Titanium Konas

[Anthony]

I thought titanium Konas were a thing of the past, but are they? Hadn’t noticed it before, but in the Frame Page in Konaworld.com one of the frames listed for 2007 is the King Kahuna, blue decals on 3-2.5 titanium. No indication of price, and it’s not in the 2006 Frame Page. And there’s no Frame Page in Konaworld.uk.com, although the Explosif and Unit are of course available here as frames.

Does any Kona expert on here know anything about the current King Kahuna, spec, availability, price etc? Anybody got one?

 

[Tallpaul]

TITANIUM MODELS
KING KAHUNA

King Kahuna is made by Titanium Sports in Kennewick, Washington. All of the tubing continues to be made strictly of Sandvik aerospace certified titanium alloy tubing. The frame is used by the Mapei-Kona MTB Professional team and is the best cross-country hardtail race frame that we make. It is available as a frame set or complete bike, with either Kona Factory Kit component group (King Kahuna specifications in the Kona catalog) or Kona Kit component group (Hei Hei specifications in the Kona catalog).

Sandvik custom drawn and directional shape seamless 3-2.5 titanium frame with reinforcing gussets.
Sandvik custom drawn and tapered seamless 3-2.5 titanium Chain stays and Seat stays.
6-4 titanium plate dropouts made with "Bullet" plugs for superior strength & perfect rear wheel alignment.
Made for 27.0mm seat post, 31.8mm front derailleur, 68mm bottom bracket, & 1-1/8" headset.
Made entirely in the USA, 3.5 lbs (18").

HEI-HEI

Hei Hei ("Race" in Hawaiian) is also made by Titanium Sports in Kennewick, Washington, with the same Sandvik aerospace- quality certified titanium alloy tubing as the King Kahuna . It is available as a frame set or complete bike, with either Kona Factory Kit component group (King Kahuna specifications in the Kona catalog) or Kona Kit component group (Hot or Ku specifications in the Kona catalog).

Sandvik custom drawn 3-2.5 seamless titanium tubing.
6-4 titanium plate dropouts made with "Bullet" plugs for superior strength & perfect rear wheel alignment.
Made for 27.0mm seat post, 31.8mm front derailleur, 68mm bottom bracket, & 1-1/8" headset.
Made entirely in the USA, 3.3 lbs (18").

 

[Anthony]

Thaks for that Paul. Presumably though, it must date from 2006 or earlier, as they've been using the Hei Hei name for the scandium full-suspension bike since the 2007 range? And not clear why they don't market them more, nor import them here.

 

[Tallpaul]

It seems to be that saying they are commercially available is a bit of publicity stunt. Go try ordering one at a Kona dealership

 

[Anthony]

It seems to be that saying they are commercially available is a bit of publicity stunt. Go try ordering one at a Kona dealership

Quite.

I’ve always wanted a Hei Hei, but maybe it’s silly paying for a name, and anyway the loud modern Kona decals look all wrong on titanium to me. As you say, the King Kahuna is built by Titanium Sports in Washington State, who say they’ve built frames for Bontrager, Dean, Fisher, GT, Ibis, Kona, Marin and Yeti, among others. You can order a frame direct from them for $1,150, which I reckon would come to c£800 with duty and VAT. OK, it’s not the same design as the Kona, but the tube spec must be very similar to the late lamented Hei Hei and the welding quality identical (and very good from the look of it). The only problem would be the TiSport and G-Man decals. Hmmm. It comes with decals that you can fit if you want. Or you might be tempted to fit some Hei Hei decals and wait to see how many ppl spot the difference! To be fair, the seat tube extension is longer on the Kona, so you could tell, but I wonder if the ride quality and handling are actually that different?

http://www.titaniumsports.com/mt.html
http://www.konaworld.com/frames_main.htm

 

[Tallpaul]

If they use Sandvik tubing as the Kona website suggests, then £800 strikes me a bargain.

 

[andrewl]

TITANIUM MODELS
KING KAHUNA

King Kahuna is made by Titanium Sports in Kennewick, Washington. All of the tubing continues to be made strictly of Sandvik aerospace certified titanium alloy tubing. The frame is used by the Mapei-Kona MTB Professional team and is the best cross-country hardtail race frame that we make. It is available as a frame set or complete bike, with either Kona Factory Kit component group (King Kahuna specifications in the Kona catalog) or Kona Kit component group (Hei Hei specifications in the Kona catalog).

Sandvik custom drawn and directional shape seamless 3-2.5 titanium frame with reinforcing gussets.
Sandvik custom drawn and tapered seamless 3-2.5 titanium Chain stays and Seat stays.
6-4 titanium plate dropouts made with "Bullet" plugs for superior strength & perfect rear wheel alignment.
Made for 27.0mm seat post, 31.8mm front derailleur, 68mm bottom bracket, & 1-1/8" headset.
Made entirely in the USA, 3.5 lbs (18").

HEI-HEI

Hei Hei ("Race" in Hawaiian) is also made by Titanium Sports in Kennewick, Washington, with the same Sandvik aerospace- quality certified titanium alloy tubing as the King Kahuna . It is available as a frame set or complete bike, with either Kona Factory Kit component group (King Kahuna specifications in the Kona catalog) or Kona Kit component group (Hot or Ku specifications in the Kona catalog).

Sandvik custom drawn 3-2.5 seamless titanium tubing.
6-4 titanium plate dropouts made with "Bullet" plugs for superior strength & perfect rear wheel alignment.
Made for 27.0mm seat post, 31.8mm front derailleur, 68mm bottom bracket, & 1-1/8" headset.
Made entirely in the USA, 3.3 lbs (18").

Does the information in the 1997 tech manual really relate to the 2007 King Kahuna frame??

 

[Tallpaul]

Does the information in the 1997 tech manual really relate to the 2007 King Kahuna frame??

1999 Tech Manual actually

 

[bordercollie1]

Slightly off topic...

Marin DO list the Team Titanium in their on line catalogue.

 

[DM]

Another problem is that the "new" (but possibly vapor-ware?) Ti Konas are FUGLY with a horrible plate/ gusset around the bottom bracket

:uke::

... whereas the "own brand" Sandvik frames from Ti-Sport have always seemed to be a very good price.

Now, if we could just convince T-Sports to dig out the blueprints for the old Hei Hei. Or the Ti P2 forks...