2000 Kona King Kahuna – do they exist?

[pebble]

What Mountain Bike Summer 2000 copy. You could try contacting Guy Kestavan who was the product editor at the time who may have more information. Steve Worland consultant editor sadly no longer with us.

 

[Pipmeister]

What Mountain Bike Summer 2000 copy. You could try contacting Guy Kestavan who was the product editor at the time who may have more information. Steve Worland consultant editor sadly no longer with us.

Yes I may well do that, although I have had an idea who could answer the question.

I have a feeling that the bike in the review belongs to JP Saville who at the time was running Second Level Sport, the U.K. Distributor for Kona. It has many of the same features as the bike in the magazine review - early 1997 cable stops, mainly 1998 Decals with a 2000 Headtube Decal. J.P.'s has had a Disc Tab added and a Decal on the Downtube, but he may have owned the bike at the time or ended up with the frame - check out what he has to say about it now after all these years .

A picture of J.P.'s King Kahuna from a couple of years ago outside his shop in Worthing. I went there to visit him and had a fascinating chat on all things Kona.

JPs King Kahuna by Philip Mock, on Flickr

If the bike in the review isn't his actual frame, he may know if Kona produced any 2000 King Kahunas - I don't know why I didn't think of this before .

Pip.

 

[Pipmeister]

Re:

Rightyho, I wrote to JP and have now received a reply from him.

The bike featured in What Mountain Bike test review is indeed his bike, which he still owns. The magazine mentioned that the bike ridden in the test is a 1999 model, but I can say that it is a 1997.

JP says that he cannot recall importing any 2000 King Kahunas, and there was clearly none available for What Mountain Bike magazine to use for the test review - even by the summer of 2000.

I don't think that we should expect a more certain answer to my original question; if you refer back to my post Fri 18th Oct, these guys are working from memory and this is something from 20 years ago.

It would appear then that the bike featured in the 2000 catalogue is as I thought, some sort of artist's impression or fabricated model. It certainly is not a King Kahuna as it has no Gusseting on the Top Tube and Down Tube junction with the Head Tube.

It is of note, the King Kahuna isn't the only bike in the 2000 catalogue that is a fabricated model - but that's another story!

Pip.

 

[Pipmeister]

Re:

This is a little update on my investigation, which I think is already conclusive.

I did write to Guy Kestavan as suggested by pebble, and have now received a reply from him. Sadly he was also unable to shed any light on the subject. He was surprised that JP wasn't aware of any 2000 King Kahunas, which I take as; if JP doesn't know of any, then they weren't brought into the U.K. He did suggest contacting Kona directly, although I have already explained why I think this wouldn't reveal anything in my post Fri Oct 18, 2019.

I am curious to know however what was used for the pictures in the 2000 Catalogue. To me they all seem to be some sort of Artist's Impression, rather than a photograph. Indeed, the illustrations of both the King Kahuna and the Score are clearly not those bikes. Neither have any gusseting to the Top Tube and Down Tube, and the "Score" in the picture is a 19" frame, which wasn't even advertised and as far as we know wasn't produced.

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/v/M ... 3.JPG.html

Likewise the Explosif is a fabricated mock-up, and not even made of Aluminium / Scandium :shock: . It is clearly a Steel frame in the Catalogue illustration, and I can demonstrate the difference as I own a 2000 Explosif.

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/v/M ... 4.JPG.html

Pip

 

[al-onestare]

Little bump to this thread. JP was out on his KK a few days back.

Those with eagle eyes, yes, that looks like a Ti O-Beam