Kona Explosif 26 inch wheel touring bike for sale. 2003 True Temper Platinum frame (20 inch), with Project Two forks. Bit of a special one this. Customised by Argos with braze-ons to the front forks to take a low rider rack. Extra bottle cage mount added to the downtube and stainless steel dropouts fitted to the rear. Then frame saved and resprayed in grey. Frame saving clearly didn't do its job and it developed a hole in the downtube, about an inch above the bottom bracket. It must have taken on water at some point (I bought the frame second hand). I got it professionally plated over about 19 months ago and it's been fine ever since. Touched up with grey primer which is not a perfect colour match by any means, so will benefit from a respray/powdercoat at some point, but the rest of the frame is still pretty tidy so I didn't bother. There are, however, minor scratches to the paint on the forks and other bits of the frame which have been touched up with primer.
Comes as a complete bike with rear 32 hole Alex rim on Parallax hub - no wear and running true.
Front wheel is a Matrix rim with minimum wear. Running well and true.
Deore thumbies running an 8 speed cassette - the best shifter option for touring in my opinion because they don't fail. Can be run index or friction.
Old school LX front and rear mech.
Deore pedals - functional but untidy.
Chainset is LX rings but mismatched FSA chainside crank. Same length and perfectly ok, just visually not perfect.
FSA headset and UN54 bottom bracket (few months old). Both running fine.
Chain not stretched and seatpost moves fine.
Adjustable stem and Orange wide bars.
Avid brake levers on Diacompe (I think) callipers.
Tyres are off-road - rear is Bontrager, front no-name and cracked so will need replacing soon. Not ideal touring tyres but they roll.
Saddle is fairly ugly but fine for round town use.
Lovely bike looking for a new owner. Would suit someone tall heading off touring on a budget. SimI'ply built and designed for easy maintenance on the road. I'm 6ft 2in. Would suit some 5ft 11in upwards I'd say although with the adjustable stem there's a bit of flexibility.
Can be supplied with a brand new Tubus Cargo rear rack for an extra £50.
Difficult one to price, because the frame is a total one-off. I'll start off looking for offers around £180 and see how it goes. Collection Brighton or I'll deliver to London Victoria or St Pancras for the cost of the train fare.
Ok, here are pics of the weld. The plate is a lot bigger than the hole was. The reason for this was to cover any possible additional corrosion around the hole. The primer is the original I put on 19 months ago and I deliberately didn't put any new on before the sale, so that any rust spots that have developed can be seen. There are some bits here and there but it all looks surface to me. Someone asked me if I can guarantee that the frame won't go through again. I can't, but if it did, it can be welded because it's steel. It's also priced according to its current condition and components. If it was mint, it would be priced higher. I've also added pics of the downtube and chainstays so you can see the general condition underneath.
I tour on a tight budget. This bike would suit someone who's in the same financial position but wants to get out and enjoy cycle touring. With the exception of the tyres, this bike should be fine for travel.
