Lipstick on a pig? Kona Jake upgrades

moonlite

Kona Fan
It's been a while since I've done some proper work on a bike, what with the Australian winter biting hard and work taking precedence. In the background, though, there has been some tinkering and parts sourcing, all for this bike I never meant to procure in the first place!

It came to me from a mate who just wanted the gears and brakes tuned, new bar tape and a bit of lube. Of course, with that done, it had to be tested, right? And then there was the chance of a job in Melbourne, and I thought I might need a commuter, and of course this happened to be my size . . . Put it this way, I suspect my friend knew all along my takeover was a possibility.

And then, after riding it a bit, I decided that it would be much better if it was lighter and smoother with carbon bars and seatpost. And the gaps in the original 8-speed drivechain could be eliminated with an upgrade to 10 speed.

You know how it goes . . . one thing leads to another and what you can't scrounge in the spares box can be found reasonably cheaply online. The stem, for example, although it looks fancy, was $20 because the faceplate was cracked -- and I found a replacement online, also for $20.

The 10-speed shifter is Shimano 105 from Gumtree; I had the XT chainset and cassette, and the Dura-Ace derailleur already, and a bit of googling confirmed they would work together. I tried the derailleur with a goatlink at first, due to worries that the lowest gear wouldn't work with it, but later took it off again as I have a longer-cage 105 derailleur on the way. And I changed the tyres to Maxxis Rambler EXO.

Then I thought I could improve braking by adding V-brakes with Travel Agents, which I did using some nice Avids. All of which mean the original owner wouldn't see much left of his bike except the frame and wheels!

With all this nearly complete, I saw an ad for a 56" version of this frame for sale in the UK for $50. Clearly, it's not one of the desirable Jake the Snakes in Easton Ultralite Race, but it still rides nicely, so I was a little chastened at how little it's valued. At that price, all this upgrading is a bit 'lipstick on a pig', I think, but I do enjoy riding it, so depending on your yardstick, worth it. Maybe.

This is how I got it:

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Here it is after changing the brakes, with temporary stem, seatpost and saddle so I could ride it:

1234.jpg

And here are some details of various upgrades described above (and now I want to change the headset too):

IMG_2692.jpg IMG_2693.jpg IMG_2694.jpg IMG_2695.jpg IMG_2696.jpg
 
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Very nice! I have a Jake too, mainly bought so I could better understand the dropbar appeal after a few decades of mountain bikes. So far I'm pretty happy with it. I paid £85 with an extra set of tyres.
 
I paid £85 with an extra set of tyres.

<weeps bitterly>

If you want to make a profit speccing a nice old bike up with quality parts, you need to get the parts for free🤣
Oh and work for nothing.

"Cheap" isn't cheap enough, because complete bikes are peanuts!

Buy and enjoy. 👍

You want to make money?
- get a real job🤣
or work in IT😉
 
Always had a soft spot for these, but to be honest always wished they did a steel version based on the Paddy Wagon frame (or something similar).

There's definitely an appeal to select road / touring / trekking / MTB parts and constantly fiddle with these type of bikes.
 
That front mech/xt chainset needs attention, 20240722_094611.jpg
but it might hit the stay before it's close to the big ring, and of course mtb mechs have different cable pull - although making it a double might work, 28/42?
Q- factor on mtb cranks can feel uncomfortable on distance riding - the mtb component is generally built to span a tyre up to 3", so the pedals are further apart:
20240720_132232.jpg
A 5arm ht2 road triple would give better q factor and could be set up with a variety of chainrings, and bought for less than the value of the XT
Always had a soft spot for these, but to be honest always wished they did a steel version based on the Paddy Wagon frame (or something similar).

There's definitely an appeal to select road / touring / trekking / MTB parts and constantly fiddle with these type of bikes.
But a cheap steel frame feels horrible and is heavy, so it would have put £££ on the price.

A light aluminium frame might cost under $100 as an imported bike- build component, whereas a reasonable steel frame probably twice that.
 
🤔 Kind of get where you are coming from @bikeworkshop

These are the types of bikes you can make them as light or robust as you want. A full steel Cro-Mo will always have better longer term appeal and re-sell value IMHO and experience. As for parts there's a lot of lightweight older unfashionable carbon road parts, but think going into a weight-weenie project is not for these type of bikes. These bikes are never really going to be "fast", just fast enough for the most part of us.

Getting something reasonable, well planted and reliable is plenty good enough to have something to thrash around on in care-free manner.

Done very similar in the past, Ultegra level (including Ultegra wheelset), then LX/XT level, then 105 level, then just a mish-mash of unsellable stuff from the tat spares box (Tiagra, Alivio, Tektro). Always fun to rebuild and try out stuff.

The short lived off-series Shimano CX70 gruppo parts are worth looking into, especially the FD. ;)
 
I love cx bikes with zero bb drop, 32mm knobbly tubulars, swb& almost no rake, 24t large rear sprocket, friction downtube shifters, 40cm bars, euclid cantis and a long, hard and narrow plastic race saddle.
That will scare all the gravel mammals away!
 

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