No Konas in the MOMBAT collection?
- Thread starter lewisfoto
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Mr.Toad
Senior Retro Guru
Up here in the great northwest (of the US) Kona's were and still are everywhere, I guess because corporate offices are near Seattle and the shop I would frequent was a Kona dealer.
Anyway i've never owned one but admired the style and value. Kona always seemed to be the best bang for the buck around here, plus they have style you can recognize immediately.
I would say they have an important role in the history of mt. biking in the way they presented the BC/NW style of mt bikes to the masses.
BTW, that green Kona is super cool looking!
Anyway i've never owned one but admired the style and value. Kona always seemed to be the best bang for the buck around here, plus they have style you can recognize immediately.
I would say they have an important role in the history of mt. biking in the way they presented the BC/NW style of mt bikes to the masses.
BTW, that green Kona is super cool looking!
You'll find few bigger kona lovers than me but even i would struggle to argue that they ever did anything truly noteworthy. What kona did was produce cracking handling bikes at reasonable money. And there's little argument for simple done well in museums.
Ha,
What was wrong with some friendly poking of ER while I answered your question. I would think you know that Kona's were much more of an influence in the UK than they were in the US. Like NORCO's, they were something you would see on the roof's of Canadian cars occasionally heading down to Washington to ride our trails. They didn't hit the radar hard around here (PacNw USA) until the mid late 90's from what I remember and then they were heavily associated with the new Free Ride Scene. At the time, my buddy saw their new cool and took in their line at his shop. As a result, I owned three of their bikes.
My 97 Ku built up to sell:
My 98 KingKikapu snapped in half:
And my 01 Stinky Primo that I recently sold to a friend:
All three of these bikes were fun to ride. All three of these bikes were high end in the Kona line up for their consecutive years. The Stinky and the King Kikapu were mass produced in Asia. The Ku was hand made in the USA but with time my passion has leaned more towards steel bikes and away from aluminum, so I sold it to someone who appreciated it and used the money to put into a WTB Phoenix project.
I think Mombat has some awesome bikes that I would love to collect and ride and also a few that I appreciate but wouldn't care to have in my own collection. I have no idea why they have no Kona's, possibly because the opportunity hasn't come their way yet.
Also, VRC is not my bike forum of choice.
What was wrong with some friendly poking of ER while I answered your question. I would think you know that Kona's were much more of an influence in the UK than they were in the US. Like NORCO's, they were something you would see on the roof's of Canadian cars occasionally heading down to Washington to ride our trails. They didn't hit the radar hard around here (PacNw USA) until the mid late 90's from what I remember and then they were heavily associated with the new Free Ride Scene. At the time, my buddy saw their new cool and took in their line at his shop. As a result, I owned three of their bikes.
My 97 Ku built up to sell:
My 98 KingKikapu snapped in half:
And my 01 Stinky Primo that I recently sold to a friend:
All three of these bikes were fun to ride. All three of these bikes were high end in the Kona line up for their consecutive years. The Stinky and the King Kikapu were mass produced in Asia. The Ku was hand made in the USA but with time my passion has leaned more towards steel bikes and away from aluminum, so I sold it to someone who appreciated it and used the money to put into a WTB Phoenix project.
I think Mombat has some awesome bikes that I would love to collect and ride and also a few that I appreciate but wouldn't care to have in my own collection. I have no idea why they have no Kona's, possibly because the opportunity hasn't come their way yet.
Also, VRC is not my bike forum of choice.
Some proper dick slinging here. Proper pathetic.
Clearly good quality mass produced bikes that the majourity of us could just about afford back in the day, isn't significant enough for some. You know they got us riding, developing the sport and the products. Next they'll be saying GT's are boring so lets do them all a favour now and shut the hoard down now and make it exclusive membership only. If your names not Gary Klein you're not coming in.
Clearly good quality mass produced bikes that the majourity of us could just about afford back in the day, isn't significant enough for some. You know they got us riding, developing the sport and the products. Next they'll be saying GT's are boring so lets do them all a favour now and shut the hoard down now and make it exclusive membership only. If your names not Gary Klein you're not coming in.
highlandsflyer
Retro Wizard
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Klein sold up, left the game and is staring at the stars. Enough said.
he thing is as nice and "ooh" as a lot of bikes on Monbat and shown on RB are.. we may lust after them but a lot of us will settle for a more attainable bike. As a teen i remember seeing a reviews of a Mountain Goat Mudslinger. lovely, would never have been able to afford it, the Kiluaea i wanted was available to me as a bike at a price of the mountain Goats frame only price!
As much as we may all want a hand crafted by a bloke with a TIG torch and lovingly slowly painstakingly crafted we cant all have it and have to settle for a "handmade by robots".
Moreover if everything was such a high end handmade rarity, it would loose it's appeal and our desire for it, the mass produced for consumption and still a nice bikes make the specials special (IMHO)
As much as we may all want a hand crafted by a bloke with a TIG torch and lovingly slowly painstakingly crafted we cant all have it and have to settle for a "handmade by robots".
Moreover if everything was such a high end handmade rarity, it would loose it's appeal and our desire for it, the mass produced for consumption and still a nice bikes make the specials special (IMHO)
