Klassic Konas

Adam_S

Retro Guru
G'day folks.

After a number of years sat around gathering dust, I've finally managed to put my (t)rusty old steed back together and thought some people might enjoy some piccies.

2w66v40.jpg


oqx1k0.jpg


1zoklz8.jpg


Current spec:

Frame: 1997 Kona Explosif Columbs Max OR
Forks: Pace MXCD Evo2
Cranks: Race Face Next
Hubs, brakes, bottom bracket: Hope
Everything else: SRAM X0

Now I know that some of that isn't exactly retro, but go easy on her, she's had a hard life and she deserves the best.

I got the bike on my 18th birthday and originally she was that golden orangy colour with Pace RC36's and Mavic 217 sunset rims. She was quite the upgrade on the GT Timberline I'd been riding up until then and I loved her dearly. Over the years she got ridden hard and spent about a decade getting thrashed around the woods outside Bristol. She had a trip to Argos Racing Cycles when the welds failed at the top of the seat stays and another when the chainstay cracked. On the second trip she got a new chainstay and a respray and was as good as new.

About 7 years ago I was cycling to work and got hit by a car. My left knee got smashed up and worse the bike was mangled. The front wheel was a write off and the top tube was bent.

Another trip to Argos ensued, this time for a new top tube. Due to some environmental bullshit they couldn't do the orangy-gold colour again so she went red instead. Alas some newly arrived children and a move to Australia meant that she spent the next few years sat in my mum's garage and never got built up.

But now she's finally back together! The back brake piston is apparently seized and the bold on Woodman disc adaptor has vanished somewhere between England and Queensland so some new brakes are in order but sod it, you only really need the front one anyway so I'm off for a ride.
 
Re:

Nice explosif, if i had one repainted thats exactly the colour id go for. Do you still call it a kona explosif or an argos explosif? Its probably more argos than kona isnt it? :LOL:

Where do you live? That doesn't look like bristol in the pictures ;)
 
The majority of the tubes still come from Kona :p

These days I live in Townsville in tropical North Queensland. The trails here aren't all that different to Brizzle though really, just with a lot less mud.
 
BTW, does anybody know where I can find a service manual for the forks? They're actually not EVO whatevers - I checked. They're RC36 Pro Class 2's. I'm pretty sure I can muddle my way through a service anyway but I'm buggered if I can remember whether it's 5wt or 10wt damper fluid I'm supposed to use.

Also, I've discovered they work much better when the damper is connected up :)
 
Best not tell the Mrs how much I spent on some new Hope discs and a Brake Therapy bolt on mount either. Still, the most important thing is that the new rotors will match the colour of the bottle cages which is all that matters really.
 
That grey one's another Explosif BTW.

Is there anybody out there in internet land who can repaint it to look like this?

97_kona_hot.jpg
 
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