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Read more about the Kona ESD here: https://singletrackworld.com/2020/08/kona-honzo-esd-review-first-impressions/
Kona gets back to its roots with a new slender steel hardtail with a twist. The Kona Honzo has always been a rowdy, play machine, but now with a sprinkling of Process X DNA, the Hona ESD is a thoroughbred hardcore hardtail.
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0:00
your arms and go hey i'm talking
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hey everyone andy from singletrack
0:06
magazine and i'm out in the park this is
0:08
my favorite outdoor studio with this the
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new kona hanzo
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esd extra slack dude it's a full
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chromoly steel frame aggressive hardtail
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with
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obviously a very slack head tube angle
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63 degree head angle on this with 150
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mil travel mazaki fork
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which is pretty bonkers but it's well on
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trend and with the 77.5
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degree seat tube angle it means you're
0:31
going to get a really nice seated
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position too
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and it's going to should hopefully
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fingers crossed because we're going to
0:36
go and test it should feel
0:37
mint on the trail so we've got these
0:39
really slender chromoly tubing here so
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which should
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take the sting out the trail we've got
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really nice thin
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chain stain seat stays on there so it
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looks like a really nice classic
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hardtail
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but with those modern geometry numbers
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it's like it looks cool and the paint
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work is insane
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it's got this really cool fade and i'll
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get some close-up shots in a minute and
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it just looks
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really really cool some really nice
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frame features on here include sliding
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dropouts
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so not only can you adjust the chain
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stay length and i will check those
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numbers on what the adjustment is
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but you can also switch it to a single
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speed if you really wanted to as well
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so that's really cool another really
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nice feature is the external cable
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routing
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so i know that internal cable routing
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looks really clean and crisp
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but it's a bit of a pain in the ass when
1:23
you're trying to fix things an external
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routing is the way to go i reckon
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also with this you've got three options
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of where you can
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mount a bottle so you can either run two
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bottles you got one underneath
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and one on top but the top one you can
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actually adjust so you can have
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an even bigger bottle or if you really
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wanted to play around with the weight
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balance move it forward and backwards
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so yeah those are some of the frame
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features really good looking bike
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other interesting parts are this dropper
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post this is a transex dropper post
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and if you're as old as me you'll
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remember transects from back in the day
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but this dropper post is pretty
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interesting because you can actually
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adjust the travel on it
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and looking at the specs of this it
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looks like you can adjust it from
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10 20 or 30 mil so you can really fine
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tune
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the seated position of this so that's
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really really nice to have as well
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other really nice bits of kit are dior
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four part disc brakes so
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i've ridden the slx ones and they're
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absolutely insane
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these are basically the same just not a
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shiny so brakes spot
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on we've got a raceface arc rims on here
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with maxxis tires
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slx hubs which is a really nice feature
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we see more brands do that because of
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micro spine so it's really nice to see
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shimano hubs on here
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12 speed group set slx rear derailleur
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kona's own lock-on grips race face crank
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set
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and race face bar and stem looks really
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good and what we're going to do now is
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we're going to head up on the trail take
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it for a spin on my local
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do some more video and then we're going
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to speak to scott from kona who's going
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to tell us more about this bike see you
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all soon
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extra slack dude
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whoa straight line
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ah
4:00
forget how far the hardtail is
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so good
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i do like the size
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you can really let it go flying around
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underneath you can't you
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that's good it's the right size right
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here yeah i mean immediately
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i always say go and try a medium now
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that size is the right
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hey this is uh scott from kona and uh
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we're here to
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show you one of the exciting bikes we've
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released this week it's the
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hanzo esd it's the extra slack dude
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as you can see uh chromoly version of
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the
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uh the hanzo um
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super super slack it comes with a 63
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degree head angle
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uh this bike here featured is a medium
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so the reach on this one is 465 mil
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490 on a large for those who are
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interested
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uh 150 millimeter marzuki z1 fork
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up front super short chain stays 417 mil
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chainstay length
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77.5 degree seat seat tube angle
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also comes with an adjustable dropper
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seat post
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um so we can tailor fit for the shorter
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person who might need to reduce the
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travel and still be able to slam the
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cover
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into the into the seat tube fantastic
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paint job as
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we always do with our bikes i think our
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color team are spot on
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this year comes with race face arc rims
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and a shimano drivetrain and brake
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finishing kit race face cockpit
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also available in a frame only we'll be
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arriving later on in the year
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um probably mid-winter
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december january time but yeah overall a
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great package for
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shedding trails with we've just done the
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first ride on the
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new kona hanzo extra slack dude yeah
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and uh it's mint so i'm riding the
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medium which i forgot to mention so i
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measure 178 centimeters
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yeah it's hail stone it's meant to be
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the hottest day of the year isn't it
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yeah
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35 degrees today and it's hail but it's
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nice because it's
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so hot anyway so i'm i'm 178 centimeters
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and i tend to size up
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but scott very wisely has brought a
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medium and i tell you what you can feel
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it because
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there are some corners up on this trail
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they're mega
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uh sharp and on the bigger bikes i
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struggle to get around them
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but on this it was really good it
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changes direction really well
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and scott's just mentioned that it's
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probably partly due to these chainstays
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417 millimeters
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that's super duper short so you got i
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mean you can see it's such a tiny little
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back end and a massive long front end
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very playful and it's actually like i've
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not ridden a hardtail for a long time
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really easy to handle very easy well
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pretty easy to bunny up although i do
6:46
look a bit wooden when i'm doing it
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but yeah i mean i'm really surprised and
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actually these trails are pretty rocky
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and i've not ridden a hardtail for such
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a long time so it's a little bit wary
6:56
but to be fair when i got to the bottom
6:58
felt all right obviously you're not
7:00
going like
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super mega enduro speed but so what i
7:03
was really enjoying it
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feels really good it's mint uh just
7:07
check those geometry numbers because
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like you say i'd be tempted to go for a
7:10
large but scott was right medium is spot
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on for me
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so yeah i mean hopefully we'll get it
7:15
maybe we can get it for a longer term
7:16
review in the future
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so watch out for that but i hope you
7:19
like this first ride review
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uh first ride impression should i say
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and we're gonna go now
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the weather is turning better and get a
7:27
cold ice drink
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see y'all soon work on this bloody good
7:31
fun but
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burn burn and the muscles pretty good
7:36
fun but
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holy crap
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it's one time i sent that one oh he's
7:43
not finished
8:12
yeah sorry i'm being pointed away
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