Kona Caldera

[Mark2260]

Hi guys
Does any ony one know where the caldera fitted in in the 1997 kona range pls, on par with cinder cone or above or below regarding the frame?.

Thnx

Mark

 

[FluffyChicken]

http://www.konaretro.com/showarticle.ph ... atalogues/

You'll find all you need there and then you can see if you can work it out before the Kona Kool Kids* turn up.



* I think that the name for the Retro Bike Kona group

 

[magas]

C A L D E R A ! ! !

uhhhhh - Caldera was part of the Kona Custom programm in 1997 - frame was made of Altiude CroMo Heat treated and was US made - where the Cinder Cone frame had a Kona butted CroMo frame - if you want a ranking for the 97 Kona range I would say the Caldera was # 4 and Cinder Cone was # 15 out of 19 types !
but my knowledge is only limited, so I guess somebody else here will be in a better position to give additional infos of the Caldera

 

[Geoff]

Caldera in 97 was supposed to be a similarly custom frame to the Hot and Ku, just without the boutique brand tubing. I've never seen one though, Anthony was talking about this the other day, he hasn't either, but apparently Kona have confirmed that some were built.

Do you have one then? Pictures please- a rare beast indeed!

 

[Anthony]

Hi guys
Does any ony one know where the caldera fitted in in the 1997 kona range pls, on par with cinder cone or above or below regarding the frame?.
Thnx
Mark

I'm not convinced that the 97 Caldera was ever really marketed, but it does seem to have been given at least a notional price of $1,399. That's the same as the Kilauea SE, which had the same specification with a Z2 and LX/XT, and also doesn't appear to have been marketed to any great extent. As the Explosif was $1,699 and only had an Indy SL, maybe Kona realised they had made a mistake with the Explosif spec when they found out how poor the (new) Indy was and down-played the Caldera to protect it. Or not, as the case may be.

I'm not a great believer in US-made myself, I think the tubeset is more important, but in this case the Caldera may have been a better frame than a Hot, at least in one respect. There are some stories that Altitude (formerly Mountain Goat) couldn't build the Hot consistently straight, owing to 853 being very resistant to cold-setting and thus requiring a different technique. If so, the Caldera if it exists might be a lot straighter, albeit a bit heavier as well.

A very rare frame if you have one, and certainly a higher quality than the Cinder Cone, both in being made out of lighter, heat-treated tubing and in being US-made.

 

[grishindmitry]

Having bought both Caldera 1997 and Cinder Cone 1999 from Ackers I can say that both weight about 2050 gr for 18" frame. And on both it's written "Kona double butted chromoly". There is also sticker "made in Taiwan" remained on Caldera

 

[hamster]

:? The 99 Cinder Cone was aluminum, but the weights are spot on at 2kg.

 

[grishindmitry]

oh, I've mistaken the years, Caldera is 1999 and Cinder Cone is 1997

 

[mrdryskull]

Re:

They do exist,,I have #34 in my back yard

 

[magas]

now thats a rare one :shock: