1997 Kona Kula
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OrangeRetro
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Oooo I've been waiting for this thread.. awesome.. love what you've done with the old girl! Much better than its last incarnation! 
Well tributes are due both to Mr Retro and to Mr Jones for this fine work of reconstruction. Personally I liked it before, but then I like battered old things. They make me feel at peace.
I agree about the tyres Steve, and knowing your luck, you'll go into eBay and find that somebody put on a NOS pair of Scratch and Sniff five minutes previously for £10 BIN.
Other than that, you have to be really picky to find fault with this vehicle, but as such effort has been put into originality, I'm going to say that the stem is too long for a size 17! I believe also that 1997 Konas were sold with a choice between flat and riser stems, before they went over to riser only for 1998, and I'm pretty sure that a riser stem was standard on a size 16 and possibly a size 17 too. Anyway I don't care about originality, but a riser stem would look better and ride better with the Z2 in my personal opinion/experience.
I think the differences from the catalogue bike shown below are not in the build but in the difference between catalogue and production bikes. e.g., the weird Z2 in the catalogue with so little offset in the dropouts, I haven't seen one of those and I expect it's just a mock up, although I expect Mr Ling knows all about them. I think the one now on the bike is what was actually fitted to 97 Kulas. Also the fun seat tube decal in the catalogue, I've never seen one of those either. I think the reconstruction is what was done in production.
The only other thing to mention Steve, is that the frame isn't made out of steel, let alone titanium, it's made of ..... something else :? Hope you like it!
I agree about the tyres Steve, and knowing your luck, you'll go into eBay and find that somebody put on a NOS pair of Scratch and Sniff five minutes previously for £10 BIN.
Other than that, you have to be really picky to find fault with this vehicle, but as such effort has been put into originality, I'm going to say that the stem is too long for a size 17!
I believe also that 1997 Konas were sold with a choice between flat and riser stems, before they went over to riser only for 1998, and I'm pretty sure that a riser stem was standard on a size 16 and possibly a size 17 too. Anyway I don't care about originality, but a riser stem would look better and ride better with the Z2 in my personal opinion/experience.I think the differences from the catalogue bike shown below are not in the build but in the difference between catalogue and production bikes. e.g., the weird Z2 in the catalogue with so little offset in the dropouts, I haven't seen one of those and I expect it's just a mock up, although I expect Mr Ling knows all about them. I think the one now on the bike is what was actually fitted to 97 Kulas. Also the fun seat tube decal in the catalogue, I've never seen one of those either. I think the reconstruction is what was done in production.
The only other thing to mention Steve, is that the frame isn't made out of steel, let alone titanium, it's made of ..... something else :? Hope you like it!
