Catastrophic frame failures?

mtbhenry888

I am looking to buy a kona Jake the snake, but i have been put off, i asked a mate today what he thought of them (he rides cross for a large team) he said steer clear, he knows a guy who broke three kona cx frames in a season, now i happen to know this guy rides a yeti full susser with full xtr and was riding national level cross so i'm guessing he broke a kona major jake. obviously this frame is scandium and will have thinner walls than the jake the snake, this guy could be a violent rider, he could weigh 300lbs?

cutting to the chase, what i want to know is has anyone on this forum ever heard of or borken a kona jake or jake the snake? I usually stick to steel but there seem to be very limited steel cross bikes available that i can get on the cycletowork scheme and none of them fit the bill like the jake does. i will mainly ride it on the road with the occassional foray into the woods, it will be my do it all light tourer/commuter/winter bike.

by the way i weight 135lbs, and am 5' 10"

any help would be much appreciated

Monty Dog

Anyone fit enough to ride national-level at anything (except DH or 4X) is unlikely to be 300lbs and for your weight I doubt you'd even be able to flex a scandium frame, never mind break one. I have no personal experience with the Kona, but can't remember seeing anything on the various cross forums that would suggest a problem - I ride a Kuota Kross.

stephenite

I've read somewhere of Jakes/Jake the snakes breaking too. But that is history. For the 2008 season Kona swapped the previous Easton superlight tubing for alu 7005.

I've just ordered a 08 JTS. Hope it don't break..