Niche because it’s a 29er SS (at the mo) but not really niche as it’s just a fun hardtail for general knocking around on.
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DSCF4969 by LOVATSTOVES, on Flickr[/img]

A wee shakedown run this afternoon then I think a visit to Laggan black tomorrow is in order. 🙂
It’s a Kona Honzo btw.

New frame, tapered reba’s, hope headset, reverb post, saddle and Salsa bend 2 bars. Everything else from the old bike.
I’ve got 1×10 fro when I need gears.

Bothy bikes have a few more of these frames in stock if anyone is looking for one, and a full bike for demo.

think a visit to Laggan black tomorrow is in order.

after the visit to the valve/logo alignment centre, one hopes 😉

very nice 🙂

Very nice ..what bars you got on there?
youve put me in the mood for a visit to Laggan
ill need to get that organised

Gets a big thumbs up from me, is that the 19″?

18″
Salsa bend 2 bars. Thought I’d give them a try. I’ve had 17 degree pro moto flats for a while but used to ride jones bars. The bend 2 is a halfway house with 23 deg sweep.

Logos out of alignment purposefully cos I’m badass…

Interested to hear how this rides as looks like a good alternative to the canfield yelli screamy. How much was the frame out of interest?

Also is that a 2.4 Ardent in the rear?

Frame was £475 and that is a 2.4 Ardent. It’s fairly tight if you were to ride it in claggy mud but then a 2.4 ardent would be rubbish in claggy mud anyway.

Had a shakedown run round the puffer today. First imprissions are good. It’s a heavy beast but doesn’t feel heavy in practice. It has a taut feel to it, nice and stiff in a good way.
Comes alive pointing downhill but the front end feels planted even although it is slack.

First ride on an uppy downy post and I love the reverb already. Constantly adjusting it to suit the terrain, mostly just up and down an inch or so. Great bit of kit.

Not sure about the bars though, I think I’ll change back to the pro motos tomorrow. Looking forward to giving it a longer run.

Bedmaker, looks good, I’m humming and ha’in about getting a Canfield Nimble 9, however that Honzo frame looks a tad more up to date, headtube/dropper seat post compatability etc.
It’s also £125 cheaper, think I’ll give Bothy Bikes a call tomorrow to see if they have any left.
What size frame is yours?

Try a Schwalbe Hans Dampf, just gone to one on the Swift front. 2.35 pacestar, far more predictable in the crap compared to an Ardent

I’m starting to lust after a 29er. Things like this aren’t helping me…

Aye the Hans Dampf is definately on the radar but the Ardents are generally good all round for most of the riding I do.
Its an 18 inch inbred853

Looks nice, but i can’t find anything about it on the Bothy Bikes website?

I’m tentatively looking at a more hardcore 1×10 29er hardtail (120/140mm) but am not too sure of the options out there (there was a thread recently but i can’t find it).

140mm forks (Revs or Fox) seem really pricy but On One have the tapered 120mm Reba maxles at a good price so may be a better option.

Chumba HX2 is a good deal but maybe a bit small for me, other options are a Yelly Screamer (£600 – expensive) or the Honzo which comes in a nice long 20L version but still seems a bit pricy for a steel frame?

Is the ‘hardcore’ 29er scene about to take off and if so would it be worth waiting a while for a bit more choice? Kinesis seem to have a bike in the pipeline but sizing doesn’t look good for me. Have Cotic got anything similar?

What else is out there that comes in at least a 21″ size?

Are the Revelation forks off the Honzo full bike internally adjustable to 140mm and is the frame ok with 140mm?

That’s lots of questionsisn’t it…..

Mr Tall theres also the Singular Buzzard coming soon, Canfield Nimble9, Transition Transam too.

Bothy have just moved shop premesis so I guess they are a bit busy to update the site, they seem to have a lot going on.
I’m guessing there will be more choice in the hardcore 29er market in time but it may take a couple more years, the options are growing steadily though.

