1993 custom Kona Explosif

[riddim-track]

Hi mates;

I just would like to share with you all my "adventure" that took almost one year to build up my dream.

Well, I think it´s important to explain that this project started for the following reason: I started racing on 1993, when I was 14, with a white Kona Lava Dome which my father bought with lots of economical efforts on that moment. Then, I just had the option of dreaming with the incredible parts and bikes I used to see on the magazines and so on. I still can remember myself sleeping with the ´93 Kona catalogue under my pillow...on teh spanish adverts, the slogan was "When a bike dreams, dreams that she´s a Kona". It sounded really nice to us.
And my dream was, owning an incredible Kona Explosif.

Now, this bike at my home. Yes, 20 years later, but I still have the same feeling I had on that time.

It took me, as I said almost one year. Many many hours spent "diving" on the internet, buying and selling parts here at RB, the spanish Foromtb.com and the eBay. Also, I had to find the correct person to repaint the frame, do some trips around Spain to collect and exchange parts...yes it was tough, but at the same time exciting.

The most difficult parts to find were; the Rock Shox SL Ti forks, the Disk Drive wheel and the frame (finally I had to buy a complete bike, then split it to get cash and buy other components).

Then I was collecting the parts at my living room step by step, trying to think how the bike should look chromatic wise, and remembering those components I was dreaming about 20 years ago.

So the result is as follows. Please note that the following pics are not definitive, as I took hem with my smartphone. The pedals are still missing and there are some little details that have to be finished.

If someone does understand a little bit of spanish, or just want to follow all my work step by step with pictures and so on, here´s the link to my post at the spanish Foromtb: http://www.foromtb.com/showthread.php?t=972539

Hope you like it, as I also I´m enjoying it. First pictures with all the splitted on my living room´s couch:

It's a lucky man that's allowed to keep bike parts on the couch

Nice build too, your time and patience paid off.

 

[Rich]

Great build, great story, thanks for sharing

Rich

 

[Josh#78]

Lovely looking steed that, with some choice parts. I would have thought you would have gone with Marzocchi forks, as Kona favoured these?
Rear Cassette looks on the big side? What is it 11-32?
Love the colour, is it paint or powder coat?.

Thanks everybody for the compliments, it´s nice to hear from you all that it´s a lovely bike.

Well, in Spain, Motor Dealer (the distributor on that time) gave you the option of mounting Marzocchi, Rock Shox or Tange Struts forks. I just choose the SL Ti because I think it´s probably the best fork of that age, and it looks superb, of course.

The cassette is 12-32. Regarding the paint job, it´s painted not powder coated, and the decals came from Mr. Gil. We found a colour really close to the original, called "English Green" on our colour palette. It really looks nice. Love this colour, and the vintage look it gives to the bike!

 

[HastobeKona]

Muy linda

 

[We_are_Stevo]

Qué hermosa bicicleta...

...estoy verde de envidia

 

[MiniNinjaRob]

A great story which explains a great bike. The cream tyres work well with the build I reckon, which is pretty rare!

 

[Josh#78]

Muy linda

Muchas gracias!

Qué hermosa bicicleta...

...estoy verde de envidia

Hehehehe...verde, como el de ésta Kona?

Thanks everybody for the compliments! It took me a lot of time (and money) to build it up, but now I´m really proud of it!

 

[al-onestare]

...so how does she ride? ;-)

 

[Josh#78]

...so how does she ride? ;-)

Well, by the moment I didn´t have the opportunity to go on a ride with her... :cry:

I promise some feed back and nice pics!

 

[Josh#78]

It´s been a long time since I´ve finalized this restoration and build up... And it has been stopped at my home until this last weekend! :facepalm:

My job doesn´t give much time to enjoy riding my bikes, so I took advantage of a really strange and warm autumn here in the Basque Country, and went for a ride together with some colleagues and retro-riders of the North part of Spain.

I made some changes on this so special Explosif, like the OnZa H.O. cantis and most important the wheelset. The Disk Drive is still usable but I don´t want to put it on the rocks 23 years later, and I also don´t want to use the the Tioga Psycho butterscotch tyres (too hard to find a NOS set, and of course too expensive).
So I decided mounting another nice wheelset composed of Mavic SUP 217 ceramic rims, TTP (Tandem Titanium Project) titanium hubs made in Basque Country since 1991, and Tioga Psycho-K amberwall tyres (were NOS).

And the result is as you can see on the pics. I think the look is still awesome even without the initial wheelset, what do you think?

About the ride, it was 30 kms with 1.300meters of positive height gained, mixing gravel paths, hard pack and muddy singletracks and a tricky downhill composed of rocks, roots and a kind of peat moss that covered "nice" traps...

The Explosif was very reactive and rigid going uphill, and tough and demanding when I´ve tried to go faster, also because of its racing geometries (my back and neck still hurts!). But I was riding her with a big smile painted on my face during all the ride.

As you can also see on the pics, I made a kind of "cosplay" and was dressed in early 90´s Kona jersey, the Shoei-Troy Lee Designs helmet, Bollé sunglasses and so on. Really funny how the rest of the bikers on the tracks looked at me.

Hope you like the story and the pics as I did!

Cheers

Josh