1989 / 1990 Merlin... is it a Kona?

Hi, it’s been a while since i have been on here...

i could have put this in my old thread but since i haven’t been on here in about 3-4 years i thought I would start i new thread

i have an 89 or 90 merlin:

old build thread here:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=275672&start=60

how do i tell if it is a Kona or not? all the titanium merlin kina’s i have seen are just like mine... rear upper u-brake and joe murray decal on rear stay... is there any way to tell if it is indeed a kona?

thx!

Re:

Welcome back. Strange this pops up. This has been a topic
of conversation around beers as of late. Hopefully BC will
chime in with the info he has acquired. But I'm doubtful it's a Kona.

Regardless it’s lovely, lucky enough to have a first year (possibly first frame, going by the frame number) Hei Hei myself, but love the earliest Ti Kona

Re:

thx! now that my son is nearly two i have a little free time here and there to get back into the bike hobby =)

trying to decide what to keep and what to sell... years back I decided to keep all my rocky mountains and sell off everything else... since then i have had some mixed thoughts... at the moment i have a mixed bag of bikes partially built up... merlin’s, brodie’s, rocky’s, yo eddy’s, and so on... so i decided to start with this one...

if it’s a Kona it would be cool but i really don’t know how to tell... and the end result may be that there is no way to tell...?? hoping someone knows for sure =)

thx!!

Re:

Theres a Merlin group on facebook and this subject has been discussed on there recently. Joe Murray chimed in and said there never was one. Or maybe a handful. Serial should/could be the only clue. Other than that it’s just a Merlin with a Kona decal slapped on. Thats about all is known, sorry.

Re: Re:

Stylus":12v2enx0 said:

Theres a Merlin group on facebook and this subject has been discussed on there recently. Joe Murray chimed in and said there never was one. Or maybe a handful. Serial should/could be the only clue. Other than that it’s just a Merlin with a Kona decal slapped on. Thats about all is known, sorry.

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thanks! but i doubt there were only a handful... after all it is in the 1990 kona catalogue so i’m sure that a fair number of them were made. it may be one of those things were we will never know... my guess is that they were made to order... if you ordered one from Kona, Kona would buy the frame from Merlin, slap on the kona decal and build it up with your requested group... also if it’s in the 1990 catalog then they probably did some in 89 as well to order... if joe himself doesn’t know then i think we may never know for sure... my only conclusion is that there is a 50/50 chance mine is Kona... since it is originally a canadian bike from new i would lean towards a canadian dealer that would more likely sell it through the Brodie / Kona catalogue???

i guess i’ll never know??

Adrian built one up recently, maybe he has some further insight into the frames.

mark

shutter said:

Hi, it’s been a while since i have been on here...

i could have put this in my old thread but since i haven’t been on here in about 3-4 years i thought I would start i new thread

i have an 89 or 90 merlin:

old build thread here:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=275672&start=60

how do i tell if it is a Kona or not? all the titanium merlin kina’s i have seen are just like mine... rear upper u-brake and joe murray decal on rear stay... is there any way to tell if it is indeed a kona?

thx!

Click to expand...

Hey there, Im a novice collector who still has a thing for the old 26er iron. I am looking for an early tall size Brodie Romax or something half decent. if you have anything you want to sell keep me in mind please. Contact me anytime at lyonslb@shaw.ca Thanks! Jim

JIMJ said:

Hey there, Im a novice collector who still has a thing for the old 26er iron. I am looking for an early tall size Brodie Romax or something half decent. if you have anything you want to sell keep me in mind please. Contact me anytime at lyonslb@shaw.ca Thanks! Jim

Click to expand...

where are you located?