sam_shelton
Dirt Disciple
Hi,
I am fairly new here but thought I would post about the bike that got me into retro bikes. As a now nearly 40 something with an 8 year old son, I have been revisiting my youth and dragging out some of my old stuff from the parents loft. As a kid, I spent a lot of time out on my bike and was fortunate enough to live in a part of Nottingham that had a lot of hills and woodland and there were a lot of trails cut into those woods. We didn’t have a huge amount of money so most of my bikes were Raleigh. I had a Draken, an activator and later had an Ammaco. They all lived a very hard life and unfortunately the two Raleigh’s got stolen. There were a few kids around the area with exotic bikes! A few Kona’s and one kid has an off-road pro flex. I loved the Kona’s as they had a really cool look, but unfortunately it was never going to happen.
Fast forward a few decades and I am now on a decent salary and have a lot of tools and into restoring things. I found this about a year ago and had to have it. It is a 1996 Kona Kilauea 20”. It doesn’t have all the original parts but I think they are pretty much all period and the guy I bought it from was the original owner and built it himself. When I got it it was tired and hadn’t been used in more than 10years. I have rebuilt the pace shocks as the elastomers were dust. It has xt and xtr components and hope ti-glide hubs. My plan is to change the Sachs grip shift to xt thumbshifters. I am also planning to change the headset as there is some play and try to restore the paint as there are several areas where it has rubbed through and the chain stay is poor.
It is great to ride and really love the look of it. Let me know what you think and any ideas for restoring or preserving it.
Early pics are as it is now, later pics with the bar ends and collapsed forks were as I got it.
I am fairly new here but thought I would post about the bike that got me into retro bikes. As a now nearly 40 something with an 8 year old son, I have been revisiting my youth and dragging out some of my old stuff from the parents loft. As a kid, I spent a lot of time out on my bike and was fortunate enough to live in a part of Nottingham that had a lot of hills and woodland and there were a lot of trails cut into those woods. We didn’t have a huge amount of money so most of my bikes were Raleigh. I had a Draken, an activator and later had an Ammaco. They all lived a very hard life and unfortunately the two Raleigh’s got stolen. There were a few kids around the area with exotic bikes! A few Kona’s and one kid has an off-road pro flex. I loved the Kona’s as they had a really cool look, but unfortunately it was never going to happen.
Fast forward a few decades and I am now on a decent salary and have a lot of tools and into restoring things. I found this about a year ago and had to have it. It is a 1996 Kona Kilauea 20”. It doesn’t have all the original parts but I think they are pretty much all period and the guy I bought it from was the original owner and built it himself. When I got it it was tired and hadn’t been used in more than 10years. I have rebuilt the pace shocks as the elastomers were dust. It has xt and xtr components and hope ti-glide hubs. My plan is to change the Sachs grip shift to xt thumbshifters. I am also planning to change the headset as there is some play and try to restore the paint as there are several areas where it has rubbed through and the chain stay is poor.
It is great to ride and really love the look of it. Let me know what you think and any ideas for restoring or preserving it.
Early pics are as it is now, later pics with the bar ends and collapsed forks were as I got it.
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