1995 kona lava dome. Plus a P7.

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Once I got it back home I took some more pics.


It’s obviously been well used, but looked after fairly well. It’s got a lot of paint chips in the usual areas. but someone’s touched them all up before they’ve rusted.

I love the details and badging on Konas of this era, especially 94-96. Some great colour schemes and understated but well designed graphics.
I do wonder if they were a little too understated for the market, hence them going back to ‘shoutier’ stuff 97-onwards.









I took it on a ride, local reservoir 45min loop.
Nearly died a couple of times because of those damn tyres.


I also found the brake levers uncomfortable, I remember criticism being levelled at them when new that they just don’t work with gripshift, which is entirely correct.

So, I bought some other brakes.


You’ll also notice the same seller had a matching rear mech so I had that too.
This will set the tone for the rest of the build, as ‘96 XT would be bang on date and spec wise as upgrades for a 1995 bike that came with LX/STX.
I also remember the huge (and tbh, justified) hype when V-brakes dropped, and if someone was gunna go out and buy one thing as an upgrade it would undoubtedly be those.

 

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More eBay purchases got me a pretty tidy wheelset. ‘96 XT parralax hubs in mint condition, with a corresponding XT cassette fitted that looked brand new. The skewers were also perfect, and they were laced with DT Swiss spokes to mavic 230sbp rims, with the nice little touch of purple nipples.
The rims are amazingly good condition for a rim that has a reputation for being very light but not that tough. They’re perfectly true with no dings and no brake wear, so I think they’ve not been used a lot. The only thing that lets them down is the decals.
I bought these from the Czech Republic (I think) back before brexshit, so they were a very good deal, cheaper than I could buy in the uk even with the shipping. Amazingly the same seller also had the correct size and pull XT mech for sale too, so that went in the same package.
My groupset was coming together pretty nicely at this point.

More purchases got me a USE seatpost to continue the purple theme, the correct shim for it, and some NOS gripshift srt-800 X-rays to replace the modern ones. I thought about rapidfire but decided to with gripshift as it’s a bit of a kona ‘thing’.

 

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It was at about this time I got massively distracted by other bike projects (not to mention the 10 cars, motorbike or two, and two houses) and although I fitted up all the parts I’d bought, I didn’t take any pics of it all fitted and now the bike is at my other house 150 miles away…

But the first distraction was this. I’d been looking for a very small framed steel bike from the period for my mrs for absolutely ages. Like 3 years!
She’d had a trek Jack which I’d bought for her almost new about 10 years ago. Although it was perfectly sized for diminutive riders (she’s 5’3”) it was a bloody lump, and dead to ride so a replacement was in order.
After a very long time of absolutely everything being 17”+, This appeared on eBay. It cost me £140 which by this point I’d have paid just for the frame let alone a complete bike.

The frame is 1995 vintage and is near mint. Not a spot of rust, and just a few small areas of lacquer rub/chipping. I was over the moon!
It’s built up with most of the components from a slighlty earlier claud butler, according to the seller. Well everything that would fit anyway. The rest is typical cheapest of the cheap crappy bike shop stuff, like the horrible adjustable stem, risers and terrible suntour fork. The reason for this is undoubtedly that it’s a 1” steerer model and it was all any bike shop could source in that size.
Most of the groupset is LX or XT though which is good, the vuelta rims seem decent enough condition, and the black completes look pretty sweet against the nickel frame. The seat and post is passable for now.
It’s obviously a cut above the trek Jack to ride, it’s got a real zip to it even weighed down with the few rubbish components.
It was confirmed she liked it and the Jack was moved on.

 

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I can’t quite convey how much I hated those forks on that bike. The mrs didn’t mind them, but it was mostly because she knew no better, the ones on the Jack having been nearly as bad.
They just affronted me each time I looked at it!

I had some searches saved for 1” steerer forks, and most of what popped up was just junk. I think a P7 needs something pretty decent, I toyed with throwing some money at some pace but the only 1” ones that came up were £££.

Then one day, 3.5 years after buying the bike, a ‘special’ search pinged a result. Tbh it was so long since I’d set it up I’d entirely forgotten about it, but it told me there was a new listing with the words ‘orange’ ‘f7’ and ‘fork’ in it.
Thinking it was too good to be true, I clicked the listing and nearly fell off the sofa.
A mint pair of 1” threaded steerer nickel F7 with the right length steerer for a 15” frame. I had to put my phone down and go get a drink before coming back and looking at the advert again just to be sure.
The guy was selling other retro orange parts and seemed genuine and to know what he was talking about, so payment was duly made and I went to check the mail to see if they’d been delivered yet

A few days of constantly watching for the postman later, and I had these-


They’re missing the f7 sticker on one side, otherwise they’re perfect.


So, that frame is now a frameset!

The suntours were ripped off asap, where I found this exclent piece of work obviously done by a highly skilled cycle mechanic


Not that it mattered, the race was swapped over and everything reassembled. SO much better.




I really need to sort a bar and stem for it now to finish it off.
The decals need replacing on either the frame or fork or both too, as they’re mismatched years. I think black is ‘95 and orange is ‘96? Not sure wether to stick with the understated look or go orange on an orange.

 

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I’d also managed to get distracted and buy another bike. It was being sold by a friend of a friend locally and was too good to pass up. It was too small but it was well priced so I convinced myself to give it a go.


It was well specced and really nice condition. The satin finishes kona where doing at the time were awesome.





I rode it a few times and as expected, it was too small. Konas seem to come up small against other brands anyway, the lava dome is a 20” but feels like a 19” anything else. So a 18” felt very small.
As the frames are identical spec-wise I considered swapping everything over off this, but with the upgrades I’d already made there seemed little point. As funky as the curve brakes are, functionally they’re not as good as the XT, and the Judy SL have to be the most underwhelming fork ever. Given the hype they used to get at the time im bemused that anyone thinks they’re good. A contemporary Marzocchi z1 embarrasses them in every way. Plus, I’m kinda enjoying being rigid at the mo.

So I sold it on to a collector. I made a little which finances more parts, but the experience really galvanised what I was and wasn’t looking for in the bikes I was buying and building.