'91 Kona Lavadome...."ride up the mountains of your mind"

Saw this for sale and felt sorry for it.....bogged down under low-end components and commuter tat. Just had to save it! Nothing more satisfying in stripping off years of worn, heavy, crap components and getting a project back on the trails where it belongs.

I've had a kona itch that I've wanted to scratch for a while now so this seemed a perfect opportunity. Not much of it is original but most of the original components were quite low end so no real worries there....I've got a spares box full of bits that should sort this out nicely.

Check out those cranks!



Forks have seen better days.....pretty rusty - so these are on the list for a strip & respray. Do P2's rust really easily? The rest of the frame is really good but the forks and stem are really grotty.



Minty! Suggests it might have spent some time off road in the past.....maybe not all it's life has been spent on London's roads.



It's got the odd nice bit bolted to it. Minty LH XT thumbie. Unfortunately no RH one to match!



Picked it up this morning and after an hour of spannering had it stripped back to a naked frame.



Morning spent stripping it......afternoon spent building it. Quite an indulgent day all-in-all.

Broke out the G3 compound, autoglym polish and Colonite wax and gave the bare frame a good clean up and polish, with a protective coat of wax. The paint is pretty good....a few chips and scuffs here and there with a minimal amount of chainsuck damage. Decals are a bit scuffed in places too but fairly good overall.

Stripped down the Impact headset - replaced the lower bearing race as the old one was shot, regreased and re-assembled. Going to ride it first before sorting out the fork paintwork.

Dug around in the spares box and started building up with some nicer components.....a mix of LX, DX and XT.

Starting to look a little more MTB-like



"ride up the mountains of your mind......."



Couple of issues....the cable guide under the bottom bracket is held on with a grease nipple which presumably allowed injection of fresh grease into the cup/cone bb. When a cartridge bb is fitted this nipple bottoms out on the cartridge shell. How have other people got round this? Presumably just replace with a v. short bolt?

Also - I managed to strip the thread in the pinch bolt on the top collar of the Impact headset ..... doh! Really annoyed with myself. Hopefully I can re-tap/tap deeper or source a secondhand one. Idiot!

Pretty much that.

Seconded.

Can't recall if the top of the Impact has the race attached/connected, but if not there are some substitutes available to replace the top locking collar on eBay. I think.

Great transformation there .

Any chance of helicoiling the thread in the seat post , to too familiar with the seat clamp
love the graffiti ,

Yeah maybe a helicoil is the way forward. Might be easier to source a secondhand item though.....



Cheers! The bike looks so much better now with some good components on it and all the tat stripped off......can't wait to get it out for a first ride on the trails.



Race looks like it's attached. I do have a spare lock ring type widget in the spares box (I think it's called a Gorilla headset lock?)....but obviously I'd need to find a suitable top race. I think I've got a few options.....



Cool, thought as much.....will dig around in the fixings box to see if I can find something suitable.

Jo Burt, MBUK stickers circa 94/95/96

It has been attacked with quite a few Mint Sauce stickers.....which I'm gonna keep as they're cool (all except the ones on the forks as they'll come off when I strip and repaint).

Need to source some replacement decals for the Velocity stem and Project 2 forks.....presumably Gil is the man for these?

Also need some advice guys....

I need to source a rear tyre that actually clears the rear stays - I've currently fitted a 1.95 Tioga Psycho II which just catches the lower stays. Original tyre was 2.0? I guess they all measure up a bit differently....

Any suggestions on a decent 1.8/1.9 blackwall tyre that might clear the stays.......?