Re:
A few tidbits of into I was able to get from Kona. Some of it not so new and some I haven't heard before.
"Hi, yes that was a special edition released during 1997. The one in the catalog was with a P2 fork but at the time there was a huge surge in demand for bikes with front suspension so we did a second version during the season."
"Back then the catalog pictures were all shot on film for a print catalog so if there was a special bike release it never was photo’d. They’d sell out and get sent to the bike shops almost immediately."
I dont think anything is too surprising here. We k ow 1997 was a real cornerstone for the industry and things were changing quickly
Here a couple of tidbits I have not seen before.
"I can’t recall how many we had and the software that was running then is long mothballed. Probably 300-600 for all of Canada."
This is certainly higher than anything I have seen. I would assume the US would have had at least many so by their estimate there ar close to a thousand of these out there ? Seems unlikely based on how many are out there on the internet.
Anyone know roughly how many regular kilaueas etc they would have made that year ?
"That was a Marzocchi fork colour that they matched at the factory. If you take it to a better painter they will be able to either match that with a chip book or shoot with UV to mix up a bit in that blue."
So it appears the bike was painted to math the fork and not the other way around. I dont believe I have seen that either.