Model year of my Kona Hot?

[adamgent]

The '98 Frankenstein Hot I sold to Jez which now resides with another Retrobike resident; I seem to rememebr that having an ovalised down tube but not a top tube. But I might be wrong - it certainly didn't stand out when I got it like the black one did.

My first concern was the black one was a repbadged Explosif but on all the explosifs I have seen the join between the top tube and seat tube always revealed a flat edge either side which didn't quite meet - i.e. more primative construction.

I can't for the life of me remember what the tubes on the Frankenstein hot were like now. The photos I have of it are not that revealing; is the down tube ovalised or is it the light? Prhaps the current pwner can tell us!

That is a really nice Hot as it also has Ritchey dropouts. MMmmmm

 

[Anthony]

I wouldn't call the Columbus Max weld primitive, it's just that it's a 32mm top tube ovalised to 30 by 34, so they were joining a 34mm wide top tube onto a 28.6mm seat tube. So it can't just blend in as per normal, and you need to find a reasonably neat way of dealing with the overlap.

If you didn't see that on the Hot, it could be evidence that the top tube wasn't ovalised or it could be that the Hot top tube was a 28.6 ovalised to 27 by 30 and you didn't notice the blending of a 30mm tube onto a 28.6 seat tube quite as much.

It's not much more than a guess, but on the basis of (a) I can see an bi-ovalised dt but not an oval tt, (b) I can't see an 853 sticker, (c) I didn't think they made 853 ovalised, one explanation is that those frames could have been special ones made of an 853/Columbus Max mix. The guy whose firm built them did refer to shortages of 853 around then.

 

[GoldenEraMTB]

Nice! And it looks to have survived the last 16 years remarkably unscathed.

I have a few photos of 93 Kilaueas in that colour, but I'm interested that you say it's the catalogue colour - do you have that catalogue? I'm aware of two 93 catalogues - the one on Konaretro and here with two-tone colour schemes, and what I thought was the US catalogue as shown below.

it has some surface rust and a bunch of wear and tear, but it's looking better than when i found it left for dead.

my mistake; this is the catalog I was referring to, and I meant it has the color of the front part, not the fade/two tone to red:

http://www.konaretro.com/articles/catalogues/1993/7.jpg

 

[adamgent]

You're right Ant. I was being a complete dullard last night. Neither of the '98 Hots I had had ovalised top tubes, only downtubes.

Late + wine!

Interesting about the 853 / Columbus mix is interesting as I've only seen 2 '98 Hots and both were the same. I my opinion this combo make them great! Ohhhh I do like a nice bit of ovalisation!

 

[jez-4-bikes-max]

Just bought this from mynchboy.

Its wicked.


And has an ovalised downtube too - its an early one tho - 1991 ish.

 

[Geoff]

You got it in the end Jez! May you enjoy it, lovely bike.

 

[jez-4-bikes-max]

Yeh got my Kona 1991 era lycra race kit too - Whoo hoo

Imagine that paraded around at Mountain Mayhem ina month...pwoar

 

[Geoff]

Dunno what I did with my 94 era (the green spiral one, looked awesome) race kit :cry:

So are you gonna do MM on one chainring? :twisted:

Edit: I can't help thinking you need to change your username back again...

 

[jez-4-bikes-max]

I only bought the frame,stem BB and forks.

It will have full XT kit...

 

[Anthony]

Just bought this from mynchboy.
Its wicked.
And has an ovalised downtube too - its an early one tho - 1991 ish.

It does look like a 1991 and a 1991 Hot has Tange Prestige Concept tubes, with the top and down tubes the same size, ovalised and tapered, 27 x 30 at the back to 30 x 34 at the front.

That's different though to the Columbus Max, which is bi-ovalised, from 36 x 29 to 29 x 36 (top) and 39 x 31 to 31 x 39 (down) (just re-measured them). The Max tubes are thinner though 7-4-7 and 8-5-8, compared to the 9-6-9 on the Concept. I think that makes the Max tubes slightly lighter, but they were quite expensive to make, so not as widely used as Tange Concept, although both are quite rare.