1996 Kona Koa

Firstly, this is my first post so please be gentle!

I saw a thread here and realised that it was the auction that I had won. Maybe you'd be interested in the story of my 1996 Kona Koa?

Firstly a bit of history. This is the third Kona that I've owned. My first proper mountain bike in 1994 was a Kona Hahanna in that lovely metallic blue. Then in 1997 I upgraded to a 1998 Kona Kilauea. BTW, if anyone has a 1994 Hahanna that they'd like shot of let me know.

So the pictures on eBay did not lie. This really was a pile of bike bits, but for the money paid I really couldn't complain!

So I should have originally mentioned that the whole purpose of this purchase was to build what I sold the wife as a 'village bike'. You'd probably be more familiar with the term pub bike. Something to take to the shop and not need to lock up.

So I picked the bike up and got it back home. On a first quick inspection I actually had almost everything that I needed. The following were missing:
* Shifters
* Tyres
* Inners
* Grips
* Cables

The following needed replacement:
* Saddle
* Pedals

So I stripped down the bike totally - except the bottom bracket and headset - and gave everything a clean. A good clean to get rid of all that rust etc.

That got me to the stage shown in the following pictures.

i would lock that up.....

Now I had been toying with the idea of making this a single-speed project bike. But riding around a bit without shifters and cables made me realise that I needed some gears. So I decided on losing the front mech and running the middle chainring with the existing 7-speed cassette.

So cost minimisation was the name of the game with replacement parts. I picked up a 7-speed Sunrace rear shifter new on eBay for less than £10. I'd never heard of Sunrace before. It seems that they bought the IP of Sturmey-Archer and moved manufacturing to the fast east. I wasn't expecting much, but I was impressed that the shifter installed and worked straight away.

Fortunately the stock Kona brake levers still worked smoothly. So they just needed new inners and outers.

So now I had a working bike with 7 speed.

After riding around with the bike in this state for 6 months I got the urge to fettle some more.

I always knew that the headset and bottom bracket needed attention. But I don't have the tools or expertise to remove them. So I outsourced the work.

The bottom bracket was replaced (upgraded) with a Shimano UN55 unit. The old unit had rusted into the frame and was, apparently, problematic to remove. Threads needing rechasing etc. Of course, now there is no play and the action is smooth as ever.

The headset was more problematic because of the low stack height. In the end I decided to just have it cleaned and the bearing replaced. The races are slightly pitted and could do with replacing. But I wanted to keep the Kona headset.

While the chainset was off for the BB replacement I had the granny ring removed. I then removed the outer ring myself. I found that I needed to pack out the installed stock Shimano STX chainring bolts with 2mm washers.

I'm amazed what a difference removing the chainrings has made. The bike 'looks' really different now.

So that brings you upto date. Well almost. I have a new cassette and chain on order. Both lovely and silver/satin. So that will really smarten things up.

I'm also planning to put a pair of Continental City Contacts (Reflex) on it to speed me through the streets. Since let's face it, this bike is never going off road.

What next? Does anyone have any thoughts?

Two things come to mind:
1. Hubs. Need to be stripped and checked.
2. Paint. Whilst a total respray would be nice it's out of budget. So I might have to resort to spot fixing.

That's a nice build mate. So much satisfaction to be had from giving the old girl some life again.

Regards

Looking good! I agree with Travill that it needs to be locked up. It really doesn't look as though it would benefit from repainting - I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by how effective a bit of minor paint repair will be. The only downside being, you'll then need a bigger lock.

Puzzled that you say it won't see any off-road?

So much satisfaction indeed!

It's unlikely to see off-road use because I have a stock '98 Kilauea in the garage with it!

What's this worth? I'm getting the feeling that what I paid on eBay was an absolute bargain!

On the lookout now for my '94 Hahanna...

I owned one of them from new, 1996 through to about 2001. Nice bike! I upgraded mine straight from the box, to LX spec with my favorite Control Tech stuff, Flite, Smoke n Dart etc, it was a wicked little bike for not much bucks. The paint job was one of the things I liked best about it, it glows beautifully if you give it a wipe down with GT85. You've done a lovely resto there - good to see one as there are so few around these days.