Kona 2011 stab

http://cog.konaworld.com/archives/4356/comment-page-1#comment-3247

Goppingly Fugly

sorry not stab operator!

I like

Nice saddle angle, she'll be spot on for riding up hill!

that saddle angle works out just right when pointing down on steep tracks
like champery, i wonder if luke smith will have one for teh race in a couple of weeks!

Nice. clean lines for a Kona. I like the way the top tube lines through with the seat stays. Now just get Trek's ABP on that and it'll be ace.

or a proper chainstay link…

(the Trek ABP is a very clever way of sidestepping the specialized patent)

or, for those who like their single-pivots, this bike looks like a good one.

looks fast!

as for comparing it to the trek wonderbike

tracey moseley has done no better with trek than she did with kona

dont believe the hype?

not bad, for a kona
my first thoughts were that it was like the Transition TR450
but it's nowhere near as pretty

it looks nice now in its raw swoopy lovelyness, but by the time Kona paint it in some primary colour and slap some 'trendy' graphics on it, it'll look like every other crap Kona ever made.

Its nothing like a TR450, other than its a bike and so is the tr450.

Its a kona stab so like all other stabs will be rubbish, unless they have really lighten up the rear end so teh suspension can actually work.

itsa linkage activated single-pivot, and the main pivot is in more or less the same place. it's a lot like a 450…

i've been drinking, my troll filter isn't working, please forgive me.

"the Trek ABP is a very clever way of sidestepping the specialized patent"
I could well be wrong, but isn't an ABP actually more active (or rather a chainstay pivot isn't 100% active) under braking?

"tracey moseley has done no better with trek than she did with kona
dont believe the hype? "
Didn't the race stab have a dope-kit on though? essentially making the kona a heavier more complicated version of the trek (ie essentially the same active brake pivot)?

sorry, you are wrong – re the ABP

(sorry)

Both the ABP and the chainstay-pivot allow the brake calliper to be mounted on the seatstay. This is the important bit, because the seatstay moves up and down, while the chainstay rotates around the main pivot. it's this rotation that they both isolate from the brake calliper.

you can't put the calliper on the seatstay when you also have a seatstay-pivot because the calliper would move in respect to the disc – or at least, you could do, but it's a really bad idea.

rocky mountain are selling bikes with what looks like a chainstay-pivot, and it is, but they sidestep the speccy patent because the pivot is above the axle.

there are very few bikes which are 100% active under braking, to achieve it you need a parallelogram design (see Ellsworth), or a 'DOPE' arm (another parallelogram).

you can buy DOPE arms for most bikes from a company called 'brake therapy' – they even make a kit for ellsworth bikes, which wins my award for 'most pointless bike accessory ever'

re: your last sentence, yes. exactly. it's surprising how many bikes out there are basically just a linkage-activated-single-pivot.

Commencal / transition / kona / cove wotsit / that new nukeproof thing / orange blood / yadda yadda yadda.

i'm a geek, i could talk about this for hours.

I could too, however there's a big difference in the real world depending on the application. For the stab above with relatively large travel, the braking issues are more pronounced. On a short travel (4" say) frame, it's rarely an issue in the real world though marketeers and people who want to make an issue of it will argue otherwise.

there are very few bikes which are 100% active under braking, to achieve it you need a parallelogram design (see Ellsworth), or a 'DOPE' arm (another parallelogram).

I'd argue that there are NO designs which are 100% active under braking. If you think there are, you're only working out part of the equation as to what affects suspension when you brake.

I think it looks pretty good, I have no doubt that in following konas recent history it will get a reet fooking horrible paint job.

how is this a bad paint job?????

If that Operator was finished similarly to the Transition it's look ace.

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/kona-operator-2011.html

press release

id love to get one!

Now I *DO* like the FR version.

these are the versions ive seen here in austria available in nov for 2,500 euro!!!!! for the dh!

or 2,400 euro for the FR

not sure which to buy when i can get 200mm front forks for 100 euro more but i ride freeride, so do alot of my friends but they have 200mm shocks and not 180mm

hmm

??????
opinions

i think both looks great. never been a great fan of kona but this year, i will buy one

RE the Tracy was just as fast on the Kona as the Trek discussion, I would imagine that Tracy's Kona wasn't an out of the box stock bike as Barel's was quite different from the production model.

Iain

They both look look like a fat man sat on them and squashed them