1990 kona lava dome project

Hi, thought I would post this - always loved old kona s, and have 3 projects on the go now, splatter cinder cone to do after this one, however the one that takes precedence now is the one below, bought off the bay a while ago for next to nothing, in white flavour, the production catalogue of 1990 showed a orange lava dome which I always wanted, so have attempted to re create this one, x1 stuff which was on the bike when I got it was awful !! So have upgraded slightly, always liked suntour stuff as well, although not the x1 when I saw it !!





peak at progress










Hope these pics work !! Comments welcomed

Cheers

Good work. I'm l'm thinking about changing the livery with exactly the same beast. Where did you get the decals done?

Thanks, good luck with yours will be keenly watching,love watching kona builds, u can't go wrong

Cheers

Thanks will be posting more soon. I know what you mean about the Suntour X-1, its not an impressive groupset. It has a whiff of acera x about it, I dont think I'll be using it in the rebuild.

I bet when i had seen x1 back in the day I would have loved it, and probably did, however when I received the lava dome, it was pretty battered, and I wasn't scouring RB and eBay and paying money for a grouppo I didn't like, but if your after a catalogue replica then that's ok.

The transmission didnt seem too bad, but the brakes ha ha I don't think they could have stopped me !!!!

Decals by gil_m at thecycleshed sterling job he does

Yep the brakes are god dam awful, the cantis I pulled off this had 5mm of movment at the end, the levers were just as bad. mind you Its all Dia compe badged as Suntour. I just call it, well.... Dia, as it is!

Did you by any chance find the X-1 crankset, and or bottom bracket heavy? I havent found my crank puller yet but the frame with just the crankset attached seems a tad heavy?

Yeah they heavy, but the frame is also heavy in the first place i think, nice to ride old konas but i think the ones from this era and my youth are not light......

Out of the two Konas I collected Saturday the 90 Lavadome Is Substantially heavier than the 93 Lava dome. The two frames are quite different to look at. The 90 (TGB ) seems to be double skinned near the top of the seat post tube as its wider for about 3 inches from the top down. It is also lugged at the top instead of a separate seat clamp.

Mine is the same, lugged and strengthened seat tube at the top - I also have a 1991 cinder cone and that is alot lighter than this



Technology must have changed loads around this time and lighter frame sets produced.