Drewson":23jjk1sy said:
I was lucky enough to find one of these and i understand it to be an 88/89 model....
That is a good example, I must say. They're all unique of course because the paint was done by hand by Paul Brodie under the contract that he had with Kona at that point, and that seems a particularly good one, as well as being so well-preserved.
My understanding of the model year is that by the later definitions that is a 1989 model, even though it may have been both built and purchased in 1988. But that's the same as now, when you could have bought a 2009 Kona any time from Sep 2008 onwards. But lots of owners regard their '1989' bike as a 1988, so why not? I call them 1988/89 myself just as you do, but if you wanted to call it a 1988, I don't think you'd find Kona arguing with you.
But, as has been said, not 1987. There is no such thing as a 1987 Kona. A 1987 Lava Dome was a 1987 Cascade Lava Dome, not a Kona. And a 1987 Lava Dome didn't look like a Kona either. Cascades were designed by Joe Murray, but it was only when Paul Brodie went independent from Rocky Mountain and started working with Kona that the Kona 'look' was established.