Recent content by murphy79

On my '97 all the stay ends are closed up. An example of Altitude's questionable "quality control" maybe?

In the old archive there is a review of the '92 Explosif Pro (with Future Shock fork) and it has the price at $1650, apparently about $3750 today! I'd never seen a black one before, and Pebble's one is lovely! I also have a blue '92, was my mate's from back in the day and essentially the bike...

and very lovely it looks, cracking bike!

Hi, welcome to the site! It could be an early (probably '92) Kona Haole, but definitely with replacement stickers. If the stickers have been replaced then it is very likely the components have been too. The only way to know for sure is to check the serial number, which should stat with a "B"...

Ha ha, that would be a nice surprise. Tempting to strip that frame down and try and find out! I suppose with Kona's anything is possible.

Not my frame I'm afraid to remove the cups (although my mate may be getting rid of it soon). On kitchen scales with the cups in the Caldera is 2082g. For comparison, a larger 19" 853 Hot (with a really thick powder coat) is 2004g. Also, both the Hot and a '98 Explosif (also 853) have similar...

If it helps you a bit more to figure out what the frame is, I've been able to put my '98 Kilauea next to a '98 Caldera (the next frame down, same tubing as the Cinder Cone and Lava Dome I think). At first sight I couldn't see any differences, all the fixtures and fittings are identical. But the...

I've read that the letters refer to a two week period within the year (52 weeks, 26 letters) so C would refer to being built in the 5th or 6th week (early to mid Feb) of '98. I've seen several frames where the letter involved is later in the alphabet than L so I don't think it can represent the...

Glad the paint looks good (other than the annoying damage), does that mean you are more likely to keep the paint as-is? Model can't really be confirmed from the S/N but whatever it is was made around Feb '98, so the '98 model year.

Looks like the paper that was used to "mask" the BB when it was painted is still in there, so there might just be some paint in the threads.

It would be a nice dream for the new owner, but the '98 Hot (which it would need to be for that cable routing) had ovalized tubing and no chain-stay bridge. Also I think by this time "custom" meant custom paint and US made frames, actual custom options (such as the U-Brake Hot built in 92/93)...

The '98 catalogue pictures do not match the production bikes, they had all top tube cable routing (and the Kilauea had blue decals instead of red). Some of the Ti frames built in '97 had already moved to the top tube cabling, so I guess that is why the KK in the catalogue was correct. The...

'98 Kilauea was Reynolds 631 tubing

Definitley not a '96 or '97, but the '98 Kilauea had that cable routing, so I'd guess that is what this frame is (although visually I suppose it could also be an Explosif or Caldera which had the same drop-outs). They are really good frames, my daily rider is a '98. The paint job looks good...

My first Kona (a '94 rigid 'Race Light' Kilauea) we bought back in late '94 from (I think) JE James. Years later I realised it had the 'Mountain Shock' decals and therefore should have had suspension forks. No big deal, someone just accidentally put the wrong stickers on it. Except to make the...