1997 Kona Hot Stars n Bars

[Skynet]

Hi Martin, Possibly, they arrived from across the Channel.

It's mostly in one piece now and the last bits arrived today, the Hope Space Doctor spacers and the Chris King patriot headset. Will be getting the LBS to swap headset. Might also be getting some Nokon cables from someone on here, but the ones on it are fine so no rush to change them.

 

[Skynet]

Re:

It's lives! Well it's been done for a while but not had a decent photo until now.

Had the headset swapped for the Chris King, which also goes well with the fork adjuster, and used the Kapz top cap which also saves a massive 8g (mainly down to the alloy bolt).

We decided to use the SLR saddle in the end rather than one of the Flite’s as it’s more comfortable. Shame it’s white but it looks fine. Could do with a slightly shorter stem and not keen on the bar so might swap them so straights, but that's nothing.

The bike weighs a tad over 23lb with flats, which are fairly lardy, 22 ¾lb with XTR SPD’s.

So that’s it until winter when the rear end will be tidied up.

The specs are:

• Frame: 18” 1997 Kona Hot Stars & Bars, Reynolds 853
• Fork: Fox Forx F80 RLC

• Headset: Chris King patriot
• Stem: Easton EA50 100mm, 8 degree, polished
• Handlebar: Ritchey Classic silver, 10 degree sweep
• Top Cap: Custom by Kapz
• Headset spacers: Hope Space Doctor, silver
• Grips: Ritchey WCS Truegrips
• Brake levers: Avid Ultimate Black Ops Research, 16th May 2006
• Brakes: Avid Ultimate Black Ops Research V's

• Shifter: SRAM X0 Grip Shift, silver
• Rear derailleur: SRAM X0 Type 2, silver, medium cage
• Cassette: Shimano XT M771 10 speed, 11-36
• Chain: SRAM PC1091
• Cranks: Middleburn RS8 170mm, polished
• Chainrings: Middleburn TT Uno 30T direct mount, thick/thin
• Bottom bracket: Hope stainless steel Hollowtech 2, red

• Wheels: Mavic Crossmax SL SSC
• Tyres: Schwalbe Fast Fred 2.0 UST, Qualifying Compound

• Saddle: Selle Italia SLR Contador Limited Edition
• Seatpost: Tune Starkes Stück 27.0x340mm
• Seatpost binder: Kona

• Bottle Cage: Specialized E-Cage titanium, polished

 

[Skynet]

Just a quick update. For various reason yesterday was the first time my brothers took it out for a proper ride. Both thought it rode really well. My bother (the one who it was built for) prefers wider bars and a shorter stem and put on what he had, but we'll change them to fit in with the retro look.

My elder bother recently bought a Trek FS 29'er and said "That Kona is amazing to ride, I was really happy with my bike until I had a go on that". Both even like the gripshift.

They also both thought the brakes worked better than many discs, although that probably depends on the weather.

So the mix of the old and new seems to have worked out really well.

 

[semi-school]

Re: hot

I'm not often a fan of the old frame with non-period parts builds, but ya, that Hot rocks! Looks like a lot of fun.

 

[al-onestare]

Re: Re:

Yep, liberally applied and a pain to remove, wasn't sticky but solid.

The frame number's H09611049

Spent more time spec'ing it up than doing anything with it, keep flipping between period and modern.

Hey there. A very long time bump to a wonderful bike.

Fast forward from 2014, I was thinking about how few Hot's I've seen from this small window of time; the ill-fated Altitude partnership.

Now we know what we know, the serial number indicates 1996, November, #49. So this would be right at the end of the Altitude production run as we can pretty confidently say, it was during early 1997 the production switched to Enigma. You can argue that it's amazing this one even exists with very strong rumours that the Hots were snapping like crazy although I really do think that's more to do with folks riding them much harder than they had previously, thanks to the advances in suspension technology, the widening profile of the sport and increased trail variety.

Anyway, we also know that the Altitude Caldera's have some very odd SNs with Hot prefixes. I wanted to compare this to that list so here goes:

Caldera owner 1 (currently unknown, sold on Facebook in September 2016): CA9609012, Poopsy Blue, 16"
Caldera owner 2: HO 9607032, different blue, 19"
My Caldera: CA 9609046, Poopsy Blue, 20"
Caldera owner 4: CA 9609144, Molotov Red, 18"
Caldera owner 5: HO 9610031 (TBC), Poopsy Blue, 18"
Your Hot: HO 9611049, 18"

What does this prove? Not much other than things were all over the place back then

How's she been to ride?

 

[Skynet]

Hi, It's been a great combination, lovely frame, good suspension and excellent shifting. I didn't know exactly when it was built so thanks for that. I can't see why they'd any more fragile than other 853 frames either, they weren't some random cowboy outfit.

 

[al-onestare]

Well, I don't want to distract this thread any further. Much as I'd love to say Altitude knew what they were doing, evidence and reading between the lines indicates otherwise. All the details on this light reading thread viewtopic.php?f=6&t=337664

 

[Skynet]

I don't know for sure but at least this one's still in one piece. Another thing is they became obsessed about weight for a while so quite a few companies had problems with breakages. Sounds like after Altitude finished making them they became beefier but they'll have only done what Kona had asked or at least signed off.

 

[bills_shack]

Re:

Thays a very nice machine.

I always lusted after this in the 1997 catalogue. Never seen one in person.

 

[Skynet]

Re:

Thanks, 1x still looks weird to me otherwise it did turn out nicely. Stars n Bars was my favourite Kona paintjob but don't think I'd ever seen it in real life until I got this.