Another Ti Kona....

that fork was oem on my '99 KK. nominally 75mm, actually more like 70. was it used as early as yours also?

edit...sorry. scratch that. oem in '99 was the marz superfly. kona site archives only go back to '97, when the Z1 was in fact oem.

JS1500":1434kjp7 said:

ameybrook":1434kjp7 said:

gold spokes!?! Whoa... awesome.

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I hadn't noticed until you mentioned them - nice touch.

Pedals: none at the moment (those on there were to allow riding around the garden)

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Those DX SPDs must double the weight of it

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Yep those pedals weigh a bit, but they were the only flat ones I had for back yard testing...

As for the spokes, the wheels came with the bike (along with carbon Grivin, XT parts Tange headset etc - it looked pretty ugly) and were a pleasent surprise as they weren't listed as anything special. My original plan was to return in to the 97 catalogue build, but I'm now very happy with the extra gold and yellow.

dookie":yu8alwy7 said:

that fork was oem on my '99 KK. nominally 75mm, actually more like 70. was it used as early as yours also?

edit...sorry. scratch that. oem in '99 was the marz superfly. kona site archives only go back to '97, when the Z1 was in fact oem.

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Yep, while the Z1 was shown as the OEM fork for 97, the Z2 was also optional.
For 98 the standard fork was the Z2 BAM and for 99 the Z2 superfly in custom orange to match the front of the frame (red Z2 BAM for the 99 Hei Hei). I'd love to find a 99 Hei Hei or King Kahuna to build up because the paint on the front makes it that little bit different.

Interestingly I've not seen any article or photo of a 97 King Kahuna (other than mine) with a Z1 Bomber on it, and the only 97 Hei Hei's that I know of which came as complete bikes had Z2's fitted. I can only assume that the 100mm 'DH' Z1 was considered too long by many riders, whereas it seems the perfect length now

andrewl":2z5c18rv said:

I can only assume that the 100mm 'DH' Z1 was considered too long by many riders, whereas it seems the perfect length now

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I fitted rock shox Judy DH's with 80mm travel to my xc bike and was considered a mentalist for doing so

andrewl":3sbxhnqn said:

I'd love to find a 99 Hei Hei or King Kahuna to build up because the paint on the front makes it that little bit different.

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Beautiful!

Andrew - how tall are you?

wow what a fantastic bike, do you happen to know what model of seat you have on it, ive been searching for a wtb saddle in that style and colourscheme for a while now.

Saddle

This the sort you are after? Titanium rails, leather top, Kevlar rear in Yellow?

Re: Saddle

Wold Ranger":1wi3k5p5 said:

This the sort you are after? Titanium rails, leather top, Kevlar rear in Yellow?

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I was looking for one to replace my x-lite saddle (id like a similar style) that ive had since 98 and is a bit worse for wear, ideally one with just the kevlar corners and ive always liked the wtb range. Andrews seems to be just what I was looking for.

Sorry to intrude on your thread Andrew.

It does look fantastic, but on the other hand it reminds me of the horror show in the 1997 catalogue -- same spec, but hopefully not the same frame:
http://www.konaretro.com/articles/catal ... Page06.jpg

This catalogue pic points up very well the perils in putting a long fork like a 90mm Z1 on a frame that wasn’t designed for it. The result is a 68 degree head angle, ok maybe 69 degrees when there’s a rider on board, but still way too slack, because the particular frame in the catalogue was surely designed for a fork a whole two inches shorter than the one on it.

Hopefully Andrew’s frame is more up to date and it was just that they couldn’t get a current frame for the catalogue pic, so they built up an older one.