Kona Explosif 2000 Scandium - Advice

[jmacbrid86]

I am searching for my next build and wanting it to tick a few boxes things; including being on my want list;

I have been offered the following frame;

2000 Kona Explosif - With P2's and Mavic Crossrides, Recently powdercoated.

Now I will be building this as my XC machine and may keep it rigid or move to 80mm up front. My question circulates around the frame toughness and durability. It will be ridden a few times a month mainly for XC and road riding, have a Santa Crus Nomad for the rougher stuff.

Will the frame stand up, (it is an XL and I am up 195cm, about 110kgs) for its intended purposes?

 

[The History Man]

I have been riding this without issue and am similar size and weight. And it's for sale...........

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=358212

 

[T'boo Ted]

Got a Yeti arc with the scandium top and down tube, road it for years and i'm a lardo,nice big gouge in the down tube was fine for years, about to rebuild it as my spare, spare bike...no issues with it. It's been race bike commuter bike, rigid bike, made it through a ri explosion that i thought would take out the seat stay, hasn't broken yet.

 

[Anthony]

It's hard to say really. Kona may have largely created the poor durability reputation for themselves, by restricting the warranty on these frames to one year. That might have simply mirrored Easton's warranty to Kona of course. And although Rocky Mountain offered a longer warranty on the Vertex Sc, it is possible that Easton gave them a longer warranty than to Kona, owing to having greater confidence in RM's frame building facility in Vancouver than in Kona's builder in Taiwan.
Fundamentally, there doesn't look to be anything weak in the specification. Only the top and down tubes were scandium (the rest Easton Ultralite) and the claimed weight of 3.4lbs is heavy for a scandium frame and barely any lighter than a Kula, which had a lifetime warranty.
On the other hand, it is true that they beefed up the spec for the following year's Explosif (for which they must have had a reason). And then they never used Easton scandium again, moving to a proprietary scandium for the 2003 Kula Primo, which was all-scandium and quite a bit lighter. But there again, they could have abandoned Easton scandium on cost grounds, rather than durability/warranty, we shall never know.
There was once a chap on here who claimed that every scandium Vertex he sold from his shop in the US came back broken within the year, and we can't ignore his evidence. But on the other hand, Rocky Mountain persisted with Easton scandium for a very long time, which they surely wouldn't have done if they had a seriously adverse warranty experience.
My 2003 Vertex TSc and 2002 Element TSc are both intact after all these years, and both were raced before I acquired them, but my weight is only just over half yours, so my evidence may not be very relevant.
I do understand your caution. Personally I would certainly go for a Kula Primo in preference, if you could find one, but if the price of the Explosif you're looking at properly reflects the uncertain reputation, then it may be worth taking a chance.

 

[hamster]

Any Aluminium frame will have a finite life - that's simply due to the fatigue properties of the metal - and unlike steel.
The sort of people who bought Explosifs new were likely to give frames a hard life - probably that is reflected in the reputation. However, provided it has no visible cracking (check carefully) then you should be fine.
One day it will fail from fatigue - but there are enough intact 25 year old Zaskars around to show it can be a long way off for a well-designed frame like a Kona. I love my 17 year old Kaboom and still ride it most days.

 

[Pipmeister]

Re:

Anthony, I believe that you may be aware that I own a 2000 Scandium Explosif, however I was interested to read that this model was beefed up for 2001. I had always assumed that they were identical tubing for both years.

I was also unaware that only the Top and Down Tubes were Scandium, as I had thought that the whole front triangle was Sc7000 with 7005 Easton Stays.

It is also curious that you mention the 2003 Scandium Kula Primo. I bought a new Kula Primo frame in 2003, which I still own. I have made no secret of my partiality for aluminium frames, and it doesn’t get much better than the 2003 Kula Primo; this in some part owing to it retaining the classic XC racing geometry.

jmacbrid86, I’m not sure if any of the above helps you (I am about the same weight as Anthony) although I will say that my 2000 Explosif certainly seems to have a beefy construction compared to my other aluminium frames.

Pip.

 

[CristiRD]

Unfortunatelly don't have any clear specification of the 2000 Explosif but maybe this info about the 2001 model will help. Just top and down tubes were Easton Scandium, the rest were regular 7005 Alu.