Kona Explosif 1997 team edition

[mk one]

Re: Kona Explosif 1997 team edition: out and about P24

And can you name the #3 female Kona factory rider and which UCI event this was?

The rider with the #3 plate is Lesley Tomlinson, and its at the World Cup in Budapest not sure who the Kona rider in the background is though :?

Heres another

 

[mk one]

Re: Kona Explosif 1997 team edition: out and about P24

Another couple of pics of the custom green forks.

 

[al-onestare]

Re: Kona Explosif 1997 team edition: out and about P24

Thanks - both of these feature in the glossy US/North American 1998 catalogue, perhaps Kona's finest looking catalogue of the 90s.

I'd love a pair of those shoes (more than the forks).

 

[mk one]

Re: Kona Explosif 1997 team edition: out and about P24

Thanks - both of these feature in the glossy US/North American 1998 catalogue, perhaps Kona's finest looking catalogue of the 90s.

I'd love a pair of those shoes (more than the forks).

Yes, which i found the other day, you can have it if you want but i should imagine you already do.

And i have a pair of the model below, the blue ones, couldnt afford the top of the range at the time.

 

[al-onestare]

Re:

Cheers - I'm after those exact colour combo if you have them...size 9.5 or 10 :mrgreen:

 

[Pipmeister]

Re: Kona Explosif 1997 team edition: out and about P24

...I wonder what's riding..

:shock: Ok, let's save that for another thread

If I am understanding your shock emoji correctly, do we take it that the Kona Mapei Team member (who may be Dario) seems to be riding either an early 1997 King Kahuna or Hei Hei, which looks standard and unpainted?

Pip

 

[al-onestare]

Re: Kona Explosif 1997 team edition: out and about P24

It looks like it doesn't it. That man rode more different models than any other Kona rider of the era, at least from the photographic evidence we've seen: Sex Three, Kula, HH, his special fancy frame, KK...and who knows what else.

And on that note, the Snake has provided some amazing insight into this specific frame (see the link on the last page):

The Dario frame was the result of a Columbus sponsorship that was part of the Mapei team.

That era with Dario and Roland began with the Explosif green/mustard flame frames that were built with Tange Prestige with fluted down tubes.

Many of them broke and we switched to Ti Hei Hei and King Kahuna frames for the team in 1997 and into 1998. Those frames were and still are extraordinarily reliable.

This Columbus Foco frame was built for the 1999 team, and was very light. We have one left at Kona Canada, it weighs 4.2 lbs.

The frame was a special edition and each one had the rider's name on the top tube. So I suppose we'd call it a Dario Cioni team edition.

The tube sets were as light as Columbus could make them for a race frame, and were essentially built for one or a part of one season's racing, much like the way that road frames are built for the pros.

As a comparison in weight and durability, the King Kahuna 6-4 Ti frame that's hanging next to it at Kona Canada is 3.8 lbs.

WOAH THERE!

They were riding Explosif's with Tange Prestige in presumably 95/96 and not Columbus? Has anyone ever seen these?

And they broke? No surprise I guess with the increasing rigors of XC, with more and more extreme courses, the development of full suspension and so on.

And for anyone who wanted to know the frame weight of, probably the very best Ti frame Kona ever had, the 99 KK, you have it and this Foco frame is pretty special too.

It's really, really cool that after all these years, these little nuggets keep coming up. They keep the winter months fun whilst we wait for dry trails and another season ragging around on this - the Explosif team edition.

 

[Pipmeister]

Re:

Well done Al, and thank you for sharing this. As you say, it’s really cool when these nuggets of information come to light.

Firstly, no I haven’t seen any pictures of Team Tange Prestige Explosif bikes, but my Google Image search continues!

Something I will say though regarding the discovery of Dario’s Columbus Foco Steel frame, and the story behind it, is that it does quash some historic stories or rumours.

A little recap: For a long time it was said that 1996/7 Kona Factory Team riders had their Titanium King Kahuna and Hei Hei frames painted up to resemble the Columbus Max tubing. It was said that this was done because the Team Riders “Refused to ride Steel” in favour of Titanium. The co-sponsorship deal however was with Columbus, so a story developed saying that the frames were painted to conceal the Titanium Tubes. The story goes on to suggest that Columbus were furious when they found out and ended their sponsorship.

This appears to be inaccurate if Columbus were still working with Kona to build the Steel Foco Team frame for the 1999 riders.

Here’s a link to one of the stories on the painted Hei Hei Team Frames:

https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/sho ... 11053f9d8d

Pip.

 

[mk one]

Re: Kona Explosif 1997 team edition: out and about P24

Seems to me he may have got a bit mixed up and meant Colombus and not Prestige. So according to this they had the '95 frames painted in green/yellow flame?

 

[al-onestare]

Re: Kona Explosif 1997 team edition - hens teeth

Would this be what you're going to try and replicate?

Little cool thing I learnt the other day. This specific shot is taken from the Mountain Bike World Cup Cross Country at Mont Ste-Anne, in Quebec, Canada 29 June 1997

Roland finished 18th, Dario 37th and Peter 45th : http://62.50.72.82/english/mtb/world_cu ... c7men.html