How much abuse can a Hei-Hei handle

[andyparle]

Re: Re:

My ‘99 Hei Hei was raced for several years by it’s previous owner, I built it up with rigid P2s and now slicks for ripping about town. 18 months back i crashed going downhill at 40km/h breaking my wrist, horrible cheesegrater knee injury and huge road rash on my backside as well elbows, chin etc etc. The Hei Hei bounced and tumbled, bent the saddle’s rails from a big impact and shredded the grips and pedals but the frame still perfect, not bent, cracked or dented. I am now fine and i’m still blasting around on the Hei Hei, just new saddle and grips. Plenty strong enough i reckon.

BTW i also bought my Lava Dome new in ‘96 (from Mountain High, Bucks). Still own it, still loving the semi-matt orange lava.

If you want to ride your Hei Hei off road you might struggle to find a decent sus fork with 80mm travel and v-brake mounts. If i were you i’d ride it rigid anyway even off road, way cooler. I have a rigid Cinder Cone and have great fun showing up to MTB XC events with rigid fork, cantis and gripshift, most youngsters don’t even know it’s a mountain bike!

Sounds awful, yet also what I wanted to hear! I was planning on putting some white brothers dt1.2 set at 100mm on it, are they recomended for 80mm only? might have to re-think this, as I dont particularly want the headtube snapping off!! it will be a mix of old and new so will probably have mech disks up front and vees out back (I have a choice of either red dx vees or some bronze avid mag levers).

 

[cce]

i'd be on the lookout for a fox F80 or 80mm travel Rockshox reba if it were me.

 

[andyparle]

Re: Re:

As has been said it depends on your riding style. I dont take massive air on my Ti baby of that era. I use it more for cx with occasional jumps, nothing more than a few feet though. That being said if you got it cheap enough and can either junk it or pay for its prof repair if it cracks, why not unleash it. Would love to see some action shots though

I will just need a good photograoher who can create the illusion of skill then!

 

[M-Power]

Re: Re:

As has been said it depends on your riding style. I dont take massive air on my Ti baby of that era. I use it more for cx with occasional jumps, nothing more than a few feet though. That being said if you got it cheap enough and can either junk it or pay for its prof repair if it cracks, why not unleash it. Would love to see some action shots though

I will just need a good photograoher who can create the illusion of skill then!

Stick a GoPro on and host it on YT. A Hei Hei going really high will be cool :mrgreen:

 

[andyparle]

i'd be on the lookout for a fox F80 or 80mm travel Rockshox reba if it were me.

I would certainley kill either of those forks, being 13.5 stone and reckless! if its 80mm Ive got a magura that I can set the travel lower (its at 120mm right now but can be set internally). Either that or a marzocchi 4x.

 

[andyparle]

I have a feeling this bike going to be like the Johnny cash song "one piece at a time"

"Ugh!, what model is it?
Well, It's a 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05 Kona Hei Hei
It's a 06, 07, 08, 09, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Kona Hei Hei"...

 

[RadNomad]

Re: Re:

My ‘99 Hei Hei was raced for several years by it’s previous owner, I built it up with rigid P2s and now slicks for ripping about town. 18 months back i crashed going downhill at 40km/h breaking my wrist, horrible cheesegrater knee injury and huge road rash on my backside as well elbows, chin etc etc. The Hei Hei bounced and tumbled, bent the saddle’s rails from a big impact and shredded the grips and pedals but the frame still perfect, not bent, cracked or dented. I am now fine and i’m still blasting around on the Hei Hei, just new saddle and grips. Plenty strong enough i reckon.

BTW i also bought my Lava Dome new in ‘96 (from Mountain High, Bucks). Still own it, still loving the semi-matt orange lava.

If you want to ride your Hei Hei off road you might struggle to find a decent sus fork with 80mm travel and v-brake mounts. If i were you i’d ride it rigid anyway even off road, way cooler. I have a rigid Cinder Cone and have great fun showing up to MTB XC events with rigid fork, cantis and gripshift, most youngsters don’t even know it’s a mountain bike!

Sounds awful, yet also what I wanted to hear! I was planning on putting some white brothers dt1.2 set at 100mm on it, are they recomended for 80mm only? might have to re-think this, as I dont particularly want the headtube snapping off!! it will be a mix of old and new so will probably have mech disks up front and vees out back (I have a choice of either red dx vees or some bronze avid mag levers).

I went through exactly this way of thinking prior to my build, wanting a light and modern performing air fork while maintaining period correct geometry and matched brakes. I realised by looking at other peoples Konas that: a) fitting anything longer than 80mm just looks wrong, the bike is jacked up at the front, geometry and handling not as Kona intended and the beautiful Kona look is lost (bottom bracket drop eliminated with chainstays laying parallel to the ground or even rise up toward the bb, front wheel too far away from the downtube etc..). Closest i came to a brand new 80mm fork was a Magura air fork but i couldn’t quite find a new / NOS one, everything else was second hand and old-school tech from the 90s which i didn’t want.
b). Mismatched brakes look totally cack. I considered modifying the frame for rear disc but didn’t like the idea of that, finally went for a new set of two-finger Magura hydraulic rim brakes, i figured the most powerful brakes i could get on canti brake mounts. They are brilliant but a bit heavy. I have since swapped them to my Cinder Cone and now running Richey cantis on the Hei Hei which work very well and are much lighter and elegant looking.

My initial plan was full modern tech on a classic frame (retro-mod build) but in the end ended up somewhere inbetween due to the fork / brake issues. I’m running a new (at the time) 2014 10 speed XT groupset with external bb, modern ti saddle, modern era Kona stem, bar, grips and pedals but retaining a TB P2 which just looks ‘right’. I’m one of those nutters who would probably bid hundreds of pounds to get a titanium P2 but they are just too hard to find (so far!).
In my view you’re not going to get your Hei Hei performing off road like a modern MTB, tech and geometry has simply evolved too far. So keep it faithful to it’s period as a front sus rim brake MTB and accept it’s off road limitations, or play to it’s strengths and go for a lovely looking rigid weight weenie.

 

[cce]

i'd be on the lookout for a fox F80 or 80mm travel Rockshox reba if it were me.

I would certainley kill either of those forks, being 13.5 stone and reckless! if its 80mm Ive got a magura that I can set the travel lower (its at 120mm right now but can be set internally). Either that or a marzocchi 4x.

An F80 or a Reba will be more than up to the kind of riding a frame like that is sensible for

 

[Trialsmeister]

Re:

Evening team. Good to hear and see the machinery still getting used in anger!

My nearly 25 year old Zaskar recently got a revamp and a 'zochhi' FLA24's, magura mt4 disc front and evo rear rim upgrade. The levers match near perfectly after swapping both clamps for silver.

It's now a tough decision, whether to take this, or the full modern, round the local trails. Had it down the full red at Glentress, up my way last Saturday and it never even felt like hard work. I had a mega smile on my face all day. Worst to happen was, I stupidly power washed some more of the still original decals off.

A lot will scorn at the sacrilege, I like to ride my bike. Ride them, they want to be free!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/v8slyQ8qI2ZCp8ZR2

Hope the pics work if not I'll try edit.

Regards, Mick.

 

[mk one]

i'd be on the lookout for a fox F80 or 80mm travel Rockshox reba if it were me.

I would certainley kill either of those forks, being 13.5 stone and reckless! if its 80mm Ive got a magura that I can set the travel lower (its at 120mm right now but can be set internally). Either that or a marzocchi 4x.

An F80 or a Reba will be more than up to the kind of riding a frame like that is sensible for

Agree, the Fox forks will be more than capable, and if your that worried about the frame, you should sell it me