Singletrack74
Devout Dirtbag
A couple of weeks ago I finally managed to get hold of the most important bike of my riding history - a 1990 black/pink/blue splatter Kona Explosif. First, a bit of misty-eyed memory farting...
This bike literally made me who I am - I have been involved in mountain biking ever since, and I have even ended up being fortunate enough to ride bikes in big mountains as my job for the past 10 years. And it is all because back in 1989-90, as a 16 year old kid I spent all my weeknds and school holidays working in the original Hot Pursuit bike shop in Totnes High Street, Devon...with the sole intention of saving up for the bike which I obsessively craved. Each night I drooled over the 1990 Kona catalogue, dreaming of this bike - and trying to work out if it would ever be mine.
I remember the day I first saw one in a bike shop window near Exeter bus station (maybe called Bike?) - and was amazed that it looked even better in real life than it did in the catalogue - instead of the black with pink streaks they pictured in the catalogue, the actual-version with blue and pink splatters looked incredible. I was smitten. I put down a deposit, saved, saved and saved and several months later she was all mine.
Over te following year I upgraded and augmented - it ended up with Manitou 1 forks, near full XC Pro, a 2km long Syncros Cattleprod stem, Flite Ti, lots of Ringle Ti bits, Campag Thorr rims, etc, etc, etc...
Fast forward 28 years and I finally have teh sapce to start a Retro Bike Collection - I have been keeping an eye out for an Explosif despite this forsverasl years, but have never managed to secure one. I have recently moved to West Sussex (yes, its is very flat here, even the "hilly" bits) and began casting my net around again - and a coup0le of weeks ago spied an Explosif monly 50 miles away. I begged, bothered, cajoled, enotionally blacmailed and haragued it's owner to sell it to me - and within 1 hour of first finding it was on my way to collect it.
It is in a very sorry state in many respects, but it does have a few good points too...
The good: the bike looks like it has done very few miles overall, so has pretty good paint other than a few scrapes where it has been lent against walls, and where cables have rubbed. At some point someone put a cable lock around the stem, locked it and lost the key - so it has been clanking around teh head tube ever since - causing some chipping which has rusted very slightly. The forks are the Original Track Twos - again, in pretty good nick, but one of teh top caps is missing, bizarrely. It also has the original Velocity stem - but the same lock has chipped and scratched it badly.
The Bad: everything else! The bars are bent, it has been fitted with a 99p headset from Halfords, a horrific bolted front wheel on a steel hub and a tasty pink and blue childrens saddle. The rock-like grips have been superglued to the bars, the rear quick release is snapped, the bottom bracket has been cannibalized (retaining one Suntour cup, but the rest is a cheapy Shimano steel unit), the brakes have been replaced with what look like early Alivio or similar - and bizarrely someone who doesn't get bikes has replaced front and rear brake cables avoiding all the cable stops with full-length outer... Shift and Brake levers are original (but a bit tatty) - but the chainset is in good condition - it even has the original rings, with very little wear.
A few days ago I stripped it down to the frame to get a good look at things (the lack of chips around the dropouts and really tidy chainstay/ bottom bracket paint continue to make me think it has seen very little use in its' lifetime really!
I have ordered a big pile of NOS parts from all over the World - things are starting to arrive so I will keep this updated with new developments as I go - my plan is to get it back to something pretty close to original spec, with one or two allowances for availability of bits these days.
I am super-excited to be doing my first retro bike - so excited, in fact, that last week I also picked up my first MTB too - an 88/89 Tufftrax....but that's a story for later!
Now, I am off to work out how I attach images....!!! :shock:
This bike literally made me who I am - I have been involved in mountain biking ever since, and I have even ended up being fortunate enough to ride bikes in big mountains as my job for the past 10 years. And it is all because back in 1989-90, as a 16 year old kid I spent all my weeknds and school holidays working in the original Hot Pursuit bike shop in Totnes High Street, Devon...with the sole intention of saving up for the bike which I obsessively craved. Each night I drooled over the 1990 Kona catalogue, dreaming of this bike - and trying to work out if it would ever be mine.
I remember the day I first saw one in a bike shop window near Exeter bus station (maybe called Bike?) - and was amazed that it looked even better in real life than it did in the catalogue - instead of the black with pink streaks they pictured in the catalogue, the actual-version with blue and pink splatters looked incredible. I was smitten. I put down a deposit, saved, saved and saved and several months later she was all mine.
Over te following year I upgraded and augmented - it ended up with Manitou 1 forks, near full XC Pro, a 2km long Syncros Cattleprod stem, Flite Ti, lots of Ringle Ti bits, Campag Thorr rims, etc, etc, etc...
Fast forward 28 years and I finally have teh sapce to start a Retro Bike Collection - I have been keeping an eye out for an Explosif despite this forsverasl years, but have never managed to secure one. I have recently moved to West Sussex (yes, its is very flat here, even the "hilly" bits) and began casting my net around again - and a coup0le of weeks ago spied an Explosif monly 50 miles away. I begged, bothered, cajoled, enotionally blacmailed and haragued it's owner to sell it to me - and within 1 hour of first finding it was on my way to collect it.
It is in a very sorry state in many respects, but it does have a few good points too...
The good: the bike looks like it has done very few miles overall, so has pretty good paint other than a few scrapes where it has been lent against walls, and where cables have rubbed. At some point someone put a cable lock around the stem, locked it and lost the key - so it has been clanking around teh head tube ever since - causing some chipping which has rusted very slightly. The forks are the Original Track Twos - again, in pretty good nick, but one of teh top caps is missing, bizarrely. It also has the original Velocity stem - but the same lock has chipped and scratched it badly.
The Bad: everything else! The bars are bent, it has been fitted with a 99p headset from Halfords, a horrific bolted front wheel on a steel hub and a tasty pink and blue childrens saddle. The rock-like grips have been superglued to the bars, the rear quick release is snapped, the bottom bracket has been cannibalized (retaining one Suntour cup, but the rest is a cheapy Shimano steel unit), the brakes have been replaced with what look like early Alivio or similar - and bizarrely someone who doesn't get bikes has replaced front and rear brake cables avoiding all the cable stops with full-length outer... Shift and Brake levers are original (but a bit tatty) - but the chainset is in good condition - it even has the original rings, with very little wear.
A few days ago I stripped it down to the frame to get a good look at things (the lack of chips around the dropouts and really tidy chainstay/ bottom bracket paint continue to make me think it has seen very little use in its' lifetime really!
I have ordered a big pile of NOS parts from all over the World - things are starting to arrive so I will keep this updated with new developments as I go - my plan is to get it back to something pretty close to original spec, with one or two allowances for availability of bits these days.
I am super-excited to be doing my first retro bike - so excited, in fact, that last week I also picked up my first MTB too - an 88/89 Tufftrax....but that's a story for later!
Now, I am off to work out how I attach images....!!! :shock:
hopefully motivate me to finish mine :facepalm: 
