Help identify my Kona please

[digger dog]

Hi, can anyone help me identify this kona? I picked it up today for £50 which seemed ok. It may have been repeated as the decals don't look quite right and there's an oval sticker on the steering tube that's black like the frame. The only serial number I can see is fy007 but this is on the cable guide under the BB. Any help would be appreciated, pretty sure it's a steel frame, thanks

 

[digger dog]

Resprayed not repeated (I hate auto correct!)

 

[digger dog]

Serial number yf007 (not fy007)

 

[digger dog]

Do all konas have a frame/ serial number?

 

[murphy79]

Hi, my first guess would be a 1992 frame. That would match the cable routing and the remaining decals, and the oval headtube badge. Difficult to know which model though, although I would guess lower end as it doesn't appear to have the taper at the bottom of the seat tube that the mid-range models had or the bulge that the prestige tubed Explosif had.

All Konas should have a S/N, if that is a respray then it might have filled in the number on the frame. I would expect that to be something in the format of F2XXXXXX (or sometimes A2, T2 or H2) where the first letter indicates where the frame was made and the second is the year, third and fourth are the month. The S/N is typically under the BB shell. There are often other numbers stamped under there, no idea what they mean though, so that might be what you are seeing with the yf007.

 

[digger dog]

Thanks, that helps. I'll investigate further

 

[digger dog]

I've revealed the steering tube decal, it's a pink and yellow jagged swirl. The original colour is a pale gloss grey. The brazeons on the rear seat stays are not welded to the stays like the 1992 ones but are flush mount like the 93/94 era. Any ideas?

 

[murphy79]

The spiral headtube logo would mean '93 to '96. The grey doesn't match any bikes that I am aware of, the only grey's I can think of were more metallic. So maybe that isn't the original colour either. You could check the inside headtube or BB shell to see if there is any over-spray. The seatpost does look like a Kona O-Beam which, if original to the bike, would date it to '94 as I think that was the only year they used that. Impossible to tell if any of the other parts are original, a real mix though.

If it is a '94 then it could be anything from a Cinder Cone down (the higher frames would have a seat tube bulge at the BB). Only the S/N would give the true answer on the year, then weighing the bare frame might help with working out roughly which model it is. Cinder Cone/Lava Dome were the same double-butted Tange frame, and the Fire Mountain/Hahanna were plain gauge Tange.

 

[digger dog]

Many thanks for that, pretty sure the pale colour in the pics is original as it is under where the decals were ???

 

[sam_white]

Do all konas have a frame/ serial number?

Yes they should do. YF007 doesn't seem a likely frame number, its too short for one thing.