Kona Kilauea 1992?

kaledi · Oct 21, 2009

Getting out riding again after some time away and finding this site has inspired me to find my mothballed first Kona. Actually, my mum dug it out of the barn and took these shots.
Not been used for sometime, is a 19" frame, which I bought with the forks for about £100 in approximately 1994, possibly 1995.
I then bought a 1996 Kilauea in 17", which I continue to ride. My brother was the last to ride this Kona.
Question is - what year is this model - given I can't find a catalouge with this colour scheme, I'm assuming 1992?

cce · Oct 21, 2009

it does seem to be a 1992 kilauea. they were rare, not in the catalogue and the frame wasnt as lovely as later kilaueas, more like a cinder cone frame if i recall correctly. a cinder cone is still very nice though! just later kilaueas were very lovely indeed

Anthony · Oct 21, 2009

What did it do to you to deserve that grisly fate? Rotting in a barn is almost as undignified as being a garage queen!

Yes it's a 1992 Kilauea. Most of them had a matching blue P2, but this fork is the standard 1992 black style. I think the frame has the updated geometry of the 1993 Kona range, but the tubeset is similar to the 1992 Cinder Cone.

It could be worth rather more than you paid for it if given the TLC it merits. Not hugely more, but it would be worth doing as it's quite a nice bike underneath all that.

kaledi · Oct 21, 2009

indeed, Kona butted tubing rather than Tange that appeard in 1993. I came across an earlier post with a couple of odd coloured Kilaueas from the same era. I think those 2 examples were Tange tubing.

jonnyboy666 · Oct 21, 2009

yeah looks like a 92 to me aswel judging by the joe murray stickers etc, they are the same as my 92 explosif. although there have been alot of parts changed over the years by the look of it, the stx stuff for example, thats from a couple of years later isn't it.

get it cleaned up and then take it out to blow the cobwebs off it properly!

kaledi · Oct 21, 2009

Don't worry, it won't be there rotting for too much longer - and it's been quite safe and dry sharing space with various farm animals.
I have no real desire to sell the frame, and thinking of giving it a respray, decals, and convert it to a commute bike.
Problem is I have my 96 to give TLC to first

kaledi · Oct 21, 2009

jonnyboy666":346ascij said:
yeah looks like a 92 to me aswel judging by the joe murray stickers etc, they are the same as my 92 explosif. although there have been alot of parts changed over the years by the look of it, the stx stuff for example, thats from a couple of years later isn't it.

get it cleaned up and then take it out to blow the cobwebs off it properly!

I bought it as a frame and fork - I don't think even the stem came with it. I did have a DX chainset and old school XT derailers on it, but I can't for the life of me remember what hapened to them. The STX must have been my brothers doing!
I've never actually bought a complete bike - I've always started with a frame, even may latest new buy was a frame, which I'm in the process of building.

jonnyboy666 · Oct 21, 2009

yeah i did think the stem wasn't the correct colour! would have been black, as the fork would have been on the off the shelf model. but back then the bikes sometimes came out, as has been said, as half year models, this meant they would literally build bikes at the factory with whatever they had left after they had built the initial run of bikes for the whole range.

Anthony · Oct 21, 2009

kaledi":c5ldwr5y said:
indeed, Kona butted tubing rather than Tange that appeard in 1993. I came across an earlier post with a couple of odd coloured Kilaueas from the same era. I think those 2 examples were Tange tubing.

They brought it out in late 92 with the new name, the 93 frame geometry and kit one step up from the Cinder Cone. It proved popular to have a model between the Cinder Cone and the Explosif, so as the 93 Explosif was going over to a Tange Ultimate tubeset, they gave the 1993 Kilauea the same Tange Concept tubeset as the 92 Explosif.

Not a very good picture, but this gives an idea of what it looked like with clean paint and the matching fork. Note that the head tube is 2cm shorter than other size 18 1992 Konas, and the same as 93 Konas.

kaledi · Oct 22, 2009

Anthony, I've seen a number of pages from north American catalogs that you've posted here in other threads. Are you able to tell me where I can get these scanned catalogues?

Kona Kilauea 1992?

kaledi

Old School Hero

Attachments

cce

Anthony

kaledi

Old School Hero

jonnyboy666

kaledi

Old School Hero

kaledi

Old School Hero

jonnyboy666

Anthony

Attachments

kaledi

Old School Hero

Similar threads

Latest posts