Kona Cindercone or is it?

[Spanky22b]

I was on my daily hunt for a Kona for the sanctuary and this nice looking Kona popped up and saying it was a Kona i bought it lol
It was advertised as a Cindercone with a limited description basically saying, Cindercone,97 ish and something what caught my attention "it makes a lovely ting when you flick the tubes"
Another thing what caught my eye was it had no pannier bosses on the seatstays not very Cindercone really but i don't really know alot about 97 bikes so maybe they didn't have them.
Now it's arrived and i've had a good look at it i'm thinking is it really a Cindercone and could it be something else, something alot better
Firstly it's clearly been resprayed and those decals i think are 94/95.
Secondly i took the seatpost from my 93 Explosif (27,0mm) and it fits perfect but maybe a 97 Cone has a 27.0mm one aswell?
Thirdly the weight, it's light and when you flick those tubes the ring sounds just as good as Prestige when you flick those,if not more high pitched though.
Something else caught my eye and that was the dropouts they just look so perfect the way there fitted into the tubes compared to lower end Konas but maybe that's a 97 thing!
Seatube where it attaches to the bb,there's no flare or bulge like standard Kona tubes and Tange Prestige,looks almost straight. I'm going to get the micrometers on the tubes though for measurements.
Back to those seatstays, there's no bosses and it doesnt look like they've been ground off and the hole filled, also why would you go to those lengths on a Cindercone
Next serial number or should i say numbers because there's another one on the top of the bb aswell as underneath where they normally are.
The one on the top reads KBI0569 and the normal serial number is F6022965.
I've never been any good at deciphering those things so any help from you Kona experts out there will be a great help, does the 6 mean 96?

Here's some photos for you Kona sleuths out there and any info will be a great help.
I've been doing some sleuthing myself during the day and one Kona i keep looking at for similarities is the 96 Kilauea with Columbus Cyber tubing or that could just be me having wishful thinking lol

 

[Spanky22b]

More pics

 

[murphy79]

Hi, the S/N indicates that it was made in Taiwan in Feb '96 (F for Fairly which was one of the two Taiwanese factories Kona used at the time, 6 for 96 and 02 for Feb), putting it in the middle of production for the '96 model year. It can't be an Explosif, because they were used Columbus tubes that were very clearly ovalized which your frame does not have. It's not a Hot because they were US made with a very different S/N format. The best it could be is a Kilauea, but I'm not sure why it would then be stickered up as a lesser frame. Most likely is a 96 Cinder Cone which had the rack mounts removed when it was repainted. Of course, with old Konas there always seem to be bikes that don't seem to fit in, and that second S/N is a mystery. The weight may give the best indication, the catalog gives a frame weight of 4.5 pounds for the Cinder Cone but it would be more for a larger frame like that.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Google that top number
KBI0569
Brings up

2001 Kona Catalogue

ooh and I put the Catalogue (missing a few bits iirc) and the Tech docs into the archive a few days ago now. Cheers - that's good of you. Mmm, like we thought... no mention of the Kilauea? Pip. No mention anywhere and it wasn't on their old sites either BitD, not even as a frame or special...

www.retrobike.co.uk

Near bottom of page

 

[Spanky22b]

Google that top number
KBI0569
Brings up

2001 Kona Catalogue

ooh and I put the Catalogue (missing a few bits iirc) and the Tech docs into the archive a few days ago now. Cheers - that's good of you. Mmm, like we thought... no mention of the Kilauea? Pip. No mention anywhere and it wasn't on their old sites either BitD, not even as a frame or special...

www.retrobike.co.uk

Near bottom of page

Interesting, I wonder if it's someone's initials and date of birth

 

[Spanky22b]

Hi, the S/N indicates that it was made in Taiwan in Feb '96 (F for Fairly which was one of the two Taiwanese factories Kona used at the time, 6 for 96 and 02 for Feb), putting it in the middle of production for the '96 model year. It can't be an Explosif, because they were used Columbus tubes that were very clearly ovalized which your frame does not have. It's not a Hot because they were US made with a very different S/N format. The best it could be is a Kilauea, but I'm not sure why it would then be stickered up as a lesser frame. Most likely is a 96 Cinder Cone which had the rack mounts removed when it was repainted. Of course, with old Konas there always seem to be bikes that don't seem to fit in, and that second S/N is a mystery. The weight may give the best indication, the catalog gives a frame weight of 4.5 pounds for the Cinder Cone but it would be more for a larger frame like that.

Good info murphy79
Yeah definitely not a 96 Explosif with that having Max tubing, done some sleuthing and found this old post of a resto on a 96 Kilauea,the seatube at the bb looks similar,i'm trying to find a photo of the seatube on the 96 Cindercone to compare and see if that's flared or straight like this.
I weighed it crudely as well and it was under 4lbs.
Also does anyone know what size seatpost a 96 Cindercone takes? this frame takes a 27.0mm like my 95 Kilauea but that has Tange Prestige Concept tubing.

 

[bold stelvis]

pretty sure 96 cinder cone was also 27.0
I did a bit of research on this when looking for the specs for my 94 lava dome and noticed that there are often subtle and seemingly random seat post ID differences between kona models in any given year (they seem to vary between 26.8 and 27.2 mostly) - I would not assume that just because its 27.0 its prestige

 

[bikeworkshop]

Tube quality sounds like Cindy or better, but why would you misbadge to a lower quality, so its probably a Cindercone.

I think they forgot to do the top rack mount holes - fitter popped out for a fag.
Friday afternoon.
Quality Control dude gone home early.
Frame's gone to the paint shop...

We've all been there.

 

[JRGSXR]

Just looked at my 96 Kilauea and 96 Cinder Cone. Both have rack mounts and the dropouts look identical (to each other and your pic above). Both bikes have 27mm seatposts too. Seat posts seem straight on both frames. To be honest if it wasn’t for the colour/name on the frame, I’d have a hard job telling what ones what just from looking.

 

[Spanky22b]

Just looked at my 96 Kilauea and 96 Cinder Cone. Both have rack mounts and the dropouts look identical (to each other and your pic above). Both bikes have 27mm seatposts too. Seat posts seem straight on both frames. To be honest if it wasn’t for the colour/name on the frame, I’d have a hard job telling what ones what just from looking.

Some good info there JRGSXR

So there very hard to tell apart then which basically leaves it down to a weigh in, we've got some load cells at work which may be able to switch from KG to lbs or i might take it to the Post office and stick it on there scales, that would give a very accurate weight
I did a bit of sanding on the seatstays and it turns out it did have rack mounts, which makes me wonder why you would go to that trouble and cost on a Cindercone i could understand if it was an Explosif or Kilauea that's just my opinion though.
Another thing and i think it's the main thing really and that's the noise when you flick the tubes,especially the chainstays. I done some sleuthing on Columbus tubing and found this (pic below) and how they describe the noise sounding like a bell and how the noise just keeps going after you flick it and can only be Columbus tubing. And to my ears that's exactly how this frame sounds when you do it,Tange Prestige sounds lovely but this is another level,I just can't see a Kona butted tubed Cindercone sounding like this.

The more i'm researching about this frame and Columbus tubing i'm hoping it is one lol because i've never rode a Columbus tubed frame before and so far everything said about them sounds brilliant.