I’m now in my mid “ahem” 30s, but back in the day I had an 18″ Kona Cinder Cone (the purply blue one – circa 1995) with a pair of Judy red RockShox and a pair of Azonic low rise handlebars – it was a thing of beauty.

It got pinched out of my mum’s shed years ago and these days I have a Scott cyclocross which I enjoy but I’m getting the itch to get a mountain bike again.

There are a few Cinder Cones on eBay etc, but my question is, should I go with nostalgia and buy retro or have things moved on so much I’m better off buying a much more updated version?

Get the retro one – deffo.
I’d go for something circa 97/98.

Retro for sure

I owned a ’96 Kilauea and should never have sold it. You need that retro Kona in your life.

My ’98 Caldera is still my prime bike, it just has a new frame, fork, wheels, in fact there’s one part left from the original, can you guess what it is?

Get over to retrobike and they will sort you out. Think I have a spare pair of those bars is you want a replica?

Depends how many conversations with strangers you want to have while you’re out riding lol

Retro they are superb frames! I will never sell my old one 🙂

You know the right answer.

Retro all the way.

You know the right answer.

Retro all the way.

I went modern

A friend of mine still has this.

In this condition.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/6qQoT8]25/05/2009[/url] by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/6qUQkA]25/05/2009[/url] by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/6qQUr2]25/05/2009[/url] by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

I doubt it’s been ridden more than 100 miles from new.

The splatter Cinder Cone will always be the bike that got away for me. Just couldn’t afford one at 14 after months of paper rounds and settled for a Marin Palisades. I wonder how much they are now…

Retro. Had the ’94 one. I also had a ’98 Lava Dome. Had trouble IDing the ’94 one as had been resprayed. Took the frame no and Kona told me the ’94 Cinder Cones and Lava Domes were the same frame.

Anyway, I recommend mid-late 90s versions for their superior rideability, and in that they may take a 100mm fork*. I’m still missing having one but have plans afoot.

Schmindercone, schmavadome, s’all the same innit?

*You will definitely die if you do this <—– disclaimer.

just to play devils advocate…. weren’t they crap then? What has changed?

^ burn the heretic” 😆

Definitely retro for looks

just to play devils advocate…. weren’t they crap then?

I always thought the geometry was well ahead of its time. Line a late 80’s or early 90’s Kona up beside many of the other offerings from major manufacturers at that time and the others look like road bikes in comparison (huge frames, horizontal top tubes, steeper angles) whilst the Kona looks much like a modern MTB.

What has changed?

A 2017 Cinder Cone is a completely different bike in every way excepting three things

1. It has Kona decals
2. It’s a mountain bike
3. It has a sloping top-tube

weren’t they crap then?

‘Crap’ in what way?

94 rider’s reviews

corroded – Member
The splatter Cinder Cone will always be the bike that got away for me. Just couldn’t afford one at 14 after months of paper rounds and settled for a Marin Palisades. I wonder how much they are now…

I’ve got a 1988 Explosif (pistachio Dupont Imron with Paul Brodie applied yellow spatter) and, judging by what I’ve been offered for the frame and forks, not worth enough to make me part with it.
I have owned it for the best part of thirty years, mind you, so maybe I’m over-estimating its value to me.

Nothing retro about these bikes! I do prefer my modern bikes though, possibly because I ride them more.

haha I may be wrong but Lava Domes were kind of 2 or 3 rungs up the ladder from the bottom ? hahana , cinder cone lava dome…

a hei hei or explosif on the other hand

Any excuse to post my lovely Kona yet again!!

My 1994 Kona Kilauea, owned from new, stolen and recovered so I didn’t own it for 15 years and managed to get it back!!
Full bare metal and nut and bolt. Rides like an absolute dream, I love it and will never sell.

Just don’t ask me how much I had to pay for that NOS Tange Prestige Concept tubing decal, had to buy that one from Canada (and I’ve got a spare too!!). 😯

Lovely

Also – my experience with my Kona was that I did it up with period correct narrow flat bars then added Marzocchis and wife riser bars. It changed the handling but not to the better I thought. Lost some of its zinginess and character. Changed back to the P2’s which are miles better.

All the Konas of that era ride really nicely BUT if you want the better ones try to go for a double butted tubing model and IMHO a pair of triple butted P2’s. A lot lighter and peppier. Mind you saying that I did up a 95 Hahanna for a friend, put 1×9 drivetrain on it with rigid forks, fat slicks and a wide riser bar and it was ACE, felt like a BMX!

