Re: Kona Kilauea 1997 - progress (P
Easter weekend and at long last some time to dedicate to the Kilauea. The more time I spend with her, the more I pick up variances and not just with the Explosif. Overall the tubing is definitely that little bit slimmer than the standard double chromoly . Good to know really considering this was considerably more expensive back in the day! The most interesting bits are the stays. Super slim on top, but with a really notable bulge on the bottom.The paint is really understated but proper cool: with a black base coat, the blue is ever so slightly metallic so it twinkles and has a slight dual fade to it.
I can't wait to ride her and see how she feels.
Building her up was relatively painless until I made the rookie mistake of fitting a bottom pull front mech. It's top innit. Luckily there's a replacement coming my way. The most sad news was shortly after taking the final set of pic's, I noticed the rear rim was totally f
ucked. There are cracks all over the rim where the rear wheel has been over-tightened. Again, I got lucky (or smart!) and had a set of Mavic 221's to put on instead (not shown); they had come up for sale recently and I got them as a token spare pair just in case. These were originally on the 97 Kilauea anyway so it's all good.
All that's left to do is to cable up the new front mech, add the bottle cage bolts, add the SPD's and tweak the set up for a shakedown ride. I know the tyres will split opinion. In terms of performance I think they are great - they have been faultless on the Manomano - but I suspect I'll end up getting a pair of Smoke/Dart reissues later on.
Please excuse the 60's Ikea kitchen. A new one is on hold until I stop buying bikes :mrgreen:
