Kona Cinder Cone 25th Anniversary Rebuild

[GLK]

In 1989 I purchased a Kona Cinder Cone Race Lite from a bike shop on the parade of shops near Crowthorne railway station. Over the next 10 years it was raced in events in the New Forest and Salisbury Plain and according to it's long gone Cateye it covered over 6000 miles. As parts became worn they were upgraded, so it now rides on Mavic rims, XTR bottom bracket and a different chain set with SRAM twist shift gears. These upgrades happened around 1993.

Since the beginning of the millennium the bike has sat in my garage doing nothing. Occasionally it was ridden up the road, until the fat bastard that I now am, realised I was a long way from being as fit as I used to be. On more than one occasion it nearly ended up on ebay.

This year, 25 years on from the purchase of my first serious bike, I have become a "born again cyclist", I have bought a very sexy carbon road bike and have become fit enough to enjoy riding socially and have even signed up for a 100 mile charity ride in September.

To celebrate the re-kindling of my love of cycling I am going to rebuild my 1989 Kona Cinder Cone. I would appreciate your thoughts and advice on what to do, particularly given it is not totally original. I have attached some pictures which hopefully give a representative view of it's condition. Thanks in advance for your responses.

Graham

 

[Retro Spud]

Re:

Hey

Welcome to Retro Bike, always good to have new blood


You've got a great project there and looking forward to seeing it come together,
without wishing to come across as a smart arse I think its more likely a 91 model
as I've a 89/90 Cindercone and aside from the splatter paint the stem has evolved

check out the archive section
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/v/M ... hive/Kona/

be prepared to dig deep into that wallet as one bike just leads to another and another..... :shock:

Nick

 

[raidan73]

Re:

Welcome to the forum and glad to hear that you've resisted the temptation to part with your retro steed. You won't regret it (although your wallet/better half might!)

I can't quite tell from the photo's but that will be either a 1991 or 1992 model rather than 1989.

A lot depends on what you want from the bike? Since you've owned it from new you will probably have lots of memories about the various scuffs and scrapes and when/how they happened so perhaps you want to keep the frame original and not go down the route of repainting? On the other hand you might want to give it a new coat of paint and a new lease of life with some more modern kit?

Personally if it was me and I had owned it from new (I wish I had kept a couple of my old ones) then I would probably clean it, polish it within an inch of it's life and replace any damaged/worn/unsuitable components with parts from the same era....but that's just me

Edit: what Nick said above, I got side tracked mid way through typing mine!

 

[Bryncrug72]

Welcome !
Kiss goodbye to your savings ! :facepalm:

 

[Bryncrug72]

Welcome !
Kiss goodbye to your savings ! :facepalm:

I'm sure if you need any help, advice or parts this is the place to come to !

 

[Retro Spud]

Welcome !
Kiss goodbye to your savings ! :facepalm:

I'm sure if you need any help, advice or parts this is the place to come to !

Yeah mainly due to the fact we also hoard parts as well as buying too many frames

this site should carry a Government health warning for your wallet

 

[raidan73]

Re:

I don't see the problem. Some people have a fat pension or a second home as a retirement fund. I just have a shed full of old metal :facepalm:

 

[Retro Spud]

Re: Re:

I don't see the problem. Some people have a fat pension or a second home as a retirement fund. I just have a shed full of old metal :facepalm:

The classic case of someone still at the denial stage , but with a light /borderline grasp on reality


I've just spent too much, have no phat pension, nor a second home..... but I do have a wonderful garage that cheers me up no end when I sit there polishing bits of "Scrap" as the wife calls it

but what price can you put on owning and riding the bikes you could only dream of back in the day,

 

[Splatter Paint]

Re:

Nice, welcome to the site.

Echoing the earlier comments this is probably a 1991 or 1992. The earlier years were splatter paint schemes (with the exception of the 1990 Lava Dome which came in white or red). Catalogues can be found here: http://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/v/M ... atalogues/

There are spare parts available (see MTB For Sale section) if you wanted to restore back to original spec, you can also get reproduction decals.

SP