1996 Kona Kilauea

[sparkybhp]

Some of you might recognise this bike:

It’s the very same one that @jonjones262 offered for sale on here yesterday, just got back home after meeting Jon and picking it up (thanks Jon - great to meet you).
I don’t really need another bike (sound familiar?) but couldn’t resist this one in my size and with the decent components too - added bonus.
I’ve already stripped it down, wanted to get a feel for it - it presented and as generally tidy and honest bike, and I now know that it is.

Only slightly worrying moment was when I saw the nds bb cup looking like this:

But it came out with no drama, just went steady with it and the bb is toast anyway so happy days.
I plan to build this up with 8 speed XT parts some of which I already have. As such there’s a few bits I’ll be selling on to fund the build etc (I did tell Jon when we met I’d be doing this). As such, if you need the Middleburns CK headset or a few other bits check out my for sale ad.
And otherwise keep ‘em pealed for updates on this, I’m so stoked to build it and try riding it - I’ve never ridden one before, always lusted after one of these or an Explosif.
Thanks folks.

 

[jonjones262]

Ah wow!! You didn’t hang around!!

You should have seen the effort I had to go to to get that bb out!! I’ll post up a pic when I’m home

 

[sparkybhp]

Ah wow!! You didn’t hang around!!

You should have seen the effort I had to go to to get that bb out!! I’ll post up a pic when I’m home

Cheers Jon, I just couldn’t wait to make a start on it. It’s a lovely bike, I’m really pleased with it.
Just glad the bb cup was plastic, I could have cut it out if needs be but luckily it did unscrew with a bit of care and patience.

 

[HuskyDinoBomber]

Anxious to see your build. I just finished mine for my daughter. She went he her first ride today and couldn’t believe how little effort it took to acheive speed.parts bin build consisting of XT linear brakes with XT rapid fire s8 speed shifters, LX cranks, XT derailleurs. Will accumulate parts over the summer and hopefully turn it into a 1x10 gravel bike next winter.

 

[sparkybhp]

Anxious to see your build. I just finished mine for my daughter. She went he her first ride today and couldn’t believe how little effort it took to acheive speed.parts bin build consisting of XT linear brakes with XT rapid fire s8 speed shifters, LX cranks, XT derailleurs. Will accumulate parts over the summer and hopefully turn it into a 1x10 gravel bike next winter.View attachment 848122

That looks well, good effort - especially for a parts bin type build, I like the saddle too. Interesting that yours has an ahead stem whereas mine is threaded. How does the rear brake work with that cable routing btw? I was debating putting v’s on mine but don’t like how those clamps that go around the top tube look. I’ve never tried a set of the curve canti’s so I’ll run those for now.

 

[HuskyDinoBomber]

I don’t like the clamp ons either. I ended up cutting the bake elbow in half to give me more room to make this flex and bend. I struggled getting the left side bake to move freely away from the rim. Tweeking the cable collar outwards helped in that regard.

 

[sparkybhp]

A little bit of progress, I gave the frame a clean down and t cut before I start building it up. I was also having a browse through my spares wondering what sort of headset to use when I found this.

A YST threaded in 1 1/8”, in good condition and needle bearing lower race. This came on a parts bike which also had a purple Hope front hub, Parralax 8spd rear and Mavic 217’s. I had a 32H XT rear hub as a spare so I rebuilt the rear wheel to give me these:

This gave me a little push in the direction I’ll be going, so far it’s looking like this:

Looking pretty sweet and I’m impressed how light it is just moving it around, currently 5.3kg - hoping I can get this built to around 10-11kg?

 

[HuskyDinoBomber]

Mmmm looks good!

 

[sparkybhp]

More small steps. Disassembled the rear cassette, cleaned and rebuilt it.

Removed the Columbus decal which was tatty, a new ones on the way.

Tried my M737 and M739 cranks, both are nice but think the 737’s look best.. Think I need to put tyres on and maybe a saddle so it looks a bit more complete before I decide for definite.

 

[sparkybhp]

Done and dusted, at least for now.

I went back and forth deciding on the components to use; I have a full xt737 group but didn’t want to cobble the v-brakes to fit so not wanting to split that groupset I went for this setup instead.
M739 cranks which I quite like on this, stuck with the 3x8 grip shifts which came on it, likewise the Curve canti’s and XT rear/Sachs front mechs.
Yeah I know the light brown C17 doesn’t really look right, but it’s comfy and the best saddle I had spare - it’ll do for now.
Out for a test ride now, will update once I’ve done some miles, it’s the nicest Kona I’ve ever owned so I’ve got fairly high hopes..
Having said that, I’ve yet to be disappointed with any Kona I’ve ridden so I think it’ll be good.