Christmas Stuff-ing..... (Kona content)

Well, after having green eyes over Lynne's (Mamadirt) Spooky a while back, I was encouraged to have a 'mid life crisis' of my own, and put out a thread to find some recommendations for a V brake compatible jumps style frame....

Cue a shifty back door deal with Niall (Unit3) for a tiny Stuff frame, that was, as he reckoned, scratched and dirty, but still had a decent BB in it and a 'few other bits'. Unfortunately I didn't get any 'before' pics as it arrived at work in the midst of the Christmas rush from hell, and it's sat in the work shop ever since, waiting for me to have the time....

Which I have had this last couple of days! Firstly, the mech hanger was kindly bent by My Hermes, but that was soon put right as I just happened to have a suitable one in the spares box. A Roox chain dog came off easily enough, but the DMR chain guide was BB mounted, and the BB needed to come out anyway as it was ISIS and I wanted square taper to suit the XT chainset I thought I'd use.... So, got out all the BB extractor tools only to find I didn't have that particular one. Oh well, easy enough, just get an old screw driver/chisel and tap it to unscrew it using the notches, obviously.....No. A lot of bad language and one mashed up BB later, I decided to take it over to my Dad, who must have the right tool, surely...

But No again. 'I can definitely get it out' he said, and was just about to start using power tools, having mashed it even further (it's now beyond recognition) when we decided to have a break and a cup of tea. Then...in he walks with an old ice cream tub cunningly and deceptively marked up as 'bottom bracket extractor tools' ( :facepalm: ) and in it we find the right one I'd 'lent' him years ago! 2 minutes later, and despite the extensive mashing, the BB is out, perfect and covered in fresh grease still, all threads perfect!

So today, I've polished it and it's come up pretty much spot on, hardly a mark on it (sorry Niall, you should have asked for more!) Pics are crap as it's freezing out there and I left it until it was getting dumpsy to go out. Better ones to follow as I build it up.

Got everything I need pretty much, except for some forks, originally it had DJ 110mm travel, but I'm thinking maybe of going the rigid route, with a big tyre up front, still trying to source something with a suitable A2C measurement, and V brake compatible. Any ideas as to the value of the chain guides....?

Looking good for a clean up Kaz

Found a set of cro-mo rigid forks, bmx style drop outs on them, nice chrome finish, could work on this, v-brake too

Niall.

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PM us a pic, Niall. It's the axle to crown length that might be a pain, needs to be pretty long.... (Think the DJ's were 490mm A2C, so suppose a rigid needs to be at least 445ish....?)

Looks good Kaz! I think the original Kona jump forks were quite short at 410 axle to crown - I ran a pair on my 2003 Roast and 2005 Scrap. Also jacked up the Roast with, I think, 460mm Curtis rigid forks and 100 or maybe 110mm Bombers and have found some old pinkbike.com pics which may help . . .

Kona jump forks . . .


Curtis forks . . .


Bombers . . .


Reckon it was the most fun with the shorter forks though.

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Thanks Lynne! Will see what Niall's forks look like, otherwise I think maybe I'll go front sus if a set of the jumps P2's don't turn up, turned down a set a while back, wish I hadn't now! :facepalm:

Think I'm worrying too much about how a shorter fork will affect the handling, it'll be used for XC more than DH anyway....so it won't matter much.

Niall's forks sound like the old Handsome Dog chrome jobbies - always fancied a pair myself - they sound perfect. Looking forward to seeing the build progress .

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I'd like to see a pic of the chromed P2's anyway if I may?

Thinking of having a set done and would like to see the original as I had no idea they'd done it!

Watching the build with interest, thought about one of these or a GT checker for the mrs

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I picked up a roox chain dog for six quid or so a while back but I do like em. I'd take it off you for spares maybe.

Nice colour frame should be nice when finished.

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Thanks guys, as always, suppose I need to just get on with this now!! Going away for a few days (coming down your way Adrian) so I reckon if I can sort some forks out one way or another we'll be looking at me building it up in a couple of weekends time....

BCM, I need to get hold of Niall, but I'm assuming as Lynne said, that they're something other than P2's that he has (although here's hoping they are P2's, that would be wicked!) :mrgreen:

To me it looks off white, but officially the colour is 'grey', not that my crappy pics help much!

Looked green on my phone! Off white on the PC looks good still though