Kona Manomano 1997

[al-onestare]

Re: Kona Manomano 1997 - Red5 going in - finished!

Aaaah - that'll be why you have the Kona love ;-)

With the Kapu complete, I pretty much have the stable I always wanted with a few extra surprises. I don't have any more space in the flat so it would have to be a one in one out policy before anything else turned up and there is no way in hell I'm selling any of the them.

That all said, I'd always consider a rasta flames 97 Hot, 97 KK or the infamous 97 Kapu ;-)

Back to this, Red5 really is great fun to ride so I can't wait for spring to arrive and she get a proper thrashing!

 

[al-onestare]

Re: Kona Manomano 1997 - Red5 going in - finished!

At long last, yesterday was a perfect day to get on Red5. The more I ride her and the Explosif, the more it becomes clear why folks went mad for big-rig full suss beasts. You really can chuck it downhill and take far more risks than on a hard tail. The trade off is going up and even on the flat; it really is hard work. I'd take the Explosif over this BUT it's still a ton of fun and will remain a firm stable favourite!

If you have the chance to own one of these, get one. It'll put a massive grin on your face.

As I was out on the usual route I got the standard puncture 3 miles from home. Thank goodness the weather was so good - a stroll back in the sun was lovely!

 

[yeti_bomb]

Re: Kona Manomano 1997 - Red5 out and about P2/3

Really awesome job. Neat to see one of these old full sus Konas. Would like to see more of these projects. Thanks for sharing.

 

[al-onestare]

Re: Kona Manomano 1997 - Red5 out and about P2/3

Really awesome job. Neat to see one of these old full sus Konas. Would like to see more of these projects. Thanks for sharing.

Why thank you :mrgreen:

I was thinking the other day about these and I suppose we don't see many because:

a) they broke easily
b) not many people bought them

For a) and Kona's the Sex range models were really prone to cracking if I recall. This, more common design and placement of the shock reduced that but there are still enough, fairly slim pivot points for things to go wrong if you pushed it a bit too hard. I'm pretty paranoid about them and check them after every ride :facepalm:

And for b) they weren't exactly cheap. In 1997, excluding the Misser, there were 4 full suss machines, 1 more than the year before. The Manomano full price was Kilauea territory (£1,200) and you hardly see any of those. The masses were still buying hard tails for the most part, hence the popularity of the Cinder Cone and Lava Dome - both around the £650 - £500. Those with a bit more cash seemed to stick to that with Explosif's and Hei Hei's.

Apart from Wiener's, I've never seen another 1997 Manomano for sale and I'll stick my neck and say, I suspect there might not be many other 20" ones like this in the UK.

 

[dyson]

Re: Kona Manomano 1997 - Red5 out and about P2/3

This bike looks so good. Glad you are enjoying it more.

 

[al-onestare]

Re: Kona Manomano 1997 - Red5 out and about P2/3

What a summer we've had. This weekend saw an unexpected visit to Swinley and 2 hours of biking bliss. Just two snaps.

The more I ride her, the better she gets. We got some proper air on the table-tops and coped with some well worn sections with no too much trouble. No dismounts this time!

 

[drcarlos]

Re: Kona Manomano 1997 - Red5 out and about P2/3

I've stuck that ebay one in my watch list, even with misgivings about damage to the frame from a large frontal impact, it might go cheap enough to make it worth while and Worthing isn't far for a pickup. I was originally looking at Sex too's and threes but hadn't noticed they were just URT's with a linkage, one of these should actually be fairly close to a modern FS experience as the designs are still in use today. Do you use Strava? It would be interesting to see if the FS is indeed faster around Swinley than rigid.

Carl.

 

[al-onestare]

Re: Kona Manomano 1997 - Red5 out and about P2/3

I don't use strava but use MMR. Here's what I got up to:

http://www.mapmyrun.com/workout/746932525

I'm happy with that; top half in all the courses. I'm generally on the more cautious side off-road but we both got sketchy a few times! It's not as agile as the Explosif, especially on the twisty stuff like the labyrinth, but then she wasn't designed for that. As you say, this design was pretty much what Kona (and many others) have stuck with right up to today's Hei Hei.

I checked out my headtube after reading about the one on ebay, just out of curiousity. It's a chunky tube and a tight fit (I remember getting the headset in was a squeeze). The other key area's are the pivot points at the rear of the triangle by the mech; they are slim to say the least.

I'd recommend some decent kit on it to make it as light as possible so you get the best of both worlds Good luck!

 

[shinobi]

Re:

What a great build and write up , i dont have the patience for either im afraid
back in 94 i changed from a super light Stumpy M2 to an S works FSR and on the first long climb i thought " what have i done " but after a lot of time learning how to get the best out of it and some nice light components i loved it and could climb stuff that i would never have made on the M2 .
Anyway great job
Paul

 

[al-onestare]

Re:

The more I ride her, the better she gets.

If you have the chance to own one of these, get one. It'll put a massive grin on your face.

^^^ This

I finally got some time to head back over to Swinley at the weekend and we had a blast! Now kitted out with my favourite XT M739 V's, a more period correct seat-post (98 version) and a fancy Flite Kevlar, she's even more of a beast. With perfect riding conditions and lots of sun, we ate up the trails, passing everyone who came near us bar 1 who I'm sure was semi-pro but who still said 'nice bike'. We embarressed many who couldn't climb or keep up with us ;-) But must of all, we had tremendous fun.

She's surprisingly pointed for it's size; on the mid-section of the blue route with the successive high berm corners, she's really very agile. Sure it hasn't got anywhere near the level of travel of a modern machine but she really does fly over the rougher stuff; the faster she goes, the better she rides.

One of my favourite sounds is the little air squeak from the rear shock when there's a notable bump. It's a little reassuring sound saying "oi, be careful!" I have to say, for all their faults on other models, these Judy's have been excellent so far as well.