Wanted: 1998 Kona Ku

Frame or complete bike in size 18”.

Constructed from Columbus Altec Megatube 7005 Aluminium; this was the final year of production for the Kona Custom Ku.

I’m coming to the conclusion that the quantity of these that were produced sits somewhere between the mythical 1997 Caldera and the considerably more common 2000 Score.

Anyway, name your price or please point me in the direction of one for sale – “me love you long time.”

Pip.

Re:

Good luck mate! I don't think I've ever even seen one, and I've seen pics of two 1997 Calderas! If I hear of one I'll be straight on to you.

I've just remembered, wasn't there a polished one on here with 1997 decals that people though was a 1998?

Re: Re:

markwashington":3pxr13fm said:

Good luck mate! I don't think I've ever even seen one, and I've seen pics of two 1997 Calderas! If I hear of one I'll be straight on to you.

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Cheers Mark - even the picture in the 1998 catalogue is a sort of fabricated cartoon affair. Anthony showed a picture of a hideous greeny colour 1998 in a thread a few years ago now - Goodness only knows why anyone would opt for a custom colour like that out of choice :?

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=51590&start=0

markwashington":3pxr13fm said:

I've just remembered, wasn't there a polished one on here with 1997 decals that people though was a 1998?

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I believe I am correct in saying that the particular frame which you are referring to turned out to be a Pahoehoe - nice Easton frame, but not Columbus Altec Megatube. There was another Red to Blue fade with flames, which I think was the same sort of mock up.

Cheers, Pip.

In the thread Anthony posits that 50 were produced per year but I suspect it was probably less for 1998. Would be good to get some sort of register going.

markwashington":e7g895e1 said:

In the thread Anthony posits that 50 were produced per year but I suspect it was probably less for 1998. Would be good to get some sort of register going.

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That would indeed be a great idea; I think that some contributors to this site like al-onestare, Canuck, Anthony etc. have probably got their own record of Hei Hei and King Kahuna frame numbers.

Anyway the problem with the Ku is that sometime during its 3 years of production, the manufacturer changed from 1995 - no one seems to know, to 1996 - Altitude Cycles, to probably 1997 - Enigma Design.

I’m not sure what people think with regards to me posting up their serials numbers, but…..
It is curious to note that my single colour 1996 Ku and Ernie’s 1996 Stars ‘n’ Bars Ku have a different format, which in turn slightly differs from your 1997!
Yours and Ernie’s have the year of manufacture near the beginning, but yours starts with KU and Ernie’s starts with K0 (zero). Then they both (probably) have the month that they were fabricated, and then finally the serial number (which is notably a low-ish number).

Mine on the other hand is a much shorter serial number of KU0160 with no obvious year. Although 160 is quite a high sequential number, perhaps it was the total number of frames built from 1995 until 1996 when Altitude Cycles was formed after Mountain Goat closed (I think!).

http://mombat.org/Mountain_Goat.htm

Phew! Did that make any sense?

Pip.

Re:

Bumpmeister:

Well, last week al-onestare has found a unicorn as he calls his newly acquired 1997 Caldera. Here’s hoping that I could eventually track down an 18” 1998 Ku.

BWT, there is a bit to read on this bike and other Kus in Bike Chat 1998 -->.

viewtopic.php?f=41&t=336784

Pip

Bumperino.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1998-Kona-Kula- ... SwFGNWRQx2

Text sent as well :xmas-wink:



Ernie
sorry mate its said Kula... I will get a grip :x

Re:

Whoa Ernie - that got my heart racing

With reference to our texting last night, and for clarity on here..... There is no Chain Stay brace / bridge on the Custom Ku frames that we have seen.

We are yet to see a good picture of a 1998 - the only one that we have seen so far is the "litchen" green one that Anthony posted on here in 2009.

Sadly, the picture doesn't really show the detail very well, so I'm not able to confirm that the 1998 frames were fabricated without a brace.



Cheers for the bump though mate

Pip.