A Kona with 3 gears - sitting, standing and walking!

[retroJIM]

A short while ago I posted a wanted add for a steel frame as I fancied building a single speed mountain bike. I live in Shropshire and I am almost completely surrounded by steep hills. It's obviously a completely sane thing to want to do.

I have a fairly small budget and there were some lovely bikes I couldn't quite stretch to.

So against my better judgement I've bought this knackered 2005 Kona Unit. It's filthy, has some rust and is missing a few key parts but most of what's there seems to be original.

This should be a fun little project.

 

[retroJIM]

Here's what it should look like

 

[retroJIM]

and it apparently has the same geometry as an Explosif so it should ride well.

 

[enc]

Trying to get my head around that rear wheel mounting

 

[2manyoranges]

That’s a joyful thing. And the paint shouts ‘modern gravel’ - think Ridgeback, Genesis.
There are times when I am not in survival riding mode that I think about ‘could I be doing this on my singlespeed Cotic?....’ to which the answer is almost always ‘no’. But I still like to have it for bonkers days...

 

[2manyoranges]

I hope that this bike is a bit big for you. In which case you can put a shorter stem on ... and - since I think I can see a disc mount on the forks - (shock horror) maybe a 650b front wheel. That would be a hoot. Then it would handle like a Cotic Simple - ie brilliantly.

 

[retroJIM]

I hope that this bike is a bit big for you. In which case you can put a shorter stem on ... and - since I think I can see a disc mount on the forks - (shock horror) maybe a 650b front wheel. That would be a hoot. Then it would handle like a Cotic Simple - ie brilliantly.

Now that's an interesting idea. There are disc mounts front and rear so disc brakes are an option.

It's probably about right size wise but that stem is rather long by today's standards...

 

[2manyoranges]

Yep ... I got onto a bike with that length stem recently and I wondered who had stolen the front wheel. And then I saw it, way back between my knees. Very scary.

 

[retroJIM]

I've started to strip it down, removed the mudguards and bell along with about 10m of black electrical tape which was wrapped around the bars, seat post and top tube. There's a horrible sticky residue which will also need removing at some point .

Removal of cranks and bottom bracket was surprisingly easy. The bottom bracket is really notchy so will need replacing. It's a Race Face ISIS SRX 113mm - https://www.raceface.com/products/isis-srx. I hope they're still available and not hideously expensive. I'm not sure if I can use other brands or if the bearings can be replaced?

But first the Crankset will need a bit of clean

 

[2manyoranges]

yep pretty easy to find actually - for example:

https://ruk-bikes.com/products/vp-i..._content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic
I have a rampant dislike of ISIS - whenever I have rescued a bike and found that the BB is shot and rumbly, it's almost always an ISIS. Maybe just a co-incidence, but that's the way it has been.