# 1980s Konas



## anthonyinhove (Nov 3, 2007)

I like collecting photos of early Konas, but I have very few dating back before the 1990 catalogue, which is I believe the earliest that is online anywhere.

I'd be very grateful if anyone with a 1980s Kona would post a photo here with brief details.

Also can anyone please confirm/deny the ascriptions of these two as an 88 Fire Mountain and a 89 Explosif (i.e., were the 89s like the 90s except no splatter)?


----------



## Fillet-brazed (Jan 13, 2004)

anthonyinhove said:


> I like collecting photos of early Konas, but I have very few dating back before the 1990 catalogue, which is I believe the earliest that is online anywhere.
> 
> I'd be very grateful if anyone with a 1980s Kona would post a photo here with brief details.
> 
> Also can anyone please confirm/deny the ascriptions of these two as an 88 Fire Mountain and a 89 Explosif (i.e., were the 89s like the 90s except no splatter)?


I dont think that Kona started until 1990. Maybe 89. The Bicycle Group was formed with Joe Murray and I think they distributed Brodie and Kona.


----------



## anthonyinhove (Nov 3, 2007)

That's interesting. I know they started pretty slowly, but here is the beginning of an interview that appeared in the now sadly defunct www.kona.dk

"We have been able to get an interview set up with Kona Bicycle Company. As you may know Kona was founded in 1988 by Jake Heilbron and Dan Gerhard. They started out in Blaine, Washington with the simple philosophy of building bikes that they liked and wanted to ride - a philosophy that has not changed since then. Besides Jake and Dan who still own the company, the main people in Kona are Paddy White who is the Product Manager specing all the parts and Doug Lafavor (Dr. Dew) who is the Computer Designer taking care of the frame designs.

Q: Tell us a bit about Kona's development:
A. Since 1988 Kona has continued to grow steadily over the years, and we have watched how we expand, not wanting to overextend ourselves. etc"

Confusingly, kona.dk talks of the 2006 product range being the 18th, but Stewart Pratt says in www.konaretro.com that there were catalogues for 1988 and 89, but he hadn't been able to get hold of them to make scans.


----------



## Fillet-brazed (Jan 13, 2004)

anthonyinhove said:


> That's interesting. I know they started pretty slowly, but here is the beginning of an interview that appeared in the now sadly defunct www.kona.dk
> 
> "We have been able to get an interview set up with Kona Bicycle Company. As you may know Kona was founded in 1988 by Jake Heilbron and Dan Gerhard. They started out in Blaine, Washington with the simple philosophy of building bikes that they liked and wanted to ride - a philosophy that has not changed since then. Besides Jake and Dan who still own the company, the main people in Kona are Paddy White who is the Product Manager specing all the parts and Doug Lafavor (Dr. Dew) who is the Computer Designer taking care of the frame designs.
> 
> ...


Maybe they were so small that those first catalogs didnt get around much. I remember Joe Murray and Bruce Spicer I think riding for the Bicycle group in what must have been 1990. I dont think I ever had heard of Kona before that. I think Joe had input on the geometry rather than the company based on your info there. Maybe there's a Kona expert out there...


----------



## bushpig (Nov 26, 2005)

I remember riding Kona's in Jasper in 88 and the shop I worked at carried them in 89.


----------



## anthonyinhove (Nov 3, 2007)

Fillet-brazed said:


> Maybe they were so small that those first catalogs didnt get around much. I remember Joe Murray and Bruce Spicer I think riding for the Bicycle group in what must have been 1990. I dont think I ever had heard of Kona before that. I think Joe had input on the geometry rather than the company based on your info there. Maybe there's a Kona expert out there...


Yes, certainly small beginnings, but here's a quote from the 1990 catalogue talking about the sloping top-tube design "Joe Murray and the Kona/TBG racing team have been using sloping top tube frame designs on their team racing machines for the last three years. So it is race-proven." [TBG = The Bicycle Group of course]

I guess the smaller the beginnings, the more it explains why I have so few early examples in my photo collection, but I really hope some people on here have early Konas that they can show us.

Incidentally, the seller of this work of art believes that it is a 1989 frame, but the buyer and I both think it looks like 1990 and so wonder how the 1989 bikes looked in relation to that.


----------



## donk (Jan 28, 2004)

I have a Bicycle Group Catalog somewhere from 1988. It has Brodies and a merlin labeled kona in it. I will try and find it and scan to PDF.


----------



## anthonyinhove (Nov 3, 2007)

donk said:


> I have a Bicycle Group Catalog somewhere from 1988. It has Brodies and a merlin labeled kona in it. I will try and find it and scan to PDF.


That'd be really great if you could do that Donk - I expect I could get them to post it in the gallery in www.retrobike.com as the earliest evidence of Kona anywhere on the web!

Many thanks


----------



## Howley (Nov 23, 2005)

*Rental Kona's*

The bike shop I managed for Sun Valley Co. from Dec. 1985 - Dec. 1990 rented a fleet of Kona (Lava Dome ?- White w/ light splatter) and Sling Shot (dual top tube w/ internal spring-Blue rear and White front-Blue straight leg fork). 10 each.

Purchased at the Interbike show Fall of '87 delivered Spring of '88. Had Suntour GG BB & hubs 7sp under/under Accurix? Might know where one of the Slings is. Sorry no photos. 

Off topic-

These SlingShots were the first "high" end rental bikes I knew of. For sure the first rental suspension generally available to the public. Not for sure which year they were sold off. Perhaps 1990 or later after I had moved on to another job and management of the Sling Shot Team for a time taking the team to Worlds in Durrango and Italy 1990-1991.


