The impossible Hei Hei

[Sunny6672]

If time travel were possible...

I'd travel back to 1997 and relive the day I purchased my first Kona. My budget allowed for the Koa. I rode it every day, I loved it.

If time travel were possible I'd load the DeLorean with enough cash that'd allow me to walk through the door of my LBS and ask for a 16" Hei Hei fully built with a top spec, spare no expense. I'll be back in a month.

If time travel were possible...

When are you going and what did you buy?

 

[2manyoranges]

...nice idea...I know exactly...

...in the late 80's I mithered over a Cannondale 18 inch M600 with low end Suntour or a Columbus-tubed Cinelli with Deore. I was much taken with the beautiful welds on the Cannondale and was chasing stiffness after having a Dawes Ranger (aka The Wiggly Bedstead...it felt like the front and back wheels always were wandering off in different directions...VERY flexy...).

I went for the Cannondale reasoning that the frames were identical right up through the range and I could slowly improve the bike as things wore out. Aluminium is the thing.....steel is old...I thought.

Wrong.

The Cannondale beat me up on the flints of the South Downs, and a few months in I was warned that there some head tube failures on the 18 inch frames...yikes....a rumour? fact?...when the bike was stolen a year later I bought a steel Marin. A blue Tange Palisades, which did thousands of miles off road and rode like a dream. As did the Team after it. And now I know I should have bought the Cinelli. It would fit with all the modern steel bikes I now have.

 

[tintin40]

1995 20 Anniversary Adroit one voice said buy but listened to the voice saying holiday in Japan. Should bought the frame set.

 

[Sunny6672]

1995 20 Anniversary Adroit one voice said buy but listened to the voice saying holiday in Japan. Should bought the frame set.

Ah the voice... But hey, you get the time machine, enjoy (please remember to fill it up for the next person)

 

[Sunny6672]

...nice idea...I know exactly...

...in the late 80's I mithered over a Cannondale 18 inch M600 with low end Suntour or a Columbus-tubed Cinelli with Deore. I was much taken with the beautiful welds on the Cannondale and was chasing stiffness after having a Dawes Ranger (aka The Wiggly Bedstead...it felt like the front and back wheels always were wandering off in different directions...VERY flexy...).

I went for the Cannondale reasoning that the frames were identical right up through the range and I could slowly improve the bike as things wore out. Aluminium is the thing.....steel is old...I thought.

Wrong.

The Cannondale beat me up on the flints of the South Downs, and a few months in I was warned that there some head tube failures on the 18 inch frames...yikes....a rumour? fact?...when the bike was stolen a year later I bought a steel Marin. A blue Tange Palisades, which did thousands of miles off road and rode like a dream. As did the Team after it. And now I know I should have bought the Cinelli. It would fit with all the modern steel bikes I now have.

...I know the South Downs way very well, and so did the '97 Kona Koa. Thankfully those Aluminium frames were a dream to ride.

I have a vague memory of a very fast long hill just outside Portsmouth, but alas its name escapes me...the memory of whizzing through a thankfully open gate at warp speed will never leave me

Must say, steel is a treat, it's taken 25 years but I now own a steel framed bike...

 

[Sunny6672]

Talking about the Kona got me all nostalgic

This was at the end of the South Downs Way in 1999...I'd forgotten that I used to run my stem inverted !! Guess I was more flexible then

Later I purchased a specialized M4 FSR, that was a lovely rig...they would still be in my stable, alas thieves had other ideas

Here are the photos