Kona Hot Serial Number List - update 14/11/24

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al-onestare":2dcaqput said:
TET1010 incoming!
Cheers Alasdair. What a corker, and in great condiditon - loving that colour. Tom was certainly banging these Hot frames out for 1993. I'll added it to the list soon.

Pip.
 
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An update to the list with a somewhat usual Altitude frame. Thanks go to Sándor for bring this one to my attention.

The frame has a Burgundy / Orange Maple Leaf paint job, but no Decals. The serial number has the format of the 1997 Hot, but the frame has 1996 cable routing. The number is feint in the pictures that Sándor managed to obtain, but I am going for H09606036: 1996, June, number 36. This would predate Ernie’s 1997 Rasta Green & Yellow Flame Hot, which was welded in July 1996. Altitude did produce a batch of 1996 Ku frames in June ‘96, which supports my deciphering of the serial number.

Pip
 
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Thank you Alasdair – It’s been a while since we have seen any of these later Tom Teesdale Hot frames, and an interesting example it is too.

For those who are interested - or hopefully may be able to shed more light - have glance back to my post on the first page: Sat Nov 02, 2019 11:15 am. You’ll see there is mention of the Orange and Orange / Yellow fade frames used by Factory Team members.

With this new addition we now have four examples of these Team rider’s Hot frames on the list: TET 1637, 1657, 1681 and now 1705. One of these was claimed to be Trish Sinclair’s team bike. That frame was sold by RB member shauno back in April 2018.

Here


If you’re still reading this, you may be interested to look at the 1995 Catalogue pages 12 & 13, which shows a few more of these Orange and Orange / Yellow fade frames. Max Jones’s Orange / Yellow fade bike could be a Hot, while Kris Oetter and Kirk Molday appear to be using Kula frames painted up in Orange – perhaps someone with better eyes than mine could have a look…… err, Alasdair? ;) .

1995 Catalogue


I am sure there is a post discussing this by Anthony - now sadly M.I.A., but I’m jiggered if I can find it at the moment. Anyone know some more?

Pip
 
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Thank you very much for posting a picture of the Serial Number. I'm currently away for a few days, but I will add your frame to the list when I get back.

Cheers, Pip.
 
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Okay, I have updated the Serial Number list again with a couple of frames highlighted by Sándor. They are both Tom Teesdale frames; a very early example TET 097, and a late example c/w some Custom Cable Guides TET 1713.

I have also moved some of the later 1994 frames into 1995 after a bit of a re-think. The Tubing and Cable Stops are identical for both years, so I was relying on the Decals to distinguish between ’94 & ’95. This method was somewhat flawed as there are some frames with distinct 1995 Decals with an earlier sequential Serial Number as some frames with 1994 Decals. I can only assume that the less popular sized frames (say 14” & 20”) that were not sold one year, were still in stock with Kona, which resulted in them being painted as and when they were ordered, so ended up with the following year’s Decals.

It’s also not unheard of for a customer to ask for the previous years’ Decals on these custom frames – Alasdair’s 1997 Cable routed Hot with 1996 Decals being a good example of this – albeit by a different builder.

Finally it also brings all of the 17” Orange / Yellow fade & Orange Factory Team frames into 1995, which we still know very little about.

Pip
 
Re:Kona HOT serial numbers

I'll add this one on behalf of a friend with his permission.
This is a 1994 with serial TET910 16" that he has owned since new.
I knew he had it and was interested it picking it up but didn't realize it was a 16" which is a tad small.
 

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Re:

Thank you very much for this addition to the Kona Hot Serial Number List - a lovely bold colour.

This example however throws up a few anomalies that are found on these Custom frames.

It has mainly 1994 Decals including the Silver and Orange Spiral Head Tube Decal. However, the Italic Kona Custom Top Tube Decal was not available until 1995. The Serial Number and Dropouts add further confusion, as it sits sequentially in with the 1993 frames, and has the triangle hole Dropouts that were a feature of the 1991 - 1993 frames :? .

It does support my belief that the less popular sized frames that were not sold in any particular year, were stored as raw Steel, then subsequently painted up with the following year’s livery as and when sold - although this is the first example that I can think of that spans two years with its' assortment of features...... and 16" isn't a particularly unusual size, compared to say 14".

Still it gives me something to think about, and I will add it to the list when I next update it :D .

Perhaps your friend can add some information as you mentioned that they bought it new?

Thanks again.

Pip
 
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