1994 Kona Kilauea

[benjabbi]

I picked this up the other day from @Neilios on here, he very kindly threw in the stem and a few other bits, thanks Neil.
This is going to need a repaint and I'm not 100% sure on colour or build direction yet.
The frame seems to be exactly the same as my Explosif? That's a later 94 one without the Ultrastrong down tube. From what I can tell the Explosif was a full Tange frame where the Kilauea had a more generic 4130 rear triangle. If anyone can confirm this it would be appreciated.
It's pretty light at 1900g, I might have to strip and weigh the Explosif to see if there's any difference.
My builds usually go together quickly, this will be a slow burner, so I'll try to document it a bit better than usual!

 

[Neilios]

I'm looking forward to seeing this get some love. Glad you had a fork, it came to me with some RC35s on it that I needed for a build for my wife.

 

[haggis]

Given the Kilauea was Tange Prestige Concept Tapered Ovalised DB tubing I doubt the rear end was standard 4130. Mine is up the loft and it's too late to head up there now to check the decal.

 

[benjabbi]

@haggis you could well be right, I'm just making (probably bad) assumptions from the text in the 94 catalogue. I'd love to know for sure, like I said, this frame is eerily similar to my Explosif. I wonder if when the Ultrastrong tubing ran out they just painted up Kilauea frames as Explosifs? I think I'm definitely going to dismantle the Explosif to see if there is a weight difference!

 

[haggis]

Never noticed that before but I'm sure the 95 frame which I have is the same as the 94 and there's no mention of that in the 95 catalogue. Often when frames have the bling main tubes it's something like Reynolds 725 that makes up the rear triangle. Mine got hit by a car a number of years back and when I eventually got it repaired by Argos that's what they welded in place. I imagine at the time whatever the Tange equivalent was, that would be what would be used. In the 95 catalogue the cinder cone is the same weight as the Kilauea so it must have decent tubing all round as well. Not that I'm saying 4130 is rubbish by any means, I would just think certainly on the 2nd from top Steel frame, voted bike of the year in 93, it would be something a bit more posh.

 

[haggis]

Just looking along the bottom of both the catalogue pages there in big lettering it says Heat Treated Steel. My metallurgy and frame tubing knowledge is fairly basic but off the top of my head Reynolds 525 is generic 4130. 725 is the next step up. Difference between the two is that 725 is heat treated so it must be an equivalent. Each manufacturer has its own version of the same tubing be it Tange, Columbus, Reynolds or True Temper. Stands to reason there would be equivalent Tange tubing for rear stays. Current website names Champion tubing as the one below the basic Prestige. At the time I thing I remember something about Tange OS tubing. OS being oversized which I think was on some Marin bikes.

 

[benjabbi]

Thanks @haggis that all makes perfect sense, when I said 'more generic' I didn't mean it in a bad way, the tubing could be the exact same wall thicknesses, diameters and heat treating, just not Tange branded, so cheaper, maybe?
I dismantled the Explosif this morning because I was intrigued and wanted to know.
The Kilauea is 4g lighter, I think that pretty much confirms they are the same frame. The tubing diameters and flaring etc look identical.
Not sure how I feel about this!

 

[magas]

what makes the bike an Explosif in the brochure's and in flesh is the build kit and the decals - its that simple and it's all about marketing. .

Anyway, interesting to see this. I do also have a 94 Explosif frame in 18". I guess I had it on the scales. Will have a look for the weight of it.

 

[magas]

there you go - https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/1994-kona-explosif-my-latest-find.298155/page-3

mine weighted 1948 gr. (a 18" with fluted downtube). But weight is with headsetcup's still in place. No idea whats the weight of them (Kona Impact stuff) but would assume that the weight of them is in the region of 40 gr. so in the end frames weight is also 1900 gr. ,give and take.

 

[benjabbi]

Hi @magas, yes I agree, most companies did (and still do) use the same frame with different build kits for different models. Nothing wrong with that at all
The marketing for this though says that the Kilauea and Explosif had different frames.
I can only assume that when the Ultrastrong tubing stopped being produced and Kona still had Explosif orders to fill, they did the next best thing and painted up Kilauea frames as Explosifs.
I've come to realise it doesn't really matter much to me, still a nice bit of kit whatever, just found it interesting, that's all.
I think I'll put a suspension fork on this one, makes it different enough to justify keeping both of them!