----------



## Fillet-brazed (Jan 13, 2004)

Howley said:


> The bike shop I managed for Sun Valley Co. from Dec. 1985 - Dec. 1990 rented a fleet of Kona (Lava Dome ?- White w/ light splatter) and Sling Shot (dual top tube w/ internal spring-Blue rear and White front-Blue straight leg fork). 10 each.
> 
> Purchased at the Interbike show Fall of '87 delivered Spring of '88. Had Suntour GG BB & hubs 7sp under/under Accurix? Might know where one of the Slings is. Sorry no photos.
> 
> ...


under bar Suntour shifters would have put it at 1990 at the earliest...I think it was 91 though, after Shimano.


----------



## donk (Jan 28, 2004)

anthonyinhove said:


> That'd be really great if you could do that Donk - I expect I could get them to post it in the gallery in www.retrobike.com as the earliest evidence of Kona anywhere on the web!
> 
> Many thanks


Here is the cover, I am pretty sure it is from 88, it may be from 89.

I am pretty sure I have posted portions of this catalogue elsewhere on this site.

If you want to see the rest of the catalogue let me know.


----------



## Guest (Mar 6, 2008)

looks like the 1990 catalog on konaretro.com

http://www.konaretro.com/showarticle.php?path=articles/catalogues/&id=1990

carsten


----------



## donk (Jan 28, 2004)

Carsten said:


> looks like the 1990 catalog on konaretro.com
> 
> http://www.konaretro.com/showarticle.php?path=articles/catalogues/&id=1990
> 
> carsten


OOPS thought it was ealier as I bought my Brodie in 1988, and this catalogue is in that pile of stuff, plus many of the bikes still have u-brakes.


----------



## bushpig (Nov 26, 2005)

Fillet-brazed said:


> under bar Suntour shifters would have put it at 1990 at the earliest...I think it was 91 though, after Shimano.


BZZT! Accushift under bar shifters were available in 1989


----------



## Fillet-brazed (Jan 13, 2004)

bushpig said:


> BZZT! Accushift under bar shifters were available in 1989


ok D8, er I mean BP, 

Certainly don't recall that at the shop. Got any pics?


----------



## Guest (Mar 6, 2008)

donk said:


> OOPS thought it was ealier as I bought my Brodie in 1988, and this catalogue is in that pile of stuff, plus many of the bikes still have u-brakes.


yeah, it's nowhere clearly mentioned which year the catalog is but on page 5 they mention that the Gatorblade got some improvements in 1990. i was interested in that catalog because the Kona Titanium on page 5 is a poorly rebadged Merlin.

Carsten


----------



## bushpig (Nov 26, 2005)

Fillet-brazed said:


> ok D8, er I mean BP,
> 
> Certainly don't recall that at the shop. Got any pics?


I can post some pictures for a magazine tonight.


----------



## Fillet-brazed (Jan 13, 2004)

bushpig said:


> I can post some pictures for a magazine tonight.


probably post-interbike showing the 1990 line up.


----------



## anthonyinhove (Nov 3, 2007)

*U-brakes*

Thanks everyone - may I ask those who remember riding or selling the early bikes whether U-brakes could be a way of dating your recollections? This struck me when I saw this well-preserved Fire Mountain on British eBay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KONA-FIRE-MOU...ryZ33503QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The Fire Mountain is the only bike in (what we think is) the 1990 catalogue to sport a rear U-brake. So if by any chance your first recollection of Konas was of a range in which say the Lava Dome also had a rear U-brake, that would date it before 1990 would it not?

It also makes me look again at the first image that I posted above, as that is a Fire Mountain which also has a rear U-brake, but is that fork a pre-Project Two Kona fork? If so, that bike must surely be earlier than 1990 must it not? [and the owner is under the impression that it is from 1988]


----------



## Fillet-brazed (Jan 13, 2004)

anthonyinhove said:


> Thanks everyone - may I ask those who remember riding or selling the early bikes whether U-brakes could be a way of dating your recollections? This struck me when I saw this well-preserved Fire Mountain on British eBay
> 
> http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KONA-FIRE-MOU...ryZ33503QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
> 
> ...


If the parts on that ebay bike above are original, its a 1990. I dont think U brakes can be used to date a bike. Certainly there was a year that they were more popular (1988?) but lots of builders/mfgers used them before and long after that.


----------



## anthonyinhove (Nov 3, 2007)

Fillet-brazed said:


> If the parts on that ebay bike above are original, its a 1990. I dont think U brakes can be used to date a bike. Certainly there was a year that they were more popular (1988?) but lots of builders/mfgers used them before and long after that.


I'm sorry, I don't think I explained my thought at all clearly. What I was saying is that as U-brake bosses are in a different position, a U-brake is forever, so if there was ever a Lava Dome with U-brakes, it would still have U-brakes and it would demonstrate that my friend's frame pictured above couldn't be the earliest model of Lava Dome.


----------



## anthonyinhove (Nov 3, 2007)

*89 Cindy?*

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....m=360029201670&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=023

This fine Cinder Cone is yet another example of a bike believed by its owner to be a 1989 Kona, but the frame and all of the parts are identical to those in (what we think is) the 1990 catalogue. Surely somebody on here must know whether the 1989 and 1990 bikes were the same?

Note incidentally that the seller has stripped off the bike the Suntour XCD groupset and is selling the parts separately. Seems a shame, but that's what the market is telling him to do, and we can't argue with the market, can we?


----------



## mechagouki (Nov 30, 2007)

Confirmation that Kona started in 1988, straight from the horse's mouth so to speak.........

http://www.konaworld.uk.com/kona2u/2004tech/2004tech.pdf


----------

