Lava Dome ('91) comfortable commuter

[captainsully]

Having recently picked up a lovely Kona Lava Dome from @cda (thank you!), I thought it would make a great ride for around town and commuting.

Starting with a really nice frame, and some original parts that I will restore as well as I can. Some parts are not original and will be replaced with my preferred choices: the saddle, levers, pedals, and tyres. I'll also be swapping the canti brakes for v-brakes - sorry to upset the gurus! But I feel more comfortable setting them up nicely for riding on the road.

I got carried away and stripped it down completely, allowing me to clean and regrease/oil every piece. And I'm glad I did as it revealed quite a rusty lower headset cup - luckily only on the outside so it could be sorted out with a bit of effort.

Here's how it started:




And here it is now with the headset cups back in, some paint touched up, forks and stem resprayed, and a proper polish & wax. The cranks in this photo have since been changed back to the original ones after a little polish. I'll pop another update on soon.

 

[bold stelvis]

that looks like its in great condition given the era

 

[JCS]

That’s very clean. Good to see you are enjoying the refurb.

 

[Imlach]

Agree with stelvis. Very well kept.

Nice workhorse foundation, those frames. Excited to see it come together. I'd bin the cantis too. I think these frames look so good in stealth mode, as many black bits as possible.

 

[Scott-S]

Now that's a beautifully clean bike, it looked good before but it looks great after the paint correction
I'll be following this with an eye on a possible future brake conversion.

 

[captainsully]

Thanks folks - yes I feel quite lucky with how well the decals are holding up, and the paint responded well to the polish (Maguire's Ultimate Compound, and Autoglym Super Resin, then Collinite Doublecoat wax).

@Imlach I totally agree with the black stealth look and have it with a black seatpost which really goes nicely. Also black brakes and some old Schwalbe marathon tyres with the labels mostly rubbed off, but seem to be in good condition. I've got some mudguards going on that match the tyres with a reflective strip.

Here it is in the middle of a nice ride - the 12° sweep in the handlebars make for a comfortable position. 8 speed cassette with one if the cogs removed (second smallest) so it fits on the freehub, and it shifts well enough over a 7s shifter. It makes almost no sounds at all and runs really smoothly with fresh grease in the bottom bracket, wheels, and the spokes tensioned up nicely.




I'm really enjoying it, and will likely be my go to bike when popping to the shops.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

I love black bikes. As a recent Lava Dome owner, I love mine. It rides really well.