 suffix – Exage?

STX was some jumped-up newboy; merely elevating LX to a superior status.

Shimano; they knew what they were doing.

Sorry, waffling.

For the mag 21s if you need spares or servicing try Coombes cycles in Hereford mark was one of the original service agents and has the workshop tool set

rOcKeTdOg – Member

got one in the shed somewhere, black iirc

Would love one again.

I had a GT from that era (93 or 94) and it had Exage ES, there was another Exage group (EX?) Which seemed to have a different finish not much else. IIRC STX and STX RC replaced these as sub-LX, don’t think they were about at same time.