The Mythical 1998 Kona Ku

[Pipmeister]

Re: Re:

That bike screams ride me until your legs fall off. What a cracker :!:

In fact words don't really do justice the quality of this and the story that's behind it. It's been a pleasure hearing about it and I'm super pleased it's in your hands. We're all waiting to hear how it rides. I can only imagine with that tubing (ovalised aluminium...super cool!) that it soaks up pretty much everything.

Oh, and the build as is, perfect: the blue, black and yellow schema is great. Those wildgrippers were naff and are hopeless in our weather anyway.

You’re absolutely right – I need to get out on it soon and report back.

Something that I have tried is Lateral Flex, which is something that I do with all my bikes.

Set the Crank arms parallel with the ground, and then apply both brakes. Stand heavily on the forward facing pedal and look to see how much the Bottom Bracket moves sideways. A “faster” frame that accelerates and climbs well will have less movement from side to side, as more energy from your legs goes down the chain – rather than flexing the frame from side to side.

I didn’t notice this frame being any less stiff laterally as a result of its lack of a Chain Stay Brace – this is one of the questions that I will put to Kona.

Pip.

 

[Pipmeister]

Re:

I managed to get out for a short ride this morning before the rain set in for the rest of the day. :roll:

Straightaway the bike felt ready to fly – positively zinging along, and reassuring around the bends.

I didn’t get to blast up a good long climb today, but I reckon it’ll be as good as its stablemates – more later when the weather improves.



A few more details now regarding this frame:

Has anyone seen Cable Stops like this before on a Kona? I presume they are unique to the batch of 1998 Ku frames built from Columbus Altec2. They give massive clearance between the cables and the Top Tube, which does away with the need for cable grommets, or indeed frame protection tape.

The 1998 Kula has something entirely different……..

…..however the Dropouts and Cable hanger seem identical in both frames this particular year. Two of the previous years of manufacture, namely 1996 & 1997, the Ku Dropouts were different from the Kula - the 1995 models however also seem to be the same in both models.

Pip

 

[Canuck]

Re:

Very, very cool Pip, congrat's on finding one!

For me, Thomson post and a blue Flite - job done

 

[al-onestare]

The Kula looks familiar

That ovalisation is really cool. Do we know what other bikes around this time were using that tube-set? It's really striking: an Explosif on steriods!

 

[albash82]

This is an awesome find. Makes me wanna restart my pahoehoe build again

 

[Pipmeister]

That ovalisation is really cool. Do we know what other bikes around this time were using that tube-set? It's really striking: an Explosif on steriods!

During my research into this frame, the bikes I did find used this tubing around that time were the 1999 Kona Haole & Kapu - pictured at the start of my 1998 Chat thread. I did find some other Italian road bikes using it too.

I have now heard back from Kona, and it would appear that this tubing was used to try out new ideas.

Quote,
"There were very few Columbus ones made; they were a sponsor for our team at that point and they’d send us various tube sets to try for our production and custom models.
Quantities ranged from 20 to 2 for a run. Also they were shared out among various builders like Altitude and Enigma and even our Taiwan factories so we could get feedback from a variety of sources on the tubes."

Here's a link to the Altec 2 site:

http://www.ceeway.com/Altec2.htm

Pip.

 

[al-onestare]

So road bikes only...no (or no known) mountain bikes. This bike is next level uber cool

 

[kyle888]

Re:

Interesting stuff! I wonder why it hasn't been used on other mountain bikes since.

Kyle

 

[al-onestare]

Cost and the change in riding preferences I reckon.

 

[Pipmeister]

Cost and the change in riding preferences I reckon.

I tend to agree with you, The quote from Kona on your Caldera thread regarding the changing market goes some way to support this.... Despite their efforts to supply "Custom" Hand Built frames, the market place altered.

Quote, "That was just at the point of a huge change in riding. Before that you'd start on a hardtail and progress to nicer and nicer hardtails till you plateaued with a Ti frame. Then suddenly suspension came along and started fracturing the process. Then full suspension started to move out of the curiosity category into the must have bike, and then disc brakes came along and people really pulled back from custom frames and paint and poured all their spending money into functioning upgrades vs. good looks."

In my view Kona's efforts to supply these Hand Built frames should be applauded; they were trying to do their best for the end user / customer, against a changing market place.

The cost was probably also a factor - this was from Kona in reply to my enquires regarding the 1998 Ku.

Quote, "At the time those tubes were the top of Columbus’s alloy offerings so that’s why they were sent to us.
On the very shaped tubes we experimented with things like leaving out the brace to increase clearance and reduce weight. We always get a weight rap because of bikes like the Stinky but we’ve always been looking at ways to chip away at the frames without compromising reliability."


......Sadly, what I failed to establish was how many were produced.

The serial number of mine is KK88044

I’m gonna stick my neck out and say the format possibly goes like this:

Kona Ku 8 (August) 1998 number 044

If quantities ranged from 20 - 2 for a run, I guess that a popular size like 18" would be the 20 off, and outsizes like 20" / 21" or 15" / 16" would be the 2 off. If the number is about 50 off in total, that leaves about 20 frames in 17" and 19".

If anyone has a 1998 Hot, perhaps they could let me know the number to see how the serial number format goes - stand easy Ernie, we have yours documented on my 1998 Chat thread.

Pip.