Kona Caldera 1997,,,Mountain Goat/Altitude made

mrdryskull · Oct 3, 2014

Some requests for some more pics..(you know who you are),,97 Caldera,Hand made in USA by Altitude/Mountain Goat..
Was in the catalog,but some say never sold to the public.Kona says aproximately 50 were built.Made from "Altitude" steel tubeset.Left over Prestige Ultimate from Mountain Goat perhaps? The stays are much more dainty than the Columbus tubed Explosif from the same year.

RockiMtn · Oct 3, 2014

you have some unique bikes in your collection. what will you show next?

al-onestare · Oct 3, 2014

Re:

Ok nothing to see here move on...holy mother! Seriously drooling over here! Thank you for posting this! Now if you ever wanted to sell...

al-onestare · Oct 4, 2014

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You've made my year posting these by the way, it looks delicious! Totally tremendous!

al-onestare · Oct 30, 2014

Thanks to ernie, he reminded me of this old thread that sheds a lot of light on the whole "hand made" mid to late 90's Kona-era, including this rare beast:

viewtopic.php?t=32150&highlight=kona+hot

mrdryskull · Oct 30, 2014

Re:

Thanks Al-onestare,,some interesting stuff in there,,

Made me do a bit more digging,I know the Caldera is Altitude made,It has the Mountain Goat stamped rear dropouts.
Found this thread about a Altitude made Hot with the same dropouts.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=158794

Judging by the serial # ,it is Hot #110,made in November,96.
Looks like my Caldera is #34,,made in July,96.

The puzzling thing,,the Caldera has a serial # starting with HO...I think maybe it was supposed to be a Hot originally ?

Perhaps after they started making Hots,they decided to change tubesets,or had supply problems,?? or just used up the tubests in the racks to make room ?? We know Altitude had Mountain Goat stock to use up ( IE,the droputs),,
And if Kona was making,or planning to make Calderas offshore for the next season,slapping on some existing decals was an easy way to flog off 50 some oddball frames,,,

al-onestare · Oct 31, 2014

Re: Re:

mrdryskull":yz2sxtbq said:
Thanks Al-onestare,,some interesting stuff in there,,

Made me do a bit more digging,I know the Caldera is Altitude made,It has the Mountain Goat stamped rear dropouts.
Found this thread about a Altitude made Hot with the same dropouts.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=158794

Judging by the serial # ,it is Hot #110,made in November,96.
Looks like my Caldera is #34,,made in July,96.

The puzzling thing,,the Caldera has a serial # starting with HO...I think maybe it was supposed to be a Hot originally ?

Perhaps after they started making Hots,they decided to change tubesets,or had supply problems,?? or just used up the tubests in the racks to make room ?? We know Altitude had Mountain Goat stock to use up ( IE,the droputs),,
And if Kona was making,or planning to make Calderas offshore for the next season,slapping on some existing decals was an easy way to flog off 50 some oddball frames,,,

Excellent linking - I remember reading that one as well. So this, at least for me

is getting really interesting. Does it mean there are more questions than answers? With a (potential) Hot stamp, what on earth does this have tube wise? It was sketchy to begin with, it's even more so now. I wonder what the difference would be if we could line up a 97 Hot with this? (I've spent A LOT of time drooling and comparing the pic's).

It does confirm that I reckon they under-specc'ed the Caldera in the end.

Regarding the potential problem with supply, I wonder if this was to do with the 853 build challenges. Were their issues getting them straight? Who knows...not even Kona I reckon

konaben82 · Nov 1, 2014

Re: Re:

al-onestare":26jdp3sm said:
Ok nothing to see here move on...holy mother! Seriously drooling over here! Thank you for posting this! Now if you ever wanted to sell...

I was going to message you about this! I remember a while ago you said you would be after one!!

Kona Caldera 1997,,,Mountain Goat/Altitude made

mrdryskull

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