Steel Kona question

[B-works10]

I'm keen to get back to my youth with a '91 or '92 Explosif as these were my first proper MTB's.

But there look to be several repainted frames about.

Does anyone know how to tell the Explosif apart from Cindercone or Lavadome? if it has been repainted?

My memory is not that sharp on these details!!!

Also, I went to a Kula in '94 and didn't pay attention to steel for a few years, what was the last Joe Murray like geometry steel Explosif?

Ben

 

[Anthony]

You're quite right that repainting a frame destroys its value and as a buyer you need to proceed with caution, but there are ways of telling. Explosifs were built with Tange Prestige Concept from 1990 to 92 and this tubeset has a distinctive tapered and ovalised shape, so both the top and down tubes are 27 by 30mm at the rear, going up to 30 by 34mm at the front. This is easy enough to spot in the flesh, but can be a bit tricky in photos. You can just about see though in a good photo that say the top tube is slightly narrower than the seat tube, which affects the shape of the joint. You may be able to see also that the seat tube bulges out sideways where it meets the bb shell (just visible below).

Joe Murray designed the 1994 frames before he left, and they kept that geometry unchanged for many years.