Kona Ku

[kaledi]

Well, now that does sound like I missed out at the time. To be able to get a 1998 Ku today - anyone?

Can you tell me where to find John for the catalog? In the mean time if people want high quality scans, please PM me and I will point you to a photo share site.

 

[Anthony]

Can you tell me where to find John for the catalog?

Just click on Retro MTB Chat below, and then click on John on the moderators line towards the top and you can PM him.

Incidentally, here is a thread about a yellow Kilauea.
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... ht=kilauea

 

[Ductape]

Did anyone buy that black Ku?

 

[Anthony]

Did anyone buy that black Ku?

Aaron was getting quite interested in researching the provenance of the bike. Maybe somebody made him a full offer, but if not it wouldn't surprise me if he decided to keep it.

You guys ought to meet up for a ride if you live quite close - if you posted up a picture of two Kus out on the Washington trails together, that would enhance this thread really nicely. And it might be a bit of a first - how many photos of two Kus can there be? There aren't all that many pictures of one Ku, let alone two!

 

[Ductape]

I know there is some great riding out where he lives, that I haven't ridden in years.

When it was posted, I was tempted to make the drive just to see it. I have never seen another Ku before.

 

[DocBraunson]

i'm another seattlite that saw that post on craigslist!!! i thought about making a post here until i saw that you beat me to it. It was funny because i had read the thread about KUs a couple of nights before and saw that on CL and was like "NO F****KING WAY" i was really tempted but i am getting laid here right quick and couldn't swing a whole bike. know anyone hiring in Seattle??? purdy bike though. i was hoping you or Gearlessinseattle would get it.... also i am fairly new to mtbing and if you are going on a ride and need a sidekick i am always down! plus will be having some free time coming up.

 

[DocBraunson]

" i was really tempted but i am getting LAID here right quick and couldn't swing a whole bike"

forgot to add
"OFF"

i am getting laid-off not laid well not right now anyway and we will see because i pissed off my special lady last night so....

 

[kaledi]

Yes, we had already worked out that Aaron's 95 Ku probably wasn't made by Teesdale because it has no TET stamp on the bb shell, but this seems to confirm it. I wonder whether it might have been made by Mountain Goat before they went out of business/changed their name to Altitude Cycles. And maybe one or other party was coy about saying so.

It says on the Kona site that the 98 Ku was made of Columbus Altec 7005 Megatube, the only year when the Ku was made of a different tube from the Kula. So that would explain the more mega tube profile you recall. It would have been painted by VeloGraphics in Bellingham, so maybe the one you saw there was a cancelled order that had found its way into that shop. It says that the price was $900 (£800 in the UK), but that was for a single colour, I don't know how much more a fancier colour scheme would have cost.
http://www.klassickona.com/oldgold/98bi ... einfo.html

The use of Columbus tubes does explain the lasting impression I have of that Ku. Have you seen any 1998 Ku's in the flesh or via photos? The down tube was absolutely massive on the Ku I saw

 

[Anthony]

The use of Columbus tubes does explain the lasting impression I have of that Ku. Have you seen any 1998 Ku's in the flesh or via photos? The down tube was absolutely massive on the Ku I saw

The only one I have a picture of is the green one shown on the first page of this thread. I think that down tube is bigger (and presumably thinner-gauge) than the one on the Kula, but perhaps not what you'd call massive. The Kona Custom frames did have size-specific tubing, so I suppose that could be a possible explanation for the frame you saw having fatter tubes than the green one.

 

[sxrracer]

Need to post some closeups of mine. Guessing it is a 97 from what I have found.

This is an older pic from 97/98. I am in the process of giving it an overhaul right now with a new Magura MD80R fork and new cables/housings.

OK< Photo's to big, will have to resize or host them somewhere.