Kona Explosif 1997 team edition
- Thread starter al-onestare
- Start date
Not officially but it was the usual "...my Dad's bike...I don't know anything about it..." etc. etc.
Summer saw Ryder back on show at the Malverns, along with a few other stars. Always nice to see
I'm always on the look out for pic's of Roland on his Hei Hei, and this popped up today in one of my feeds. It's from the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships Cross-Country - Château-d'Oex, Switzerland, September 18-21, 1997 to be super-specific. Roland finished 7th with Kirk Molday, previously a Kona rider, in 4th.
Almost a year on from when he and the team would have started to use these frames, clearly the paint-matched Z2s were toast and the slime green BAMs were used instead.
He's rocking the Kona shorts and socks, with his distinctive yellow Bell helmet, like he did on the world circuit and nationals that season. I spy a nice big thumbs up patch on the Canadian national shirt too. Super cool
Coda.
You might remember as we researched and dived into the detail that one of the rumoured reasons why the factory team ditched steel in favour of titanium was for the ride quality. There's an element of truth behind that but really, it boils down to preference, but also the time and era.
Fast forward a few years to the 2000 Olympics. Geoff Kabush is representing Canada, and riding for Kona at this point. Dan Capek posted this today, and shortly afterwards, a poster shared the actual frame in the Australian Mountain Bike Museum (anyone know if it's still there?)
Have a wild guess what the frame is.
It's not titanium.
It's not steel.
Yep, it's "controversial" Easton Scandium (main tubes, Ultralite rear-end). That means...
...yep, it's an Explosif (2001 model to be exact) in a Canadian flames livery.
So after all that, the team did eventually ride Explosifs 
You might remember as we researched and dived into the detail that one of the rumoured reasons why the factory team ditched steel in favour of titanium was for the ride quality. There's an element of truth behind that but really, it boils down to preference, but also the time and era.
Fast forward a few years to the 2000 Olympics. Geoff Kabush is representing Canada, and riding for Kona at this point. Dan Capek posted this today, and shortly afterwards, a poster shared the actual frame in the Australian Mountain Bike Museum (anyone know if it's still there?)
Have a wild guess what the frame is.
It's not titanium.
It's not steel.
Yep, it's "controversial" Easton Scandium (main tubes, Ultralite rear-end). That means...
...yep, it's an Explosif (2001 model to be exact) in a Canadian flames livery.
So after all that, the team did eventually ride Explosifs
MattiThundrrr
Kona Fan
Want want want 
Pretty sweet isn't it? I'd love to see a metallic version but beggars can't be choosers
Found these few more shots of that frame (I think it is the same one), this time built up. Unfortunately I can't remember where I got these from, or the context, so I don't know if this was before or after the frame was in the museum. Or if it was still in Geoff's original race spec here. It is a nice variation of the classic flames though.
Looks like it was his original race spec, found these pics too ...
And this youtube video where he talks about the bike.
And this youtube video where he talks about the bike.
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