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This is a 1996 King Kahuna that has the 6-4 Rear Triangle. They feature the flatter Top Tube with shorter Seat Tube extension. The seller doesn’t seem to be entirely aware of its redeeming features and rarity.
I now have documented 7 examples of confirmed 1996 King Kahuna bikes or frames, and this 17" is within a few digits of the other documented 17" frames.
It has been mentioned in my Kona Titanium Frame Serial Numbers thread here:
If I may say, I think that there could be some confusion caused by the Hei Hei Decal at the front of the Top Tube.
Both the 1996 and 1997 King Kahuna frames also feature the Hei Hei Decal on the Top Tube.
The 1996 K.K. has “King Kahuna 6-4” on the Seat Stays, while the 1997 K.K. has “King Kahuna” on the Seat Stays.
The 1996 King Kahuna Decals were available in either Gold-ish, and rather more rarely, in Blue.
The 1995 Hei Hei Decals were available in Gold-ish or off-White.
The 1996 King Kahuna has the same flatter Top Tube geometry of a 1995 Hei Hei, so along with the Gold-ish Decals seen on the bike for sale, this could be where there is some confusion over what this bike is.
I’m at work now, but I can put up some pictures later to explain what I mean.
Rightyho Martin, I’ll pop something up on here when I get home this evening.
Meanwhile, you may notice the Jungle style logo in the pictures of 1996 King Kahuna for sale, which were first introduced on the 1996 range. These are the Hei Hei & King Kahuna 6-4 Decal, but obviously not the Down Tube Decal.
Also bare in mind decals were easily and often inter-changeable and changed on these. With the pretty big design font change between 96 and 97, I'm not super-surprised there were some variants. Which is pretty cool.
Martin, you are indeed correct that the 1996 Kona range seem to have Blue Decals throughout the line-up – The 1996 catalogue show this, and I can’t currently find exception to this after a quick look at my records.
However, 1996 was the first year that the Jungle Font was introduced, although not over the entire frame. The Down Tube remained in the Block Font from the previous year.
The 1995 catalogue shows the Hei Hei with Gold-ish Decals, and we see many of the 1995 line-up with the same colour. The Font however is entirely Block with no Jungle style.
The 1996 King Kahuna we understand was developed in response to some Team Riders claiming that the Hei Hei was flexing too much when raced. So the 6-4 Rear Triangle was used to stiffen up the back end. Apparently 6-4 is very difficult to work and costly to manufacture. There is some talk of this in my Kona Ti Serial Number thread: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=396211&p=2927242&hilit
The 1996 A5 flip-over Catalogue shows a very poor artist’s impression of the King Kahuna with Blue Decals, but from my records, the Blue seem to be much less common than the Gold-ish Decals. Like the rest of the 1996 line-up, the Jungle Font was a feature of the 1996 King Kahuna, and this can be seen on the bike for sale.
Finally the 1996 and 1997 King Kahuna is often mistaken for the Hei Hei. Even Kona were calling it “Hei Hei King Kahuna" in 1996. See Invoice below from Ferndale for the excellent 1996 example on this site Serial No: B19872-64. The Hei Hei Decal on the King Kahuna frame adds to the confusion, but the K.K. and H.H. are both different tubing from each other.
this is my KK that is up for sale. I didn't put it on RB as I have been a long time lurker but with nothing interesting to say I have never posted.
I got the frame from Recycle in Croydon in 1997 for £400 plus the trade-in of a 1995 Kona Kileawa (£600). it was sold as a 1995 KK to me so if I have got the description wrong I am sorry.
Are they really that rare?
I have enjoyed it over the years and I will be sad to see it go - if it makes the starting price? but I hope someone else enjoys it as much as me.
