First build - Kona Hahanna 96

[mr.Maverick]

Hi everyone! A new member here, been admiring all the cool RBs on this forum for a few months and have been tossing back and forth if I should try one myself. Guess this thread answers what I decided to do

So I found a 96 (I think, correct me if I'm wrong) Kona Hahanna from a local auction for pretty cheap and thought "what the hell", it's relatively cheap so I'll give it a try. I'm not a patient person but I've decided that the timespan for this project is about a year. Main reason being that I have a 2010 Kona Cinder Cone as my main bike which I'm upgrading slowly so I have to spread my spending between these two projects. Anyways I hope that in a year I will have a cool retro bike and exactly my kind of main bike.

I'm not going to be too rigid with keeping the Hahanna as authentic as possible. I'm going in the direction of Urban-Modern-Retro. Because of the relative longevity of the project I'm first going to make the bike driveable and put the esthetic side together in the end. At this point it's just a lot of ideas without a sharp direction but we'll see what happens. Hope you enjoy watching the build materialize

 

[BobCatMax]

it's a 96

my missus has exactly the same one, albeit a little bit smaller

 

[hydorah]

Good for you

Should be good

Never understood the attraction of those terrible kick stands, must be like dragging a boat anchor about with you

Hope fully it hasn't made a mess of the paint!

 

[beechdaleboy]

yep,
loose the kick stand and the reflector on the back wheel,love the bike.

 

[mr.Maverick]

Going to pick up the bike in 6 hours, excited!

I was thinking EXACTLY same as you guys. Definitely gonna lose the kickstand and reflector I really hope the painjob is everywhere as good as it looks like in the picture, would save a lot of time and $$ and also keep the bike a lil bit original. Hopefully I get it stripped and washed during the next two days so I'd have some pics to post and could scetch some plan about the rebuild.

I've already scavenged and ordered a riser bar, grips, stem, new tires, pedals, some tools, workstand and seat. I'll see what I'm gonna do with the cranks, the old r.derailleur will become tensioner, the mudguards will go, the tire valves need new caps.. Can't wait to get started

 

[mr.Maverick]

Yippee! Finally got the bike! Man I think it's beatiful!

Although with some mixed feelings. The bike was very affordable but there was no mentioning of the rustiness. There are some small scratches on the frame with little bit of rust in them and also all nuts and bolts are more or less rusty. On the plus side the bike works nicely but then again the seatpost is also stuck, like S T U C K.

Well, it's easy to decide where to start: the seatpost. Once I get it out (fingers crossed) I'll strip the whole bike and take it to professional painters. I'm gonna have them sandblast the bike so that all rust and paint will take the highway. Then I'll have them paint it, something very low-key like white or nightsky blue. The fork seems to be good to go, so that's a definite plus. Anyways, this means I need to get some new decals for it.

If anyone can recommend Kona frame decals selling online shop I'd greatly appreciate it Oh, they should also deliver to Finland..

Here are some pics I snapped today, I'll keep posting as the frustration grows

edit: Oh yeah! Got the seatpost out with civilized discussion and some brawling. Guess it was a little rusty.. (pic)

 

[beechdaleboy]

rusteeeee,,,
well done that man

 

[michael franks]

If you have problems with the seatpost theres a whole load of help available here:

/www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=141048

including a link to Sheldon Brown's page on the subject.

Good luck with your build.

 

[coomber]

Lovely little bike you have here

 

[mr.Maverick]

Thanks for support guys, appreciate it! I really think I got lucky to have found this for my first build

If you have problems with the seatpost theres a whole load of help available here:

/www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=141048

including a link to Sheldon Brown's page on the subject.

Good luck with your build.

That's the one I checked before starting to wrestle the seatpost free. When I heard the first screeches Sheldon's writing "Free at last" echoed in my head Truly a moment of pure joy!