I think it is pricy for a steel frame (as is the Yelli for alu) but I suppose that is the price you pay for being an early adopter of something which there is still very little demand for. It does have quite a few features to drive the price up though, ISCG, sliders, 44mm head.

I think the revs may be able to go to 140 but I think it would be too much. I’m not a big fan of over long forks on a hardtail, I like being able to pop the front up withouut loads of squish to deal with. 120 feels pretty plush on a 29 wheel anyway.
I got the tapered rebas from on one. I can’t see any reason to pay £900 odd for Fox’s unless you are feeling flush.

Bedmaker, i agree with the forks on a 29er, 140mm may be overkill. I have 120mm Maxle Reba’s (non tapered) on my Salsa Big Mama and they feel really good so i’d have no reason to doubt they’d not be great on a HT as well. I guess what i’d really like is a basic On-One type frame in 120mm guise for around £200, i’m not really into bling and am not a good enough rider to notice the difference between a £200 frame and a £1000 one.

YoKaiser, forgot about the Buzzard but that’s a fair few months away i’d guess and will no doubt be well north of £500. The Nimble is more based on a 100mm fork is it not? I’ve already got a 80mm HT, 100mm SS and 120mm FS (and a rigid Fargo!), i just fancy a playful 120mm at least hardtail. I’ll have a look at the Transition site.

Mr tall

Bothy bikes has a 20 and 20L frame in well at least they did on Wednesday and I think the full bike is an 18

Andy

I wasnt paying attention when you brought it along. I didnt realize or even click that it was a 29er!

It looks really good in the pic. Nothing looks wrong about it. Nothing worse than having a bike that has something about it that bugs ya just by looking at it..before you even ride it ;O)

Cheers, wish they were a bit more local though, long drive from Brum to have a gander!

Reckon i could build a reasonable 1×10 spec for around £8-900 plus whatever the frame costs as i already have a spare set of Sun Ringle 20mm wheels i picked up at crc last month.

Guess i could offset the cost a bit by selling the Inbred ss as i rarely ride it?

Hmmm, decisions decisions……

Your Honzo looks the business, glad you’re having fun on it, look forward to seeing some pics of the bike in action!
If you don’t get on with the Bend bars we can swap them for something else – I’m going to put some on our demo Jones.
Mr Tall, thanks for checking out our website, sorry it’s rather out of date, working on a new one right now – the blog is better for current stuff…

Bugger, On-One have sold out of the cheap 120 Reba maxles which makes the frame only deal far more expensive unless they get some more in?
Bothy bikes do have a frame left though.

Thats very nice.
Pick up another Kona 29er SS on Monday and should get my other one back from the spraters soon in Porsche Riviera blue. Niiiiiice

Had a fantastic day out at Laggan today, been ages since Ive been there!
Did old red- new red- orange- black – old red.
Honzo is in it’s element on these trails, just such a fun bike.

It reminds me a bit of the fun I had taking a blur 4x round there a few years back but with the benefit of proper sized wheels. 🙂

BB I’ll take you up on that offer. I much prefer it with my pro motos on and I’ve already got loads of bars knocking around the shed.

Thanks OP, i’m now £475 poorer…… 🙂

Gutted i didn’t grab one of the On-One 120mm Reba’s now as i think sourcing a reasonably priced fork is going to be a nightmare. I nearly bought one of the On Ones months ago when they were only £250 as a ‘future spare’ but didn’t have any frames capable of taking a tapered steerer so didn’t in the end. Clever move that…..
New Reba’s seem to only come as 100mm now and are unable to be spaced to 120mm, Revs are 140mm (adjustable to 120mm??) but are like hens teeth so we’ll see what turns up. Manatou do a 120mm i think but i’m really not keen on those. Do you know if the Kona is warrantied to use 140mm?

I’ll be building mine up as a 1×10 to give 10 speed a try as i’m still 9sp on everything else. Just out of interest, what chain device are you using, as it’s not the same one that comes on the full bike build (the E13 seems to be around £100 as well).

David at Bothy is looking into a few things for me including the headset, but what did you use and how much was it please?

