Kona 1991 catalogue anomalies / random musings

JCS

Senior Retro Guru
So, doing the refresh on my Cinder Cone. I found a PDF version of the 1991 Kona catalogue, that I used to have on my wall when I were a lad... 2 things got me thinking:

1. I never noticed it before (and not that it's of major importance!!) but the bike in the catalogue does not have brazed-on mounts for a rear rack. My CC (and every other one I have seen) does have the mounts. I really wish mine was like the one in the catalogue. They look so much neater without the rack mounts!

1652792198078.png

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2. The HOT is a thing of beauty. Has anyone ever tracked down this actual bike that was in the catalogue?

1652792448276.png

The other thing I never noticed before, is that not all the bikes in the catalogue have the same Kona logo on the headtubes. Some of the bikes have the 'K' logo (like on the Cinder Cone) and some of the bikes have the round logo (like on the Hot).

Another thing is, none of the bikes in the brochure have the 'combo cage' fitted, yet all the retail bikes had those. It looks like the bikes in the catalogue have a water bottle with the newer round Kona logo on it.
The only picture of the combo cage in the catalogue is this one:
1652792848682.png

And as I am writing this post, now i notice that none of the bikes in the catalogue have the Joe Murray 'Impact' headset fitted... even though this was listed in the spec sheet for the Lava Dome, Cinder Cone and Explosif and is a very distinctive Kona headset...

I wonder why this is? Are the catalogue bikes 'pre-production' models? Maybe some of them are the same frame, painted a different colour and fitted with different components?!

Is this 1991 catalogue the earliest 'sighting' of the Kona round logo?
 
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You've answered your own question and this was common right the way through to the end of the decade.

The lead time to create, print, publish and distribute catalogues was so great, with refinements and tweaks made to that years fleet, with what was available to shoot, meant a whole bunch of inconsistencies.
 
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