Kona / The Bicycle Group - year & curved fork?

[AH1F]

We're a Marin family but I've just bought a Kona for my other half to try out before this year's Bank Holiday get away.

I'm pretty sure this is a 90 Lava Dome, it's a flat white finish, the yellow grey Kona sticker and partial Suntour X-1 groupset seems to confirm this. The head badge is still The Bicycle Company -edit Group

I have a question over the fork. I've seen an 89 with a curved P1 fork but I'm not sure this one is the same. The stickers on the fork are palm trees. Anyone got any ideas?

 

[Splatter Paint]

Re:

Indeed a '90 model Lava Dome, the forks are not Kona and look a bit too long. A 390mm axle crown should be the correct length, though this is a guess until I get to dig mine out of the garage!

SP

 

[AH1F]

Re: Kona / The Bicycle Company - year & curved fork?

Edit: Looking at the fork, you must be right, there is a spacer on the headset to accommodate the longer steerer.

The frames is 16" you/anyone would happen to know how long the streerer on a P1 / P2 would have to be?

I'D looked at my old notes on the 94 Cinder Cone and it said the fork length was 400, but I think that was adjusted for suspension.

 

[hamster]

Re: Kona / The Bicycle Company - year & curved fork?

Looks identical to my son's 1990 TBG Lava Dome, which was a flat white with no splatter. But it has a P2 fork. The stock steerer is very short as it came as standard with a very low stack steel headset...been suffering from it ever since as most others barely get the lockring on a turn.

 

[AH1F]

@Splatter & @hamster, do you happen to have a photo of the original headset I could have a look at? Just wanted to check if the original is still on this bike.

If not, I think I'll just replace it; might lessen the difficulty in getting a suitable replacement fork/save getting a longer steerer cut and re-threaded.

:facepalm: dammit, this was meant to be a quick knock-up job; 1 more question, what quill/stem is on this originally?

 

[hamster]

Steerer is around 140mm. The headset is a featureless all steel black job.

 

[AH1F]

Thanks, looks like the race assembly is original with a replacement lock nut and spacer.

 

[xxnick1975]

Looks good that bike

 

[AH1F]

I quite like it as well but it's coming up a bit small for a 16". My other half is about 5'7 and after riding that and a larger Marin tonight it looks like the Kona is going to get stripped and packed away. I might rebuild it as a project if/when I come across some suitable forks.
All in all it's a bit annoying but by not winning the set of RC30's I eyed as an interim fork I saved £80, so I guess there's that.

 

[Splatter Paint]

Re:

Hi, see photos of 1990 Kona stems below. The correct stem for the Lava Dome is a Kona ICR (internal cable routing), on the left is a Velocity as fitted to the Explosif and Cinder Cone, the ICR in the middle and a 'Kona chromoly' item from the 1990 Fire Mountain on the right. Mine has a big set of cracks near the cable slot - beware!

The headset is a YST 'Sealed Tech' item, I believe YST actually still make them, the part number is HP-8002GW http://www.yst-corp.com.tw/products_vie ... 0907290006

Sorry for the rubbish picture quality, phone camera taken under a strip light in the garage!

SP