It’s been a while since my last build, since then we have moved house first week in January and our baby son Zac was born just under 3 weeks ago, oh and I picked up a rather pricy looking Marin Pine FRS frame and forks project 
When I spotted this 94 Kona AA and a 92 Fire Mountain for sale locally I couldn’t say no and the deal was done, the supposedly non working Marzocchi XC51 forks were even thrown in for free!
I have restored a fair few Kona’s and adore my 91 Hei Hei but I haven’t seen an AA on here since I joined, must say it’s a very light frame, the paint is amazing despite the usual age related chips it has and the decals are great, biggest plus is no dents and minimal chain suck.
As they were pretty much:
The plan is to take the AA back to close to catalogue with a few bought bits, some from my stash and some from the Fire Mountain.
I couldn’t wait to get stuck in around the sleepless nights, burping, nappy changes and endless washing
As always it starts with a strip down, I could then mount replacement 1995 Kona Mr Dirt & The Cleaner Tyres on the AA’s rims. Those Macaw purple and tan walls just don’t work with the frame colour. Couldn’t resist mocking up with the correct fork for a quick shot:
Talking of the forks, the Spinner P2’s are not suspension corrected whereas the AA frame is, thankfully after pumping up both legs with air, leaving for a week and compressing everyday several times, they show no sign of air or oil leaks.
Bits stripped:
The frame in all her naked glory cleaned and polished:
Parts:
You may have spoted the Clarks inner gear cables, they came free on the front of a mid 90’s copy of MBUK and are in perfect rust free condition, another NOS part :xmas-big-grin:
Just waiting on a new KMC chain and I need to buy some new brake cable inners.
A couple of bits needed some love, I am yet to remove a snapped alloy granny ring bolt and strip and repaint the black brake lever bodies but I did get the rusty Ritchey Vector saddle rails sanded, anti rust coated and sprayed in shiny Hammerite black paint, so much better:
This is what the levers currrently look like, I did toy with removing the anodising from the Tektro blades but they actually go quite nicely:
As she stands tonight, rather happy with how she’s coming along:
When I spotted this 94 Kona AA and a 92 Fire Mountain for sale locally I couldn’t say no and the deal was done, the supposedly non working Marzocchi XC51 forks were even thrown in for free!
I have restored a fair few Kona’s and adore my 91 Hei Hei but I haven’t seen an AA on here since I joined, must say it’s a very light frame, the paint is amazing despite the usual age related chips it has and the decals are great, biggest plus is no dents and minimal chain suck.
As they were pretty much:
The plan is to take the AA back to close to catalogue with a few bought bits, some from my stash and some from the Fire Mountain.
I couldn’t wait to get stuck in around the sleepless nights, burping, nappy changes and endless washing
As always it starts with a strip down, I could then mount replacement 1995 Kona Mr Dirt & The Cleaner Tyres on the AA’s rims. Those Macaw purple and tan walls just don’t work with the frame colour. Couldn’t resist mocking up with the correct fork for a quick shot:
Talking of the forks, the Spinner P2’s are not suspension corrected whereas the AA frame is, thankfully after pumping up both legs with air, leaving for a week and compressing everyday several times, they show no sign of air or oil leaks.
Bits stripped:
The frame in all her naked glory cleaned and polished:
Parts:
You may have spoted the Clarks inner gear cables, they came free on the front of a mid 90’s copy of MBUK and are in perfect rust free condition, another NOS part :xmas-big-grin:
Just waiting on a new KMC chain and I need to buy some new brake cable inners.
A couple of bits needed some love, I am yet to remove a snapped alloy granny ring bolt and strip and repaint the black brake lever bodies but I did get the rusty Ritchey Vector saddle rails sanded, anti rust coated and sprayed in shiny Hammerite black paint, so much better:
This is what the levers currrently look like, I did toy with removing the anodising from the Tektro blades but they actually go quite nicely:
As she stands tonight, rather happy with how she’s coming along:
I was only looking at the '94 and' 95 Kona catalogues the other day, it does seem, to me at least, that the models I've seen the least of are the aluminium hardtails, AA, Ku, Mini Mula etc
