Kona Questions, sizing, differences in era (up to 97), clearances etc.

[Tommy27]

I'd love a RM Blizzard, but it's finding one in good nick in the uk and not a complete bike.

I'm not in a mad rush, but I want something with the paint in good condition and I think a Kona with P2 would be easier to find since many of the RM's I see come up for sale on here are missing forks. Either way I want a higher end frame with sloping top tube, but still with a rack braze on. Both Blizzard and Explosif seem to tick that box, just Explosif seems a little easier to source.

Is the sizing similar to Kona's (Will try and look at the archives later and post any relevant charts in myself)?

 

[Tommy27]

Kona Geo Charts

93




94


95



96

 

[Tommy27]

Rocky Mountain, partly for my own comparison and because of course both were descendants of Brodie, so was interested to see how they'd diverged.

Some years the geo details were more better than others. I'm primarily interested in the Blizzard, so the small snipping's are from the pages of the catalogue in the archives where I just snipped those.

93



94



95



96


Blizzard is over on the right

 

[Tommy27]

Suprised to find the top tube on the 18.5 Blizzard was shorter than the Explosif the whole way through this period, though the Blizzard gets more aggressive in it's angles it seems?

The issues I think I'd have with finding a Blizzard though are relative availability in UK and also the Rusty Mountain issues. More Kona's seem to have survived into the present day, not just because of their production numbers, but seemingly due to the finishing? What ever Kona were doing seem to have given them greater longevity.

When did Kona move production to Taiwan and when did Rocky Mountain stop building in Canada?

 

[winjohn]

No doubt someone will have the answer to the production geography question but with the various different tubing: Tange, Columbus, 853, Aluminium etc the answer may not be that straightforward.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Suprised to find the top tube on the 18.5 Blizzard was shorter than the Explosif the whole way through this period, though the Blizzard gets more aggressive in it's angles it seems?

The issues I think I'd have with finding a Blizzard though are relative availability in UK and also the Rusty Mountain issues. More Kona's seem to have survived into the present day, not just because of their production numbers, but seemingly due to the finishing? What ever Kona were doing seem to have given them greater longevity.

When did Kona move production to Taiwan and when did Rocky Mountain stop building in Canada?

With regards to Frames
Rocky always used imports for various models and Kona all are imported, bar a few top end that were contracted locally, to TET, Altitude, Ti people.

Lots of Rockies were made in house, and depends on the years etc.

Rocky setup the frame shop Everest Manufacturing to make their Alu frames.
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Kona snapped at the chain stays, they then added really nice version in 97, they just had a larger presence in the UK than Rocky, probably also because they are/were a lot cheaper to buy, competing with Orange, Marin on price etc.

Grab what you can as they come along, I know you only want one bike but hey they all say that ;-).

 

[Tommy27]

Well we 'need' a spare bike. For instance right now my missus Pace is out of action and so is my son's gravel bike. We have enough spares that we can do short road rides, but off road as a family is out. Right now he's only 2" taller than me and she's 3" shorter so if I got a Kona and then a Rocky Mountain Blizzard just happened to come along... then we could build the Kona up into a spare!

Cyclist Logic

 

[dan28]

i ve just bought a fire mountain it was local an cheap
it has 18inch frame measured from bb axle to centre of top tube
let me know if you need any measurments