Back to the 80's i shall go.

[Spanky22b]

Been having a potter about with the bikes today and i had one of those "what if" moments
Purists look away lol
So i picked up the Kilauea from the powder coaters and i noticed that colour, perfect i thought for the 88 Pine Mountain it's basically as close to a match to the original paint as you'd get.
Then an idea came into my head,Joe Murray was involved with Marin then Kona,there's always been this debate when we're the first Konas was it 88 or 89.
So why not make my very own 1988 Kona Explosif how i think Joe Murray would've done it in 88 using the Pine Mountain frame as a starter.
Firstly i think the frame would've been the same as the Pine Mountain, lugged Tange Prestige but he'd have used Project Two's because he must have been designing them then because they were on the 89 Konas.
Paintwise the frame and forks would be all one colour in that pearl lavender but the decals would be like the 89 ones and of course it would've been splatter paint.

What you think! Crazy idea and a waste of a 88 Pine Mountain frame or one lovely looking one off Kona Explosif

 

[bikeworkshop]

Crazy idea.
Kona were straight in to tig- welded, and cemented the sloping toptube/ long low frame shape design.
The marin frame could be passed off as something different, but not a kona, surely?
It's from an era of frame design before kona came along.

 

[27motorhead]

Loving the Muddy Fox. Hugely influential brand in the UK in the late 80s but just lost their way and got left behind as the 90s came along.

It's such an iconic frame/colour/branding. It transcends me back to looking at early MTB magazines and brochures kids brought into school for us all to gawp at.

It's coming on lovely and has cleaned up really well. I do like Mountain LX group. Came out in 1989 for one year only before the slow demise of thumbies as STI's got launched in 1990. Keep up the great work Chris!

I like your idea about the Joe Muarriny (see what I did there?! ) look forward to seeing that one take off too!

 

[XTSTIMAN]

Go for it, think it would be cool. You have to add the Joe Murray signature somewhere just like the 91/92 Konas for extra Murrayness....
Being a fan of the Murray, do you also have an interest in the early Voodoo's?

 

[Spanky22b]

Go for it, think it would be cool. You have to add the Joe Murray signature somewhere just like the 91/92 Konas for extra Murrayness....
Being a fan of the Murray, do you also have an interest in the early Voodoo's?

View attachment 959168

That's a Joe Murray bike i'd love to own, looks to be a 88 Titanium because i can see what looks to be a 6 speed cassette and RM20 gold labels,89 i think they went to yellow and green labels for the RM20's.
I'm always having a look for an early Voodoo but there doesn't seem to be many that pop up really,one day though. At the moment i'm fixated on collecting every Kona Explosif to 97, bar the 93 Hei Hei and Hot there my dream bikes.

 

[Spanky22b]

Crazy idea.
Kona were straight in to tig- welded, and cemented the sloping toptube/ long low frame shape design.
The marin frame could be passed off as something different, but not a kona, surely?
It's from an era of frame design before kona came along.

Very true but when Joe Murray joined and before they were Kona they were called Cascade in 1988 so the "what if" theory could be plausible because they had no sloping top tube.

 

[Spanky22b]

Loving the Muddy Fox. Hugely influential brand in the UK in the late 80s but just lost their way and got left behind as the 90s came along.

It's such an iconic frame/colour/branding. It transcends me back to looking at early MTB magazines and brochures kids brought into school for us all to gawp at.

It's coming on lovely and has cleaned up really well. I do like Mountain LX group. Came out in 1989 for one year only before the slow demise of thumbies as STI's got launched in 1990. Keep up the great work Chris!

I like your idea about the Joe Muarriny (see what I did there?! ) look forward to seeing that one take off too!

Cheers mate i've got it mapped out in my head exactly how it's going to look, it'll certainly be a one of one

Your right about the early Muddy Fox's i'm sure there's tons of people from the UK from that era into mountain bikes remember those colours, say Muddy Fox Courier to me and the first thing i think of is the white and Violet/Lavender colours. I'm looking forward to getting out on it once it's finished because it'll be the first time having a go on a 88 Muddy Fox.

 

[Spanky22b]

So the 'what if Explosif" idea came about because of this bike, behold the 1988 Cascade 4130 tubes and a horizontal top tube.
My thinking would be Joe Murray thought,that Pine Mountain Tange Prestige race bike i had was mint so stuck with what he knew hence the lugged frame Then he was having coffee with Mr Brodie and they were talking straight legged forks and bingo he had an Explosif idea i'll combine the two,
Next thing he's talking to Dan and Dan says we're going to change the name to Kona,Cascade is no good and that was it Mr Murray went we'll call are flagship bike Kona Explosif After that they went and painted the workshop but forgot the bike was there and splatted loads of paint onto it but thought that looks cool and the rest is history

 

[Tsundere]

So the 'what if Explosif" idea came about because of this bike, behold the 1998 Cascade 4130 tubes and a horizontal top tube.

Horizontal top tube but sloping saddle

 

[Spanky22b]

Horizontal top tube but sloping saddle

Head down arse up racing position