Kona bike help please!!

[nporternz]

picked this up today for a decent price

got it home and bloody hell its got some nice gear on it

looks like campag headset, brakes, and mechs, sachs shifters/levers/crank, and hubs with 231 ceramic rims - and none of it looks used! Never seen the canti hangers before

anyway - some help with the frame year and model - it is badged as a fire mountain and I've no reason to disbelieve that - it has been resprayed by Mercian (along with the rs forks) and it's a lovely paint job

anyway it looks like a 1-inch headset, a 26.6(on my cheap verniers) Seatpost and a heavily ovalised bb area

frame number looks like f3117722

any help gratefully recieved

 

[Joe*Pro]

That is very very tidy and a bargain at that price. Would have been nice to of met the aerospace engineer builder.

 

[raidan73]

That seatpost clamp has been added by the looks of it

 

[nporternz]

That seatpost clamp has been added by the looks of it

i thought so too - but i wasnt 100% sure - good job if they did though

should have seen the gear hanging off it!!

 

[nporternz]

That is very very tidy and a bargain at that price. Would have been nice to of met the aerospace engineer builder.

sadly he passed away - but obviously passionate as the frame was refinished by mercian as were the forks and the stem

 

[Joe*Pro]

sadly he passed away - but obviously passionate as the frame was refinished by mercian as were the forks and the stem

Looks like a 1991 frame to me with that seat clamp and down tube decal.

 

[nporternz]

Looks like a 1991 frame to me with that seat clamp and down tube decal.

think thats been added - not sure 91 had the rack mounts and dropouts arent cut out

maybe 94?

 

[Pipmeister]

As has been suggested above, this seems to be a 1994 Fire Mountain, with an added Seat Post Clamp.

Frames were welded ahead of time for the next year's model. F3117722: F = Fairly Works, 3 = 1993. 11 = November, 7722 = Serial Number.

I don't have a very sharp picture of this frame, but enough to see the detail of the Cable Stops, Dropouts and flattened Seat Tube at the Bottom Bracket.

Curiously we see the same BI 0569 number on the other side of the Bottom bracket, but I do not know its significance.







Pip

 

[nporternz]

As has been suggested above, this seems to be a 1994 Fire Mountain, with an added Seat Post Clamp.

Frames were welded ahead of time for the next year's model. F3117722: F = Fairly Works, 3 = 1993. 11 = November, 7722 = Serial Number.

I don't have a very sharp picture of this frame, but enough to see the detail of the Cable Stops, Dropouts and flattened Seat Tube at the Bottom Bracket.

Curiously we see the same BI 0569 number on the other side of the Bottom bracket, but I do not know its significance.

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Pip

Thanks pip. Great info there. I was leaning towards that last night doing research but everywhere I saw said 1 1/8th for the headset and this is a 1 inch.

I guess they had some tuning left over!

 

[Pipmeister]

Yes, I saw you mentioned a 1" Heaset, which somewhat threw me.

However, this is the detail of how Kona frames ran with Headsets:

1988 – 1990 all models has 1” headset.
1991 - 1993 Hahanna & Fire Mountain had 1" headsets, all other models were 1 1/8".
1994 and onwards all were 1 1/8".

Your frame is a 1994 owing to the lack of a Triangle cut-out in the dropouts, and produced towards the very end of 1993.

See 1993 Fire Mountain below:





May I ask where you are taking the 26.6 measurement that you mentioned?

Pip