Weight of new vs. old Kona project 2:s

[Major22]

I'm looking for triple butted P2 forks for my Hei Hei, and have done some research on them on the web. It seems like the older triple butted ones, from say, mid 90's or so, are a lot lighter than the new TB ones. Bikeman sells new triple butted P2's that weigh a bit over 1000 grams, whereas the old ones are just 800+ grams.

Some guy on bikeforums said that the old P2's were cromoly, and the new ones are hi-tensile steel, hence the 200 g weight difference.

I'm not a real weight weenie , so my biggest concern with the newer, heavier forks, isn't the added 200 grams, but the potential difference in ride feel and ability to absorb impacts.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Would be most grateful


Major

 

[hamster]

I would think it's two reasons:
Firstly, modern ones are longer (440mm a-c instead of 390mm) and have a disc tab usually.

Secondly, the CE certification has in general made all bikes a touch heavier for strength...

 

[Major22]

I would think it's two reasons:
Firstly, modern ones are longer (440mm a-c instead of 390mm) and have a disc tab usually.

Secondly, the CE certification has in general made all bikes a touch heavier for strength...

Thanks for the answer However, the ones I've been looking at are 410 a-c, not 440 and don't have a disc tab, and still weigh 1040 grams. The CE certification could be a likely culprit though, but 200 grams?

Does anybody have direct experience from a new vs. old TB K2??

 

[Anthony]

I'm sure you can forget about triple-butted high tensile, there's no such thing. It will simply be the use of thicker, but still triple-butted, tubes to withstand the greater forces near to the axle imposed by disc brakes.

The specifications for the 1997 t-b P2 said "High quality triple butted blades with internal wall thickness decreasing from top down (1.3/0.8/0.5mm). By having the thinnest tubing in an un-raked area at the bottom of the blade, the fork provides shock absorption at the wheel and stiffness at the crown."

A 1997 P2 weighs 835g, and even that is heavier than the 1995 version (785g), so already there had been strengthening. Steel rigid forks can be built lighter than that, but it all depends how stiff you want them for accurate steering.

When they first brought out P2s with disc tabs it was only on the plain-gauge version, which was presumably a sign that the 0.5mm part of the tb fork wouldn't be strong enough. Just guessing, but say the current tb P2s are made of 1.3/1.0/0.8, that would probably take the weight to 1,000g rather than 835. Still cromoly, still triple-butted, but stronger.

Also, I wouldn't rule out that they have put extra weight in the steerer. My P2 has a 1mm thick steerer. A steel Z2 steerer is 2mm thick (and weighs 270g). That's quite a difference.

 

[hamster]

And another thought that occurs to me is that an ahead fork will have another inch or two of steerer...

Frankly, there is a lot of swings and roundabouts - you will save weight on the stem from going to ahead from the older ones which would have been quill type.

 

[Major22]

Many thanks guys, a lot of great info

Will try to find a 1995 - 2000 P2 fork, but if it doesn't work out, I'll settle for a new one.

Again, thanks