Kona Explosif I.D.

Rampage

Retrobike Rider
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Picked this up today, badly listed, I think it's a 1990 or 1991 Explosif.
The paint looks fairly good and there is evidence of a dealer or tubing sticker at the bottom of the seat tube once being there.
Had a quick ride and it's very nice with its overinflated Mag 21R's!
It's definately a Kona as the seatpost constantly slips down!

Bottom of seat tube is oval,
Downtube is oval at the headtube or possibly the whole length not sure,
Noodle for rear brake around seattube,
Serial starts T8911

5AmnilEY_original.jpg


Omh7ymz-_original.jpg


Omh7ymz-_original.jpg


ZDs0RJus_original.jpg
 
noodle/canti hanger looks right for an '89 or '90 TBG Explosif but only ever seen them in black with pink & blue splatter :?

My mint '90 (long gone :( )
 
It's all pointing to a 1990 Explosif to me, the 1991 bikes lost the brake noodle.

Funnily enough I initially thought that you might have been lucky and landed a Brodie Catalyst because of the noodle but the other frame details (and of course frame number) don't add up. Nice score though for the cash :)
 
I think it may be possible that some 1991 production had a noodle like that, but the vast majority had it incorporated into the first version of the dog collar. Anyway, the number is too early for this to be a 1991 frame and the seat tube extension is too short. It's a 1990 Explosif. T stands for Taiwan Bicycle Group, a completely separate company from TBG = The Bicycle Group. I'm not aware of any Kona frames other than Explosifs being made by Taiwan Bicycle Group.

Note the different positioning of the seat tube welds on this bike (which is the way most of them were built) and the higher position on Caramba Kid's old bike (perhaps one of a single batch built like that). That design variation and the noodle both represent influence flowing over from Paul Brodie's designs when he was working with Joe Murray, although he told me he was never consulted about it. They soon dropped both of those features when they fell out with him!
 
Excellent, thanks for that.
Nice to know the seller was right as he had several emails telling him it wasn't! One person asked if he had dropped a tin of paint close to the bike to get the splatter effect!

What's your opinion on the paint? The decals obviously aren't origional, are the decals on these normally under lacquer or on top and can be removed? I'm wondering if the paint is origional, what do you think of the marks at the bottom of the seattube that look like it could have been a tubing sticker?

Thanks.
 
Explosif

It's looking like it'll be a 1990 explosif coz all my 1988/89 and 1990 konas have that brake noodle on them which they took off in 1991 plus the seat clamp is forward facing like my 1990 lavadome. As for the paint that's been resprayed coz they only came in the black with the pink splatter like caramba kid's and the one in the 1990 catalogue which is on the kona retro site. Good find m8 :)
Chris
 
Explosif

The decal sticker at the bottom of the seat tube might of been the tange concept tubing one because my 1990 lavadome had a tange Mtb decal there until it fell off.
 
Interesting, the previous owner said it was like this when he bought it in 1994. So it was respayed within 4 years of being new, wonder why?
 
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