95 Explosif teen dream

ClassicDodo

Kona Fan
Right, first ever build thread for me so go gentle ish. A couple of posts to follow to catch up, but still a way to go.

Background, after owning a new 92 Fire Mountain sold for a new 98 Kilauea ridden to near destruction, my recent return to old Konas was a 91 cinder cone which was pretty original so was really a strip and regrease.

What I always wanted was an explosif and fancied 94-96 with square decals as I hadn’t had anything like that before, so took the plunge on this which may be familiar to a few, with a view that it looked ok but knew that it was far from original.

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Upon closer inspection it was as suspected a hybrid with a lesser model with the Kona bars and seatpost being the clue but most importantly could only be an explosif with the awesome Columbus max tubing. Whilst the paintwork was mostly decent it wasn’t entirely, rust appearing in a few spots and a spinning rivnut with stuck bolt that has also pulled at the downtube. A52BEE01-40A6-4440-A82C-DF60A8E7AC6D.jpeg 916BEE09-94F6-4B21-9C5E-88877975DAB2.jpeg

So decision time, what to do?

Clearly needed a frame repair and given the creeping rust decided to go for the all in respray option - I do prefer to keep original paint where possible but this was for me heading down a potential path to disintegration, so off it went...
 
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Checking in for more....
 
Got it back this week from Argos cycles looking lovely, paintwork isn’t quite demonstrating the depth of the metallic red in the November light… B83C835F-D53D-4F07-ABC4-D32AB924E717.jpeg

So the next question is what to do, this is absolutely 100% not a catalogue build, it’s also not a matchy matchy perfect retro build, so exactly as the title says, it’s what I broadly would have done as a teenager if I had any money in the 90s. Stuff I wanted, with various different brands, not worrying whether it is the best working as long as teenage me would have it - with some minor oversight from old me going “are you sure?”.

I have been collecting various parts for a while now, but don’t have everything so let’s see how it goes!

First things, the forks. No teenager ever wanted project twos in 1995 - look cool up to 93 models but from then on it was about the suspension. Also this one has the “mountain shock” sticker and as I’ve always had a dodgy hand from birth, suspension hurts less.

Always quite fancied some Pace, bombers are great (Kilauea had them) but I stumbled across a pair of NOS 97 Judy XCs so that’s my starting point, they’ve even got the brake boss covers on and internals have the original grease looking fine - the cream and red was also the colour I though looked the best.

Only niggle is that I’ll need to run v brakes through the dog collar...

Quick mock up
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That’s up to today, really need to buy a headset, wheels are currently being built so will hopefully arrive soon
 
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Yes, the paintwork looks amazing 😍

I think the colours of the Judy really suit this as well, looking forward to seeing your build choices
 
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