17" 1991 explosif?

[badger17]

Hi, I picked up a 1991 explosif off ebay last week (hope I wasn't bidding against anyone here!).

It was listed as 18", but it measures exactly 17" from BB centre to top of seat tube. However, there's no 17" model listed in the catalogue that year.

Is it an 18"? Or could it be an import - did they do 17"s in the US?

Any clues welcome.

Cheers

 

[rojo]

How have you measured it?? as think early kona's are measured different.

 

[Anthony]

It will be a size 16. At that time, Kona took size as the length of the seat tube itself, i.e., measured from the outside of the bb shell to the top of the seat tube, not from the bb centre.

I don't know whether you're referring to this frame
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0773445104
Perhaps not, as it doesn't claim to be any particular size, but this one similarly has a c-t seat tube of c17", which is equivalent to a Kona measure of 16. Your frame should have the same top tube length of 53cm, which is about 3cm shorter than a size 18.

This bike
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0956503263
is a size 18 measured the way they did it then.

 

[badger17]

Thanks - yes that's the one. And you're right, it doesn't have a size listed, I must have imagined it.

Does that mean that a 16" of that period is larger than later ones if they started to measure from the centre of the BB?

 

[Anthony]

Does that mean that a 16" of that period is larger than later ones if they started to measure from the centre of the BB?

Well it is longer in the seat seat tube and in the head tube, but not in the top tube length, and that's what matters most in bike sizing.

 

[badger17]

Makes sense thanks.

I've now got an 18" Kilaeua, a 16" Explosif and a fine selection of different sized stems so I think I'm pretty much guaranteed to work out the perfect fit!

Cheers.

 

[Anthony]

Bear in mind that altering the stem length seriously affects the steering - a longer stem makes the steering less lively, less willing to turn corners, a short stem makes it more lively. Obviously how this affects you depends partly on your personal tastes, but in general I wouldn't advise swapping stem lengths to make a bike fit.

If it turns out that size 17 is your size, they didn't start importing 17s until 1995 and even then not in great numbers. 17s were made and sold in the USA from at least 93, if not 92, but not here, so the only ones from that era that you'll see in the UK are extremely rare personal imports.

 

[badger17]

OK, thanks - i'll try and match the stem lengths as close as i can to the original specs and start from there.

 

[sancho]

I had a 92 Explosif that I picked up from Canadian Craigslist and even though it was listed as an 18" it was definitely a 17"