1996 Kona Kilauea

[sam_shelton]

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.

 

[JRGSXR]

Hi Sam, welcome to the forum. Tidy bike you have there. Looks like you’re doing a fine job of the restoration so far. I think that’s a 94 Kilauea you have though, silver was the 94 colour and that looks like a tange decal on the seat tube. Again that would point to 94. XT thumb shifters sound like a good upgrade to me, I’m not a fan of gripshift either.

 

[sam_shelton]

Hi Sam, welcome to the forum. Tidy bike you have there. Looks like you’re doing a fine job of the restoration so far. I think that’s a 94 Kilauea you have though, silver was the 94 colour and that looks like a tange decal on the seat tube. Again that would point to 94. XT thumb shifters sound like a good upgrade to me, I’m not a fan of gripshift either.

Thanks for the welcome, I could be wrong about the year but thought it was a 96 based on the blue decals. Yes it has a blue tange prestige decal on it. Just went out for a ride on it today.

 

[JRGSXR]

No such luck for me, the rain and wind have moved in. Typical Scottish weather, looks like it’s here all week too .

 

[domo]

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.

Nice that

 

[Pipmeister]

Hi Sam, as JRGSXR pointed out, your bike has aspects of a 1994 model - Tange Prestige Concept Tubing in Silver livery. However the Decals are most defiantly 1996, but those frame are made from Columbus Cyber Tubing.

We have seen a few anomalies with the Kilauea model - could you tell us the Serial Number please, which is stamped into the underside of the Bottom Bracket shell.

Pip

 

[Paul R]

Welcome, Really nice bike

 

[al-onestare]

Hi Sam, as JRGSXR pointed out, your bike has aspects of a 1994 model - Tange Prestige Concept Tubing in Silver livery. However the Decals are most defiantly 1996, but those frame are made from Columbus Cyber Tubing.

We have seen a few anomalies with the Kilauea model - could you tell us the Serial Number please, which is stamped into the underside of the Bottom Bracket shell.

Pip

Exactly this; a very interesting looking curiousity. I don't recall seeing one in this livery. Could it be a really well done restoration?

 

[sam_shelton]

Hi Sam, as JRGSXR pointed out, your bike has aspects of a 1994 model - Tange Prestige Concept Tubing in Silver livery. However the Decals are most defiantly 1996, but those frame are made from Columbus Cyber Tubing.

We have seen a few anomalies with the Kilauea model - could you tell us the Serial Number please, which is stamped into the underside of the Bottom Bracket shell.

Pip

 

[sam_shelton]

Hi All,

I looked at the serial number on the bottom of the bike and it is F5040802 (see images). It seems like there are a few possibilities then, it was an old 94 frame that was in the factory and got sold later and later decals added. Alternatively it could have had new decals added later by the owner. If this happened then it must have happened fairly early on, maybe in 96 as they look pretty well aged as well. The other possibility is it was restored at some point. If that happened then again, I think it must have happened a long time ago as it is fairly well worn. The guy I got it from was the original owner and he never mentioned repainting or replacing decals. I didn’t realise it was such an interesting anomaly! Would be interesting to get to the bottom of it!