Careful with nostalgia. I built up an Explosif with rigid forks a few years ago to use as a commuting bike. Rode it once. The brakes were shite, the bike was unforgiving and twitchy and nowhere near as nice to ride as my mtb. Sold it on retro bike where it came from. That’s what keeps retrobike going, constant buy and sell of the same rose tinted items only held in our memories by the association with youth.

99p Hahanna frame i built up for a friend. Absolute blast to ride and I’ve said I want it back if they ever don’t use it any more!!

I did up as sort of a promo bike for my friends company – EatMyDirt so had custom decals made for it.

I had a 92 lavadome, then a 97 cnder cone. Great memories. The 92 bike I took across Tibet.

You need to like long stems though, for the retro thing to work. The frames are shorter in the toptube and the headtubes steep (by modern standards), hence the long stems to get he bars in the right pace and slow the steering down. If you want to do any serious offroading then you’ll be slow… especially on steep stuff.

Modern geo is longer, slacker with shorter stems and wider bars. All this works better, hence the change.

If you just use for mild towpath/bridleway type stuff then retro can work.

’95 Kilaeua here (not sure can find pictures).
Bought s/h several years ago, had been modified to SS, was out on it only last night and I suspect I’ll never part with it. Came with P2s, has had Bombers on it (currently does) but also RC31s. Twitchy and a different kettle of fish to other bits but all part of the fun, and very quick..

You need to like long stems though, for the retro thing to work. The frames are shorter in the toptube and the headtubes steep (by modern standards), hence the long stems to get he bars in the right pace and slow the steering down. If you want to do any serious offroading then you’ll be slow… especially on steep stuff.

I put a shorter Velocity stem on mine and was worried it might upset the handling but I had to as my back isn’t as it used to be. However I did team it up with some wider flat bars as can be seen in the pictures which I think cancelled out the change.

Loved my 91 explosif, no desire to own it again though. So many great contemporary bikes that will be so much better to ride.

newrobdob

Rides like an absolute dream

I bet* Especially if you have a liking for the ‘prayer position’, or grooming one’s chin-stubble on the front tyre as you go 😉 (Beautiful bike btw)

*You’re kidding no-one, I can see reflections in the mirror-like cassette 😉

I had a 95 and a 97 cinder cone. The 97 set up singlespeed with a 105mm velocity stem, big bars (50 rise, 700 wide), a big front tyre and p2 forks was one of the nicest handling bikes I’ve ridden. No idea why i sold it…..

If anyone comes across my stolen 95 Cinder Cone, with the special last-batch-of-the-year pink frame (20″), I’d like to reunite it with the forks, bars, stem and headset I still have in my garage…

Sad face…

I’m down to just one mountain bike these days, which is my 96 Lava Dome. The 93 Kilauea is still in service as the shopping/school run bike.

Some lovely examples there fellas. Sounds like retro has got the thumbs up!

Think I’ll keep my eyes open for one, but might give a new one a test ride just to say I did.

My brothers’ old FireMountain (97, I think – metallic blue race light frame with fruit based graphics etc) is something I’ve coveted on and off and is responsible for getting me back on bikes around six or seven years ago. Lovely frame. I gather Kona made a load of old rubbish for quite a while more recently, but the old steel bikes were awesome things 🙂

I’m gonna buck the trend.

I was tooling round on my 1997 LItespeed Ti until a couple of years ago…came back to racing, got complimented for riding a ‘retro’ bike. It still felt and was reasonably competitive (12th in Bontrager 12 pairs for example).

I then got a Kona Process 111. Modern bikes are really so much better than old bikes. I love my modern bike. It’s faster, more fun and a lot heavier than my retro. Nothing wrong with my old bike, but modern ones are better.

My brother has owned from new a 1998? Kileaua (mustard yellow colour frame). Vast majority of it is still original I think. It’s a 19 inch frame at a guess which he is looking to sell as it has been unridden for the majority of that time. If anyone is looking, get in touch

Horses for courses… My modern bikes are technically better than that lovely old racelight frame – and that’s before you start on the stuff like compatibility with modern parts or even disc brakes…

The Process line is pretty much Kona’s rebirth after the bad years. The cool retro bikes are still usable but have definite limits. If you’re going to go retro-ish then get a proper frame not a more recent alu offering I’d say. A modern bike is probably the right choice for almost everyone by any sane metric though.

I went for retro/modern and got my 93 Cindercone updated with disk tabs and repainted.

Reason for this was although I had owned it from new, the only original bit I had left was the frame, even the forks had to be sourced and they are the slightly later suspension corrected ones, but I think it helps slacken the angles a tad.

Rides great and a good winter bike.

Only problem is lack of clearance to fit more than a 2.1 tyre on the back.