Kona Explosif 1997 team edition
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Silvergoat
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Always wanted a Kona (amongst many other bikes). You lucky chap – this one is bloody gorgeous!
Always wanted a Kona (amongst many other bikes). You lucky chap – this one is bloody gorgeous!
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I popped into the LBS this weekend to get the BB removed. Since I'm never going to use an Octolink BB I figured why spend money on a tool I'll use once plus it's a good excuse to check out the Cielo's and show off this frame
I'm pretty sure it was original to the frame based on the gunk in the shell. Even after a brief clean up it still needed some attention yesterday before I fitted the new BB.
Before I fitted anything else I thought it was worth taking another look at the patina. I'm not claiming my bikes are perfect condition but I do like a clean build, one with as few nicks and scrapes as possible. This is stretching my comfort zone in a good way. There are some tell-tell signs that this was ridden hard including one crazy down-tube scrape and a big mark - thankfully not a dent - where the forks had bottomed up. You might remember from the Caldera thread that Kona talked about how the Hot's around this time had this issue: folks were riding them hard and with paper thin tubing and longer travel forks, the inevitable happened.
That all said, it's still in really good shape. I'm convinced this was ridden by a team rider but who is the big question and one I'm investigating. Kona have said that they were never ridden by the A team so that rules out Dave, Roland and co. And, as we know, this isn't a surprise (more on that side of things later).
Instead these were 'given' (I get the sense, dumped) to the B and youth team plus any affiliates, so local Regional team and associates. Now, if you check out the SN this particular model is very late in the 97 production run: May 98 in fact.
Hence and as we've discussed it's why it has the 98 head-tube decal, 98 cable routing and so on. If you know Kona and you know who's ridden for them, for me, there's only one youth / B team rider. A certain future Giro d'Italia winner. Back then he had bleach blond hair...
Could he have thrown a leg over this? I'd love to think he had but honestly, I don't think we'll ever know. The light was a bit naff yesterday so I will try to take some shots in the future that show the slight green colour fade line where the decal of the racers name would have been placed, following the logic of where they were placed on the 96/97 team frames.
Back to the build, BB installed and RaceFace turbines on. I was right to use a 110mm spindle (the same on the other Explosif). I have enough clearance and the chain line should be fine. I reckon they look the part and of course, compliment the sponsor decal. I reached another milestone and fitted my first ever headset A bit pathetic right, especially how easy it was to do using the right Park Tool. Anyway, I'm super pleased with the front end result. The colour, the set-up: the height and reach. It'll be slightly more upright than the other Explosif and Caldera which is no bad thing as I would like to spend hours in the saddle. I'm pleased I didn't use a CK headset this time as it would have had too much height and I would have had to change the steerer for the spare one which would have been a ball-ache.
That's as much as I can do right now: I need more parts. As the shopping list showed that's going to take a while. So now I can get back to following up on a few other leads to find out some more about the bikes history and the era.
Oh and since we're talking about Ryder - further proof that Z2's in slime green were the way forward...although they do look a bit yellow ;-)
I popped into the LBS this weekend to get the BB removed. Since I'm never going to use an Octolink BB I figured why spend money on a tool I'll use once plus it's a good excuse to check out the Cielo's and show off this frame
I'm pretty sure it was original to the frame based on the gunk in the shell. Even after a brief clean up it still needed some attention yesterday before I fitted the new BB.
Before I fitted anything else I thought it was worth taking another look at the patina. I'm not claiming my bikes are perfect condition but I do like a clean build, one with as few nicks and scrapes as possible. This is stretching my comfort zone in a good way. There are some tell-tell signs that this was ridden hard including one crazy down-tube scrape and a big mark - thankfully not a dent - where the forks had bottomed up. You might remember from the Caldera thread that Kona talked about how the Hot's around this time had this issue: folks were riding them hard and with paper thin tubing and longer travel forks, the inevitable happened.
That all said, it's still in really good shape. I'm convinced this was ridden by a team rider but who is the big question and one I'm investigating. Kona have said that they were never ridden by the A team so that rules out Dave, Roland and co. And, as we know, this isn't a surprise (more on that side of things later).
Instead these were 'given' (I get the sense, dumped) to the B and youth team plus any affiliates, so local Regional team and associates. Now, if you check out the SN this particular model is very late in the 97 production run: May 98 in fact.
Hence and as we've discussed it's why it has the 98 head-tube decal, 98 cable routing and so on. If you know Kona and you know who's ridden for them, for me, there's only one youth / B team rider. A certain future Giro d'Italia winner. Back then he had bleach blond hair...
Could he have thrown a leg over this? I'd love to think he had but honestly, I don't think we'll ever know. The light was a bit naff yesterday so I will try to take some shots in the future that show the slight green colour fade line where the decal of the racers name would have been placed, following the logic of where they were placed on the 96/97 team frames.
Back to the build, BB installed and RaceFace turbines on. I was right to use a 110mm spindle (the same on the other Explosif). I have enough clearance and the chain line should be fine. I reckon they look the part and of course, compliment the sponsor decal. I reached another milestone and fitted my first ever headset
A bit pathetic right, especially how easy it was to do using the right Park Tool. Anyway, I'm super pleased with the front end result. The colour, the set-up: the height and reach. It'll be slightly more upright than the other Explosif and Caldera which is no bad thing as I would like to spend hours in the saddle. I'm pleased I didn't use a CK headset this time as it would have had too much height and I would have had to change the steerer for the spare one which would have been a ball-ache.
That's as much as I can do right now: I need more parts. As the shopping list showed that's going to take a while. So now I can get back to following up on a few other leads to find out some more about the bikes history and the era.
Oh and since we're talking about Ryder - further proof that Z2's in slime green were the way forward...although they do look a bit yellow ;-)
Pipmeister
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Thanks for showing us the progress so far Al – this rare beauty is really coming together now.
I for one will be fascinated to hear any information that you can discover with regards to the history of this frame, and the team members at the time.
Pip.
Thanks for showing us the progress so far Al – this rare beauty is really coming together now.
I for one will be fascinated to hear any information that you can discover with regards to the history of this frame, and the team members at the time.
Pip.
Re:
As ever, thanks Pip
As ever, thanks Pip
