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.

 

[Woz]

Sunn's have a slightly shorter top-tube than Kona's. A Kona will typically be a bit overpriced compared to a Sunn.

Plenty of models to choose from in the Sunn range.

 

[Woz]

https://labibleduvelocataloguessunn.blogspot.com/p/sunn-1994.html

 

[WimVDD]

Sunn are nice bikes and top range was built from hi quality tubing. I have a Revolt 2 (Fuji steel) and my brother (who rode for the Sunn satelite team mid to late nineties) had an Exact (Columbus steel), Exact Ti and Flex. All superb geometry but honestly, sometimes poorly welded. My Revolt looks on some places as it was welded by an amateur. But nontheless I prefer them over Kona.

 

[trailwright]

I raced a '98 Sunn Exact, and as @WimVDD says they are nice bikes; light and responsive. Also had a Columbus steel road Sunn at the same time and it was great too.

 

[madjh]

For me Kona is a bit a disapointment. When you see a 97kona frame with some imperfections or things that should be a bit more nice ... but they look overall and from 1 m distance quite well. Sunn too, they are quite nice. I would choose the best shape I could find. If you finde a nice Sunn 5000 or vertik etc go for it, if it is a Kona Explosif, Kula etc go for it.

I´m 1,7m too and 16 is not my size for retro stuff or 26 stuff, the best is 17" C-T or 17.5 C-T and the limit to be ok is 18". But not more.