1990 to 1993 Kona Hei Hei's,why so rare??

Something i've been thinking about for a while regarding the first Kona Hei Hei's from 1990 to 1993 partly because i really want one Why do you never seem to see any come up for sale in this country or just see any! Is it because not many people bought them BITD due to them being very expensive or were they only sold in limited numbers. Anyone on here have any suggestions??

Quite rare I guess.......that was a lot of cash to drop 22 years ago!........a mate of mine in burton owns one, frame/headset and manitou 1 fork......I've been badgering him for years but he won't let it go!.....

feetabix":15jrnrfy said:

Quite rare I guess.......that was a lot of cash to drop 22 years ago!........a mate of mine in burton owns one, frame/headset and manitou 1 fork......I've been badgering him for years but he won't let it go!.....

Click to expand...

Bet your mate hides it every time you go round I think that might be the main reason,people just don't want to let them go once they've got one with them being so rare.

I'm sure bitd they were over a grand for a frame only,they probably go for the same price nowadays. Peatys Hei Hei with titanium Project 2's was my dream bike back then,that's what i want to build if i ever get one then i'll have my dream Kona garage

He never seems in!......I think he hides, hands over the kids mouth, behind an upturned sofa!.....

Perhaps also one of those bikes people don't like to get rid of. 'Keepers'.

They were a lot of cash back then; about £1300-£1500 iirc :? Typically now anything form £400 (if you're lucky) to £600 for a Hei Hei and more for the King Kahuna!....prices probably on the up though given the upsurge in "retro-bike" popularity

Keep looking though, I'm sure you'll find one - eventually!...I've only been on RB a few years, but have been lucky enough to have a few Hei Hei + KK

Cheers

ps. Links in sig to builds in you'd like to see pics etc

Until 1990, the Kona HeiHei was made by Merlin. Since 1990, they were made by Sandvik.
The Heihei was one of the better titanium frame. Difficult to split this frame with their project 2 fork it was sold with, like the other Kona.
Until 93, the Kona heihei was built for being riding without suspension fork, and for appreciating the particular geometrie drawn by Jo Murray. The titanium P2 are very rare and made for lucky racers first but they were very expensive to be made. So Kona swapped the fork for a suspension marzzochi fork in the 1994 catalog, with new suspension geometries (the P2 fork was longer…).

wadsy":2ayyhlgg said:

They were a lot of cash back then; about £1300-£1500 iirc :? Typically now anything form £400 (if you're lucky) to £600 for a Hei Hei and more for the King Kahuna!....prices probably on the up though given the upsurge in "retro-bike" popularity

Keep looking though, I'm sure you'll find one - eventually!...I've only been on RB a few years, but have been lucky enough to have a few Hei Hei + KK

Cheers

ps. Links in sig to builds in you'd like to see pics etc

Click to expand...

I'll keep looking mate,it took me 25 years to finally get a 89 splatter paint Explosif,hopefully i won't have to wait that long again for a 93 Hei Hei frame :?
Best thing i've done joining retrobike otherwise i don't think i'd have found one or to get a 1990 splatter paint Explosif or the 91 Explosif Once i've finished the 1990 Explosif all my attention will be on finding a 1993 Hei Hei frame.

24pouces":266ten6y said:

Until 1990, the Kona HeiHei was made by Merlin. Since 1990, they were made by Sandvik.
The Heihei was one of the better titanium frame. Difficult to split this frame with their project 2 fork it was sold with, like the other Kona.
Until 93, the Kona heihei was built for being riding without suspension fork, and for appreciating the particular geometrie drawn by Jo Murray. The titanium P2 are very rare and made for lucky racers first but they were very expensive to be made. So Kona swapped the fork for a suspension marzzochi fork in the 1994 catalog, with new suspension geometries (the P2 fork was longer…).

Click to expand...

The ti P2's seem the hardest part to find and going by an old thread on here very expensive,think they asked for $600 or might have been £600 and got it judging by the people who formed a queue but i'm expecting that really. The reason i want a 93 Hei Hei,apart from the Steve Peat thing,is Shimano XTR was out and all the titanium parts from Kona the Velocity stem,bars,o beam seatpost were out aswell. From then on i've just had an idea of an ultimate Kona Hei Hei build with all those parts. Once i've finished the 1990 Explosif build i'm doing i'll be starting the hunt but while i'm on the search i'll start collecting the XTR parts and hopefully some of the Kona Ti parts and see how it go's. I'm hoping i don't end up with a load of XTR parts and no frame :facepalm: