Bensherman
Retro Guru
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Do what you feels best with the frame Jon - paint it to be different 
Kona titanium Hei Hei
- Thread starter rojo
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Just an additional on the model year of this frame.
I couldn't view the photos when writing the above and hence didn't know the serial number was in a photo.
From an email conversation and a few photos of the same frame I can confirm this definitely is a 1997 frame which had the original powder blue decals removed (they were pretty battered and scratched up) and replaced with some of Gil's yellow ones in late 2006.
So that at least clears that up.
As for paint...
I couldn't view the photos when writing the above and hence didn't know the serial number was in a photo.
From an email conversation and a few photos of the same frame I can confirm this definitely is a 1997 frame which had the original powder blue decals removed (they were pretty battered and scratched up) and replaced with some of Gil's yellow ones in late 2006.
So that at least clears that up.
As for paint...
Pipmeister
Senior Retro Guru
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haggis":bk5o284e said:
Yes, my King Kahuna does indeed have Top Tube routing for all 3 cables.
Serial Number: K19088.
When I bought the frame, I sent the details to Kona Tech.
This was their reply.
"Tech [[email protected]]
1997 for sure. All the published pictures show yellow decals but we had a colour option so you could also get blue ones.
Happy Trails!"
I also had a scroll through the MTBR King Kahuna owners page and saw this.
"Early 97 Hei Hei's and King Kahuna's have the rear deraileur only routing on the down tube and late 97 onwards have all cable routing on the top tube."
tech@konaworld is reputed to be Doug Lafavor (Dr. Dew), the man who has designed the frames since Joe Murray left. But I guess in reality it may be other people at times, depending who is available, sober etc.
My own experience of tech is not that impressive - one correct, one completely wrong. I worked my 94 Kilauea out for myself in the end, but tech's advice was well up the creek. To be fair, serial numbers are the business of the factory who build the frames, so the design staff of the commissioning brand can't be expected to have total expertise about them. The serial number format of a Kona built by Fairly Cycles is AFAIAA the same as that of any other brand built there. Titanium Sports though may have decided to use brand-specific numbers, but I think that is exceptional.
My own experience of tech is not that impressive - one correct, one completely wrong. I worked my 94 Kilauea out for myself in the end, but tech's advice was well up the creek. To be fair, serial numbers are the business of the factory who build the frames, so the design staff of the commissioning brand can't be expected to have total expertise about them. The serial number format of a Kona built by Fairly Cycles is AFAIAA the same as that of any other brand built there. Titanium Sports though may have decided to use brand-specific numbers, but I think that is exceptional.
