Modernised Retro Kona… a bit of help with Colour

I picked up a 1997 Kona Lava Dome frame from the classifieds a while back. It’s had a disc mount welded on by argos, so i’m looking to give it a more modern build.

I’ve got the wheels, finishing kit (Black) and forks (White, Black Decals) etc sorted, reamed the seatube to fit a 27.2 dropper and now i’m ready to build it. Except i’m not… I’m really not keen on the sparkly red.

So I’ve enquired about powder coating… but i’m not sure which way to go. I think I fancy a blue, similar to this:

But the original colour of the Lava Dome is this:

I’m pretty much 50-50 on it…. well almost, this colour looks great too…

What do you think?

Cheers

I quite like the red

but I have an original and if i was getting it resprayed,Id go with the original slightly sparkly green

This is mine,few different parts but its a 97 Explosif resprayed by Mercian in Derby

Lime green.
When I got my 94 lava dome I got a poster with all the models on.
There was one ( a Hot I think) that was lime green and looked superb.

I would go with the green but paint the forks the same colour if possible. Then it would look original but custom at the same time.

If you wanted to keep a more traditional retro look with modern kit try to get as much stuff in silver to attach to it. May not be possible with a dropper (although you can strip the anno easily) but it’d be a nice look.

Nice idea on the dropper post – well done!

Sometimes original looks great…… but a modernised Kona is an excellent bike – the reason why they still attract a premium price depsite being 20yo!

My restored original Kilauea:

Another bike I did, Eat My Dirt Ninja Cleaner Team Issue Kona Hahanna, with modern bits and colour coded for the company (you have no idea how hard it is to find green bits!):

I like the red. Build it up as is, ride it, forget about the colour 🙂

Really don’t like the powdercoat blue though, I think it will just make it look cheap imo

Cheers for the replies. I don’t think i’ll be able to get it too close to the original look and respraying the forks won’t ever look right since they’re 120mm fox. I think the look i’m after is a tidied up but classic frame with fresh kit.

I like the silver Kilauea above, the skin wall tyres and the silver kit finish it off well.

Any more pics/opinions are appreciated.

Cheers.

Edit:

Really don’t like the powdercoat blue though, I think it will just make it look cheap imo

Yeah, i’m worried about that. I’m bothered that it’ll just end up looking like a low end frame from a few years ago.

Any love for the burnt orange?

I wouldn’t go for white as there are loads of white Konas – the one I did above the owner insisted I do it white but as I couldn’t find a match to the green of the company I went for it in the end.

Silver would look good with the Fox forks (if they are silver), maybe even pick a colour off the decals of the forks – blue? – and use that?

Get over to GilM at the bikeshed and he’ll do you some custom decals to match the bits you have. £28 for a full set last time I bought them and well worth it for his quality.

Forks look like this: (Not 29er obviously)

The white with black decals gives me a bit more freedom with the frame colours I think.

Cheers Robdob, I won’t be going for white.

This is mine – 95 Kilauea – if it’s any help.

They look ok white – this is original though (the white, I mean).

Burnt orange for me all day long. I’m biased though, building mine at the moment.

Refurbished Kona ….. gotta be Orange 😉

And more recently ….

Cheers Mark… funny enough it was your Kona that started this! The white looks good too!

I’m beginning to think it doesn’t matter what colour it’s painted, they all look good!

British Racing Green for my Kilaeua (’97 I think) but haven’t got any pics to hand. That in itself was a respray I’m sure. And it looks just ‘right’ (the bike, as well as the colour).

Have loved it since I acquired it pre-owned about, oh, 6 years ago, I guess it feels so good as it’s just like late lamented steel Stumpjumper from about the same vintage.

😳 😆

White you say …..

On fork choice ….. Some will say 100mm is okay other diehards will say 80mm is max.

I’ve run my Caldera with as mush as 105mm and as little as 65mm.

The Reba Teams above now run 90mm and is about spot on for the frame. That is of course IMHO 😉

billytinkle – Member
Burnt orange for me all day long. I’m biased though, building mine at the moment.

Lets have a look.

I think 120mm will be fine, it’s not going to get hammered and I’d like to make it slack. Think I can step them down to 100mm if necessary.

120mm will be nearly twice the original intended travel! 😯

I would buy the spacer kit now 😆

My not-very-retro ’97 Lava Dome in it’s current guise – with 2000 Manitou X-Vert Supers still going strong

*edit – I think the Manitou’s are 105mm and even with a reasonably long stem (not sure if 70 or 90mm) the front is quite wandery on steep climbs

letmetalktomark – Member
120mm will be nearly twice the original intended travel!

I would buy the spacer kit now

Nah – it’ll be fine at 120mm, that’s what’s on that white Kilauea of mine in Greece (the one up there ^^^) and since they’re Marzocchis with ETA it climbs well too.
I keep meaning to bring the frame back here one winter and fit a caliper mount but so far I haven’t bothered. The Arch Rival brake works fine anyway and it’s mostly dry when I’m there too.

I went with black with pink decals. Mercian resprayed it for me with GilM doing the decals. Maybe with blue decals would go with your forks?

[/url]
P3060802[/url] by blackhound59[/url], on Flickr

Having said that I think the red looks nice.

Edit: no idea why pic looks so small!

Andy R , that does it for me.

zippykona – Member
Andy R , that does it for me.

Thank you, kind sir! For an almost 18 year old frame it still does a pretty good job and I’m still rather attached to it.

I did have this “Platsa Blue” ’95 Explosif singlespeed for a while too – in fact, I still have the frame lying around in my workshop.
That’s what my wife calls that blue, anyway….

Think the red looks great, build it up, can always get it sprayed at a later date!!

I like the red too…

The Orange looks good too…

The green, is lovely when polished up…

I like the red, and wouldn’t bother changing it.

My kona kula delux was red an blue!

Heres mine- a bit more retro. No discs here, just good old V Brakes.

I tend to put (gasp, horror) slick tyres and road gearing on in winter and it flies as a road bike. V Brakes are rubbish in mud! 😀

If i ever did another paint job on it, i’d quite like a black with gold flecks in paint. Just like Gold marmite.

the rigid light blue one looks nice but I say you should stick with the original colour

I need a retro Kona in my life.. Wish I hadn’t sold my 2003 Nunu…

Back to scouring eBay for one.

I like the ’95 Kilaeua – I would though as it’s the same colour as my ’95 Conder Cone. Metallic duck egg for the win!

My 1990 (I think) Lava Dome. Still doing duties as a tourer or when the touring was finished a rigid, drop bar MTB in Vermont. Drew way more looks and comments than the wife’s full custom tourer.

The headset is original.

[/url]
P5170154[/url] by happycrenker[/url], on Flickr

I’m not really adding anything by posting that just wanted to share. 🙂

Cheers again for all the replies and pics. So a tally up is looking like I should just leave it red / ride it now, spray it later.

I’ll get a pic up when it’s finished.

Thanks.

Late to the party, but only just had time to take a couple of snaps. It’s no beauty and very much a work in progress…

What length forks are those Billy?

They are 42.5cm forks.

Black with pink and blue splashes is the way to go. Here’s my 1990 Explosif.
[/url]
Picture 002[/url] by Larry Stumbles[/url], on Flickr

That orange is lovely billy.

What’s that above the top tube larrystumbles ?
They don’t do paintjobs like that anymore !!