Kona Bikes

mikeyj28

What has happened with Kona bikes? I know a few people have them and they are able to be bought easily enough but they don't seem to have much in the way of decent press or are reviewed that much in comparison with eg Trek, Specialized, Lapierre etc.

I own a Kula deluxe (09) and think it is a great bike, have raced it a fair few times and i have performed pretty well on it and it has given me great results.

i find that it seems that the time of Kona has gone and there are more cool bikes to be seen riding round on.I guess a bit like GT who were huge 10-15 years ago but now have a dying fan base (yes Supersonic may well hammer me here).
Is Kona another victim of poor marketing or just has a niche set of fans? Or have their bikes taken a turn for the worse/other manufacturers turning out better stuff?

YeehaaMcgee

In my experience, Kona were well ahead of the curve when it came to frame geometry, "back in the day", and were one of the very first companies to truly realise what mountain bikers actually needed in a frame - rather than just beefing up a standard road frame. This gave them some well-earned kudos.
Unfortunately, everyone else has caught on by now, although I personally still like the handling of a Kona hardtail.

Their full-suss design however?
Oh dear.
I think it's probably best to stop right there!

rockmonkeysc

I tried a Cadabra with magic link suspension. Not good at all.
Stinky & Stab are both very outdated. Operator rides very well but they seem to have a strength issue. Lots of snapped frames around.

supersonic

Heavy, underspecced - they are behind the others, though I did like the scandium frames.

mikeyj28

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

In my experience, Kona were well ahead of the curve when it came to frame geometry, "back in the day", and were one of the very first companies to truly realise what mountain bikers actually needed in a frame - rather than just beefing up a standard road frame. although I personally still like the handling of a Kona hardtail.

Yes i love my hardtail and it does the job for although i have spent a few quid too in getting decent parts. I don't think you can go wrong with their HT frame geometry.
Their scandium frame was good and i wonder why all the others didn't go down that route.

El Zomba

'Common as a Kona', as they said back in the day.

Didn't Halfords do a heavily discounted run on the Stinky a few years ago? I think that lost them quite a lot of cache with the community as a whole, as all of a sudden you saw a lot of spotty oiks riding Stinkies. I know a fair few folk who turn their noses up if they see someone out on one; more for that than because it's a heavy and out-of-date frame. Having said that, a mate of mine swears by them and wouldn't swap his for any other DH rig you care to mention.

cooldad

I have a Four Deluxe - scandium frame, suitably upgraded as things have worn out with decent wheels etc. Does everything I want with 100mm at each end. Lighter than some Cube hardtails in the mob I ride with. And seems pretty unbreakable - I'm not light, and before I started using it my youngster used to regularly stack it in a big way.
Does the job but I'm not exactly a riding god.