Kona Hei Hei words of warning.

[ekiborter]

So when I got my Hei Hei I built it up with a 27.0 O-beam seat post which worked well.

I then put a Titec 27.0 titanium seat pin in to complete the Ti build which was also great.

Some months later I noticed that the clamp was really tight and forcing the keyhole slot a little too tightly together and if I pushed forward/back on the pin I got a small amount of movement...
so I whip out the Titec pin and push a 27.2 alloy pin into the frame.... fits fine!

OK so my hei hei is 27.2 not 27.0 and I need to size up.
So I source a nice 27.2 Ti pin and today it turns up in the mail.
Excitedly put the saddle on it slab on the teflon grease and........ it only goes in about 2"

damn!

put the 27.0 pin back in and yes its too small. try the aluminium 27.2 I'd used originally and it too only goes in by a couple of inches (must not have pushed it in far first time around)

ok so the aluminium shim must have worn at the top but not further down.

Right only one thing for it grab out the 27.25 reamer and set to work.
3" in to reaming and the bonding on the shim crumbles away from the frame :evil:

So now I have a 29.2 seatpost hole a shim stuck on my reamer and two titanium seat posts that wont fit my frame.
Fortunately USE are ace and will have 29.2 to 27.2 shim in the post for me tomorrow so I can definitely take the Hei Hei out tomorrow night.

so tonights MTB ride became a crosser ride over babyheads :shock:

Managed to get the shim off the reamer but cant wait for the fun of working out how to clamp it without damaging it to ream to 27.2 so I can return the frame to as close as original as possible at some point.
:roll:

:!: :!: :!:
So if you have a Hei Hei which is 27.0 with no problems leave it that way...

PUT THE REAMER DOWN.....

STEP AWAY FROM THE REAMER! :!: :!: :!:

 

[Neil G]

Good advice Luke

Seattube diameters must vary, mine takes a 27.2 syncros post with no probs

 

[Dead Rats]

good God - what a blimming nightmare of a night's tinkering :shock:

 

[Anthony]

Oooo errr. I can't say I'm all that surprised though. I wouldn't be anywhere near brave enough to try to ream out a 1mm thick piece of alloy that was only bonded inside a titanium tube.

What I don't get though is if 27.0 is too small, but 27.2 is too big, you'd think 27.1 would be about right (if there was such a thing). But if the 27.0 was only 0.1mm too small, and as circumference is 22/7 x diameter, you should surely have to distort the slot by only 0.3mm to clamp it tight. And as the slot is 4mm across, you surely wouldn't have been concerned about a distortion as small as 0.3mm?

Sounds to me as though the most likely explanation is that your shim may have been an ex-shim in any case. So your 'decision' to ream it into oblivion can be seen as a far-sighted strategy.

Have you ever thought of standing for Prime Minister?

 

[Neil G]

Coke can is your friend in situations like these

 

[ekiborter]

Oooo errr. I can't say I'm all that surprised though. I wouldn't be anywhere near brave enough to try to ream out a 1mm thick piece of alloy that was only bonded inside a titanium tube.

What I don't get though is if 27.0 is too small, but 27.2 is too big, you'd think 27.1 would be about right (if there was such a thing). But if the 27.0 was only 0.1mm too small, and as circumference is 22/7 x diameter, you should surely have to distort the slot by only 0.3mm to clamp it tight. And as the slot is 4mm across, you surely wouldn't have been concerned about a distortion as small as 0.3mm?

Sounds to me as though the most likely explanation is that your shim may have been an ex-shim in any case. So your 'decision' to ream it into oblivion can be seen as a far-sighted strategy.

Have you ever thought of standing for Prime Minister?

What's a man to do? 27.0 too small 27.2 too big. reaches for adjustable reamer and busts it reaches for 27.25 reamer and busts bike


I did think about standing for PM but I'm reliably informed you have to be prepared to go to war over things that don't matter in the longterm :? not prepared to do that.

 

[ekiborter]

Coke can is your friend in situations like these

Guinness my lad, Guinness.

I'm reliably informed that a Guinness can is exactly 0.2 of a mm thick.

;]

 

[djoptix]

So now I have a shim stuck on my reamer

OOOOOOOOOOHHHH

 

[Neil G]

Coke can is your friend in situations like these

Guinness my lad, Guinness.

I'm reliably informed that a Guinness can is exactly 0.2 of a mm thick.

;]

Nice one, I'll remember that next time I come to bodge a seatpost/headset

 

[Huntso]

Kona's must have the most inconsistent seatpost size going

Had the same problem as the OP with an Explosif, never did work out if it was 27.0 or 27.2
Even the earlier bikes varied between 26.6 and 27.0, seen a good many posts on here over the years asking what size

Even the seatclamp size was an unusual 29.8 when the front mech was 28.6

Verniers are your friend

Cheers
Rich