Kona vs. Sunn

[cit]

Hi to all,
I’ ve just collected a ‘97ish Santacruz Heckler but to be honest, I still have my from ‘99. Nice trim, Magura brakes, Shimano groupset, Mavic rear rim (orginal front wheel missing) and a very rare Bergman Rodeo fork.
The idea, build a sort of all mountain of the middle ‘90 with a long travel dh fork ( the Rodeo was built in 1994 for this purpose with 90mm), hardtail steel frame and so on.
Now, which frame is better, Kona or Sunn?
I am 170cm so a 16/17” C-T will be too short?
Help me!

A couple of pics from when I took the bike.

 

[SFP]

I can't speak to the Sunn frames, but the early Kona (pre '94) are well respected and damn nice frames. An Explosif you can't go wrong with, and heck, the the Cinder Cone from that area is a good quality frame.

Thing to keep in mind is those early Konas fit like early Brodies. long long top tubes. My 17" has a 22.5" top tube.

Also for consideration are the pre-95 Rocky Mountain frames. From the Hammer to the Equipe to the Blizzard they are beautiful (says the guy who owns four of them).

Biggest thing is price and availability in your area. And how much are you willing to invest.

I'll attach the Kona Geomentry spec from the 1991 Catalogue for you.

 

[cit]

Right,
Kona, Sunn and also some Rocky are avaible in Italy, at least France or EU. Brodie… looks cool but I have to plane a trip in Canada first.
Short seat tube, medium top tube, low standover and short stem is my dream.