OK, tell me about the Kona Hot...

[haggis]

Hot

Serial number stamped on the BB shell is "HT123" if that means anything Anthony but there is sticker which says "PRP158790"

 

[Anthony]

Re: Hot

Serial number stamped on the BB shell is "HT123" if that means anything Anthony but there is sticker which says "PRP158790"

No, I'm afraid those numbers are in a different format from the regular bikes, so I can't help. I'm sure Tech would know what it meant though.

Having just looked again at Tom Teesdale's website, it does look as though he worked only in Prestige for Kona, so JeffB's news leaves us with a knowledge gap about the 1996 Hots.

Teesdale builds mostly road bikes now, but this sweet-looking 853 creation could almost be a Kona don't you think?

 

[DM]

Re: Hot

Teesdale builds mostly road bikes now, but this sweet-looking 853 creation could almost be a Kona don't you think?

Definitely. It's very close.

I still curse myself for not buying a Teesdale Hot on U.S. Ebay a few years back.
It was dirt-cheap BIN; my size; Seller would ship to the UK.
So...
I decided to "think about it"... :roll:

 

[Kona Paul]

But you learned your lesson: never think, just buy.

 

[mynchiboy]

I’ll show you the nicest pic I have of a Teesdale Hot

And I'll show you one of mine..camera a bit rubbish though or maybe the user

All I can say is that there is a certain thing about riding a Kona just that bit more exclusive even though most folks who saw it wouldn't know it. The '95 prestige one I have made my '98 Kilauea feel like a brick in comparison, despite that being around 22 pounds in singlespeed mode

 

[Anthony]

That's superb, but surely that's a 91? So you really need to show us a picture of your 95 as well, otherwise we'll go into a sulk!

Decals, braze-on seat clamp and triangular holes in dropouts all identical to brochure pic below. That must make it one of the very first Teesdale Hots.

 

[mynchiboy]

That's superb, but surely that's a 91? So you really need to show us a picture of your 95 as well, otherwise we'll go into a sulk

No problemo! Dead right with the 91 although the frame is stamped 90 as you can see in the pics so must be one of the first. The frame was in a bit of a state when I got it but well worth the repaint

The '95 was and still is my commuter hence the silly tyres It also remains singlespeed, at least until I can find some suitably posh parts to make it geared This one was originally silver grey like the other one pictured on this thread but went for a pastel blue respray a while back, looks nice with the silver bits IMO

 

[JeffB]

Anthony wrote
Did you build the bikes in one big batch? i.e., there was no ‘custom’ element, it was just ‘US-built’ that was the magic ingredient?

They were all handbuilt by 2 sometimes 3 guys. We usually ran 5 at a time of a particular size. To me 'custom' means building a bike to your exact body measurements using tubing tailored for your riding style and size. But outside of that, these were built the exact same way we built our 'customs'.

I just thought of another possible identifier for you guys. Teesdale's bikes had the cables routed under the BB. All Enigma bikes had the cables routed on the top tube.

With all of the talk about different dates you guys have me second guessing myself as to dates but my wife reminded me we were still building Outland Designs frames up until December of 96.

On a side note. I have seen people incorrectly state that all 853 frames have 853 tubing as the main triangle but not the chainstays or seatstays this is incorrect. We got the first all 853 tubesets produced by Reynolds and made the first entirely all 853 frames for the HOT's including chainstays and seatstays.

 

[Anthony]

They were all handbuilt by 2 sometimes 3 guys. We usually ran 5 at a time of a particular size. To me 'custom' means building a bike to your exact body measurements using tubing tailored for your riding style and size. But outside of that, these were built the exact same way we built our 'customs'.

Right, so it’s clear that the Hot wasn’t custom in the bespoke sense (although don’t forget the paint), but might the pretty little thing below shed some light on the central issue of ‘what’s so special about a Hot?’

It’s clearly a 96 Hot, as proved by the pre-97-style cable routing and the post-95 853 sticker, and there is one element of custom building visible there – you don’t often see a top tube skinnier than the seat tube. But given the light weight of the likely rider of such a small bike, a 25.4 top tube is probably a very good idea and if so one of the advantages of buying a ‘special’ frame, just as you mention. And after all, there’s always the paint! So I reckon the owner of that bike got something reasonably special for their outlay.

With all of the talk about different dates you guys have me second guessing myself as to dates but my wife reminded me we were still building Outland Designs frames up until December of 96. On a side note. I have seen people incorrectly state that all 853 frames have 853 tubing as the main triangle but not the chainstays or seatstays this is incorrect. We got the first all 853 tubesets produced by Reynolds and made the first entirely all 853 frames for the HOT's including chainstays and seatstays.

Thanks for that info. As you received the very first all-853 sets at the end of 96, it must mean that the 96 Hots were some of the earliest 853 bikes made. I wonder if this could possibly link back to the quote from mtbr that DM gave us. "My 'back in the day' favorites were the post Tom Tisdale (sp?) Kona Hots done by a bunch of stoners in Northern Cali I think, the Taiwanese Explosivs were the same tubing but straighter..." That makes it sound as though Altitude Cycles did indeed make the 96 Hots. But I’ve read that builders originally found 853 quite difficult to work, so given the rather uncharitable comment, I wonder whether Altitude (stoned or otherwise) may have encountered problems keeping the welds in alignment and perhaps it might have been this that lead them to give up (or lose) the Hot contract.

Oh and if you’re fed up with looking at other folks’ handiwork, below is a photo of the bike that won the Retrobike poll earlier this year for the site’s best Kona, and it sounds as though that one is one of yours!

 

[haggis]

'96 Hots

Mystery solved as to where the '96 Hots were built i think? Jeff Lindsey Of Mountain Goat fame. Am well chuffed i know where mine came from now

http://mombat.org/96Attitude.jpg