Finally, he did offer me the lovely Fox 34’s they’ve got in but £900 is stretching the budget a tad…..

It’s a Hope – top cup 2 bottom cup F. Think it cost about £60.

Options shown here

This chain device

I’m not sure how long a fork it is warrantied for. I reckon 140 would be a bit much for it, 120 feels nice.
I might sell my old Reba (120mm, Maxle, non tapered) if you wanted. I was planning to keep it ‘just incase’ but don’t really need it.

Thanks bedmaker, that’ll make sourcing parts a tad easier, especially as that chain device is dead cheap – i assume it works well and isn’t too noisy?

Thanks for the fork offer, but i already have a 120mm Reba team on my salsa that in theory i could swap over to the Honzo and then put a 100mm fork back on the Salsa but i don’t think a standard steerer looks right on a 44mm headtube so i’ll keep looking for a tapered reba or try and source a Revelation (fat chance).

Looking forward to seeing the frame, it’ll be posted tomorrow. 🙂

Thanks bedmaker, that’ll make sourcing parts a tad easier, especially as that chain device is dead cheap – i assume it works well and isn’t too noisy?

Don’t know, only had it SS so far.

Ooops, yep, should have noticed that!

Chain device looks neat though, does it fit onto the bb instead of a spacer?

Bedmaker,

Assuming you are local to the shop, did you ever get a chance to notice whether or not the other frames they had in 20L had a 20L sticker on them?

Mines just been delivered and it has a sticker on it showing 20″, no mention of Long. I’m having a paranoid moment that it’s not the Long version that i ordered and there being no paperwork at all in the box is not helping to reassure me. The geometry specs on the Kona website are only for the ‘effective’ top tube rather than the ‘actual’ so it’s not easy to accurately measure and check.

The chap at Bothy bikes tried to help by measuring the 20″ standard one they still have but it was not really conclusive. I don’t think there’s any other simple measurement to take as it’s exactly the same dimensions elsewhere as the 20″, apart from the top tube (25″&26″).

That aside, it looks really nice. Pretty heavy but that doesn’t really bother me as i’m not a weight weenie.

Assuming it is the correct size, i’m looking forward to getting it built.

MrTall I am about an hour away from the shop. I’ve got no plans to pass that way soon but if I do happen to head down this weekend I can have a look.

Mr Tall there was some chat about this over on mtbr, cant remember all the details but I do remember some about the early one not having the 20L stickers because kona didnt have the stickers.

Thanks BCB – i’ll be talking with Bothy tomorrow.

I think that i probably do have the correct size, would just be nice to have a definite answer.

I emailed the frame serial numbers to Kona but they still couldn’t confirm it. I’ve asked them if they can provide the actual top tube lengths rather than the virtual, hopefully they’ll come up with the correct one.

MrTall,

I have pics of actual geo from a 20 (NOT long). I’ve deleted the thread that contained them over on MTBR (due to other problems with the frame), but the pics are here:
http://www.mangiant.net/link_pics/honzogeo/

Thanks Noot, only just seen your post.

Kona emailed me today to confirm my frame numbers matched the 20L version so i’m happy enough now.

Oh, and Bedmaker (and anybody else who may buy one of these) the correct lower Hope headset is G, not F.

F is a 49mm diameter – Bothy even confirmed to me that it was F and ordered one themselves but it’s way too big for the 44mm headtube (they know this now). CRC etc don’t list a G so it’s an easy mistake to make. I got mine from Merlin (and returned the F one to them). You can confirm it on the Hopetech website for clarity.

Bike is nearly built up now, should be ready for its first ride at the weekend. 🙂

Edit – Noot – “Other problems with the frame”? Care to elaborate please?

Very late edit after another Honzo thread – it’s not the G lower cup, it’s the H. Ooops

I did order the H one, just put the wrong one in my last post, sorry.

“Other problems” meaning they accidentally sent me a pre-prod model, which was heavier, had longer chainstays, and was missing a cable guide. It’s all been resolved, however, and was just an honest mistake 🙂 Kona is great to deal with, they answer the phone like a small company.