Kona Explosif

I bought this back in the summer from a local chap, thought it would make a nice replacement for my retired possibly-an-explosif as my local runaround. Stickered up as Dedacciai 14.5 tubes so a quick google puts it as somewhere 2005-2007.



Some nice parts on including cook cranks and carbon post, bars etc. Also a generic no-brand front wheel and a mix of worn out XT and tourney drivetrain. Bit of a bitsa, but its all coming apart anyway. First job was strip it down and clean up the frame, check the parts over etc. The frame had plenty of scrapes and scratches and a teeny dink on one of the tubes but from 3 paces back looked alright. Half an hour with a bucket and sponge, then a sunny late summer afternoon in the garden with the t-cut-or-equivalent and it came up pretty decent so decided to leave the frame as-is.

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Cleaned up and stripped down it's still a scruffy thing but I have a plan. The frames not exactly weight weenie but im going for a lightweight build with a light trail and road / path focus

Lovely frame. Looking forward to seeing it built.

Weight probably all in them big heft dropout that where all the rage at the time.
serial number will probably give you the year.

What's the first plan (never actually the final plan)

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The plan as it stands: go light, go geared, and since I had these lying about I'm going black base with purple bits.

The sliding dropouts give me scope for 29 rims and since I have some rather smart and light rims ready to go I'm going to try that. I will have a road and light trail focus. I have plenty of spares in the shed so just need to find the time now

Looks interesting, Nice to see another old Kona in Macc.

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When I stripped this down the BB took some serious persuasion to get out. on closer inspection it looks like the BB threads are not in tip top condition so I'm taking a trip to see Mr drystonepaul at my friendly local shop for some help with that one.

Other than just a little rust bubbling around a drain hole or two there are quite a few scuffs to the paint that won't polish out. Looks like someone fitted a crud catcher and used to spin it round and round, never seen it so bad but it is a)only paint deep and b)out of sight.

So while I'm waiting on the BB threads I'm playing at wheels. Going lightweight, disc, 29, black

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Picked up a few more purple bits for the build, a few bolts, bb and headset. Not fully decided on the rest yet but thinking the black hope monos that were until recently on my b17, keep the carbon bars and post, flite saddle etc that came with it. All black and all light enough. The stem is a tad chunky and has a silver front plate so might look for something lighter and blacker there. 5 minute build really.

FluffyChicken":2ur3f2ke said:

Weight probably all in them big heft dropout that where all the rage at the time

Click to expand...

The actual dropouts are only about 150g and there will be a bit of weight in the frame attachments but it still seems a bit lardy for what is supposed to be a high quality tubeset.
Still, given how much weight I put on over the December feasting festival I'm not going to lose much sleep over a few hundred grams in the frame. It is a big frame to be fair, 19-20 inches depending how you measure

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Asked my old chum Chris at Beespoke Wheels to build these for me since the rims are soft as butter and I'd need to buy spokes etc anyway. He did a smart job with black db spokes and purple nipples.

Stans ZTR Race Gold 29 rims come in at a pretty eyewatering 320g, and the novatec hubs are around 140g front / 270g rear, making for a light combo.
The rear wheel with a Sammy Slick I had lying spare and tube (no cassette yet!) weighs in under 1.4 kilo which I think is pretty impressive for a 29 MTB wheel.

I have the Sammy Slicks and some slightly wider Maxxis Overdrives to try out, they are a tad heavier but I expect they will pay dividends in comfort and grip. We'll see.

Still trying to get that BB sorted so I can move this on.