Kona Haole Ti

[walleater]

I would have done a build thread for this, but in the end it only took me three days to swap out the wheels, and various other bits to make the bike a nice mix of old and new school.

I don't know if it's the same for all these bikes (and they seem so rare that I might never know!), but there is feck all clearance between the rear tyre and the seatstay bridge with a 23c tyre. Even a slight amount of dirt and I hear scraping sounds! I think I'll have to get creative and glue some beer can shims on to the underside of the dropouts to just lift the frame up 0.5mm or so which should sort the issue out. Other than that, I'm pretty stoked with this.

 

[CTK]

Lovely stuff

 

[al-onestare]

Stealthy! And indeed a rare beast - what's the frame number? Have you had it since new?

 

[walleater]

Thanks peeps!

The frame number is E55084....I think! It's hand stamped but I'm 90% sure that's what it is (with 'Made In The USA' also stamped above it).

I've recently picked it up, albeit built up somewhat differently. I had an Everti Ti road bike which was too small for me so was built as a flat(ish) bar single speed, and a modern plastic road bike. I wanted to save some space so managed to swap the Ti bike for the one above, and spent the money from the plastic bike pimping it out.

 

[Woz]

How does it ride? Does it flex much and with those tight clearances does anything rub?

 

[walleater]

I've only ridden it around the block so far as it's been raining since I finished it (only a couple of days ago). It does feel super smooth though, which with skinny Ti tubes, carbon fork with a 1" carbon steerer and skinny bars probably isn't a surprise. The frame supposedly weighs under 3lb which is about a pound less than the Everti Ti frame that it replaced so I fully expect it to be a bit of a noodle The weight is now down to 18.5lb with some light wheels which is reasonable enough as I didn't built it to be superlight and the bike feels pretty fast (although I am on it!).

 

[bduc61]

nice
derserves a 7400 rear mech

 

[walleater]

Thanks. Yep you are right! I'll keep half an eye out for something local but the 'new' Ultegra mech was such a price that I couldn't turn it down and it's much better than the battered Tiagra one that the bike came with!

 

[al-onestare]

Thanks peeps!

The frame number is E55084....I think! It's hand stamped but I'm 90% sure that's what it is (with 'Made In The USA' also stamped above it).

I've recently picked it up, albeit built up somewhat differently. I had an Everti Ti road bike which was too small for me so was built as a flat(ish) bar single speed, and a modern plastic road bike. I wanted to save some space so managed to swap the Ti bike for the one above, and spent the money from the plastic bike pimping it out.

Anthony is your man to confirm, but I'm pretty sure that make its a 1995 model, from August.

 

[walleater]

Thanks for the Heads Up! Anthony kindly got back to me and thinks it's '93 or '94 but can't be sure. The 'E' in the frame number might well be a 'B'. The exact details might remain a mystery though!