Kona vs. Koga!?!

[stumpjumper1990]

Back in 1990 I was looking to buy my first MTB. The bike I wanted was a Kona Cinder Cone. This bike was at the time not available in The Netherlands, so I went looking for it in Germany. The distributor in Germany told me that there was a legal problem with Koga Miyata. Because of that they couldn't deliver any Kona bike. According to Koga Miyata the name Kona sounded to much like Koga.....
As a result of that I bought a Specialized Stumpjumper, which I'm riding every week since then.
Can anybody tell me anything about this legal problem of Kona in the early 90's?
I am looking for a 1991 Cinder Cone since a long time, but cannot find one. Perhaps because of this problem back then?

 

[Kona Paul]

Kona changed the decals on their bikes to "K mountain bikes" for sale in Gemany (and Holland?) due to this legal problem. So they were sold there. Here is my 92 Explosif. Perhaps they didn't come up with this solution before 92.....

 

[Konaglider]

I had that very same Cinder Cone,16/17 inch'ish, in greeny gold colour, Cinder Gold they called it. Came with Suntour XC LTD group'o.
Lovely bike, wish I still had it

 

[IbocProSX]

I have a 1992 Explosif that was sold new in Holland, and it has the K logo too:

 

[Kona Paul]

I think they all had the K logo on the head tube, it's the down tube that was different because it didn't say "Kona" but "K mountain bikes."

 

[IbocProSX]

Mine just had the K logo on the downtube also, could be Dutch thing or a new set of decals fitted sometime as it appears to be placed "wrong" too.

edit: Just saw the exact same logo's on another Dutch Explosif, they are "right" after all

more pictures here: http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39554&highlight=explosif

 

[Anthony]

I have a 1992 Explosif that was sold new in Holland, and it has the K logo too

Yours is an Explosif Pro though, so I'm not totally clear whether it's a 1991 or a 1992. Your other photo shows the seat clamp in the same pattern as the 1991 Cinder Cone above, and different from Paul's 1992 Explosif. You could argue that that suggests that your bike is a 1991, but in fact every Explosif Pro I have seen is like yours, so I think it may be that all of the 1992 Explosif Pros were built up with their custom paint jobs from 1991 Explosif frames. In which case, yours could be a 1992 after all. So I'm afraid I can't help with the question whether K bikes were sold in 1991.

 

[stumpjumper1990]

All bikes described are from 1992 (ish). Perhaps if I could have waited another year, I would have been able to buy myself a K Cinder Cone! But as you might have guessed it was not possible for me to wait