Re: *Reduced Price* Old Barns & Unicorns - 1996 Kona King Kahuna
dablk":y5a8qafg said:
But it's not OEM King Kahuna level kit... Which is way over pricing the bike... Sorry if that's breaking the rules mods but it's on 6 pages of near daily bumps. Now a cookbros/xtr/syncros/Magura/control tech... Ect hardly ridden bike would be a different animal.
Chris,
Thanks for your feedback. I must respectfully disagree and/or clarify a point about the "OEM King Kahuna level kit." The fact of the matter is that in 1996, the King Kahuna frame was sold as a frame only, and there were two versions of Kona kits available at the time..."Kona Custom Kit One" and "Kona Factory Kit"...and the King Kahuna was not only configured with, or sold with, one of the two...it was always up to a customer to choose.
You are of course correct that the 1996 catalogue shows a picture of the very highest and best configuration, namely the frame with the "Factory Kit." As the flagship of the entire lineup, of course Kona would put the most exclusive and costly version of the bike in the catalogue.
But it's incorrect and unfair to imply that because any particular King Kahuna frame was not also paired with the most expensive kit, that's not "really" a King Kahuna, for example...nor does it diminish the rarity of finding a complete bike with a more modest kit. Kona's pricing and parts configuration explicitly gave any purchaser of a King Kahuna frame the choice to select from two different kits...one top-shelf, and one more economical.
It's clear from much of the discussion on this thread that many prospects wish for, and find the top-shelf Factory Kit far more appealing and attractive. And that's totally reasonable. But that's simply a different bike, and those buyers/prospects are basically asking a different question, namely, "Why don't you have a different bike for sale? I like yours okay, but I really want a different one."
We've never represented this bike as anything other than what it is...a rather exceptional, very lovely, essentially unused KK frame from a rare year, with an essentially unused OEM kit, all of it as-configured by Kona, with the original documentation to back it up. A hard-to-find, authentic titanium bike, from 1996. For sale today, in 2014. And many folks have recognized that whether you love the combination of assets, or whether you are luke-warm about it, it still remains pretty unusual to find an original bike like this.
I understand the impulse behind some of the commentary, but fundamentally I think it's misplaced. It's fine to say, "this bike or that car would be even better, or cooler, or more attractive, with a different trim line..."; or "I'd much rather have that beautiful classic car with the more-expensive leather interior, instead of the cloth interior...." But the point is that whether it's the top-shelf version, or something more modest, a hard-to-find OEM classic is a hard-to-find OEM classic. Wishing one could find a new, 1996 King Kahuna with a Factory Kit in 2014 won't make one suddenly appear as a real bike, in the real marketplace. These are not abstractions, or wishes. It's a question of actually finding certain bikes for sale. And *actually* finding a lovely 1996 King Kahuna, virtually as new, with an authentic Kona Custom Kit One that was also offered for sale with that very frame, along with dealer documentation, is pretty exceptional.
So, bottom line, although this might not be the way everyone thinks about it, this is the way we think about it: instead of asking, "Why isn't this bike different?...it looks less expensive than the one I really want," we think it's more appropriate to ask instead, "Can I find another bike like this at approximately the same price, or cheaper....
or not?" (Again -- all of the assets...original frame, original parts, unused, dealer documentation, as-new 18 years later). That's why I said in another post, if you can find the same thing for cheaper...go for it. We certainly haven't seen it, and we've tried to be fair about valuing the bike.
We don't pretend that the bike is for everyone. We do believe that for some, the unique combination of assets associated with this
particular bike is enough to get excited about.
As always, we appreciate the feedback and dialogue. I just wanted really wanted to clear up the issue of the frame, the different kits available, and the (somewhat distracting) issue of the photo in the catalogue (lovely as it is)...again, just because you might prefer a different kit doesn't change the fact that Kona offered more than one, with this frame (which was sold separately).
p.s. Since some readers are still referring to the original £3000 price, please note that the current price is £2699 + actual shipping.
