Re: Knowing me knowing you - (Kona) A'ha! (1997)
So this time last week I was about to head up round the M25 and M1 all the way up to the A50 or something like that, to a small market town out of Derby. And all for a bottom of the range Kona. Yeah, I've got it bad
The Kona Hahanna. Let's get some facts out there right now. It's an honest bike, no frills. It would serve anyone well. But it's a heavy beast. Really heavy compared with the rest of the range. The geometry, whilst ever so slightly different, makes (to me anyway) a massive difference. It's upright and leisurely, which is no bad thing. But if you wanted something racey, my advice would be to spend a little more and aim for a Lava Dome (upwards). Even the "ding" test results were disappointing; a thud, like an aluminium frame.
Anyway, that wasn't the purpose of the buy. I wanted the stem. And speaking of stems, Kona really did supply different ones for different models and different sizes. This one is much shorter and upright; the one of my Manomano that came from an 18" Kilauea is slightly longer and has a different finish to the one on an 19" Explosif.
I also wanted the forks, the hen's teeth canti hanger, saddle and most of all, the rims. Speaking of those, they are surprisingly light but tough.
Here's some shots of the bike before I got all cannibal like and stripped it back:
It was in great condition. It's seen very little off-road action since there are hardly any chips or rubs. It's been used on the road as the tread on the rear tyre is 2/3 gone. Even the spokes were in good nick so I'll re-use them.
So. Back to the A'ha what's next?
Wheels to be built up - Halo red nipples for the rear, Halo blue for the front.
White gear cables.
Tyres - sadly the excellent Big Ben Schwalbe tyres aren't for sale anywhere and the lovely Electra Hotster white walls have been discountinued. However, I'm going to go all black and low-key with some rather tasty Schwalbe Sammy Slicks:
Enough tread for going a bit off road but not too knobbly to annoy me on the roads.
Bars - found what I was after, a lovely silver One-one Fleegle:
Grips will be some ODI's in blue.
That just leaves pedals and the headset; that'll be a Chris King but I've unsure of the colour. Maybe it'll go with a blue, red and silver.
Depending on timing, I'll be able to tinker with her next weekend.
