Old Kona frame rescued

[JhnBssll]

My neighbours from a few doors down are moving house shortly and have been having a clearout. He has spoken to me in the past about having "an old beaten up Kona frame" hanging in the garage, indeed I've seen it from afar a few times, and today he offered it to me for free rather than throwing it away. Obviously I've accepted, he's dropping it off to me tomorrow

I think it's a hardtail mountain bike frame. I suspect it will be too small for me as he's a fair bit shorter than I am. I think it's a bit newer than the nice retro steel Kona's of the 90's but I've got one of those anyway so that's no great loss I have a vague recollection of it being silver, and possibly aluminium... Ooh the suspense is killing me

Worst case scenario it's knackered and it ends up in a recycle bin. Or it's good but too small, in which case I could build it up for the wife as her first mountain bike. Or it's my size, in which case I build it up and put it in the garage next to the other Kona I barely ever ride Choices choices... I'll pop some photo's up when he drops it round

 

[DCBassman]

Can't wait!

 

[gbb]

As long as it's got the forks you've at least a fighting chance of doing something with it. I'm amazed at the amount of frames you see on FB sellers pages...with no fork, which makes it unrealistic for most folk to do anything with.
Good luck anyhow, you never know it might just need a pair of wheels and some tinkering ?

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

As long as it's got the forks you've at least a fighting chance of doing something with it. I'm amazed at the amount of frames you see on FB sellers pages...with no fork, ?

With suspension bikes, a knackered fork effectively renders a cheapo bike scrap. Yet another reason I don't like them. Also I've noticed locally that any half decent station bikes will often have their front wheel and fork stolen if the back half is well locked up and the thief can't take the whole bike. No doubt the stolen ones get recycled on the secondhand market - and may well get bought by the victims of fork theft!

 

[JhnBssll]

I'm not really fussed if it has forks or not to be honest. I've pressed a few headsets in my time so it certainly wouldn't be a show stopper. In fact if it has forks I'll probably remove them to check the headset anyway

 

[Blue Hills]

If it's steel (and you don't suggest on a quick scan that it has no fork) then I think there's a very high chance you can do something with it for you or the wife. Kona has done some good stuff.

You can have a lot of adaptability by having a long seatpost as long as you check the minimum insertion mark. You may have to be prepared for a certain scorn from skipdiver though

all the best to you and skipdiver.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

You can have a lot of adaptability by having a long seatpost as long as you check the minimum insertion mark. You may have to be prepared for a certain scorn from skipdiver though .

Unless it's a shopper bike or folder, too much seatpost on show is just wrong!
On a more serious note, although you can sort-of make a small frame fit up to a point by having a long seatpost, it doesn't help you out if the reach is way too short or you can't get the bars up to a decent height because the head tube is short. A compromised fit might be OK for local utility hack use, but after a few miles, trying to ride in an unnatural position ceases to be fun.

 

[Drago]

We. Need. Pictures. Stat!

 

[JhnBssll]

Still no news I'm afraid, it hasn't materialised yet

 

[JhnBssll]

I opened my garage door this morning to find this sat outside in the rain looking sorry for itself

I only had time to take it in and close the door on it this morning but will take a few photos later this evening after I've taken a look at it. At first glance it seems to be a fairly modern fire mountain, aluminium frame with Suntour forks. Not bad for a freebie

 

[JhnBssll]

I've just spent 15 mins or so giving it a quick clean. It's definitely salvageable but it's obviously had a hard life, it's peppered with paint damage, scuffs and scrapes

Its an 18" frame which as luck would have it is the size of Kona I ride It appears to be a 2008 Fire Mountain although the forks seem to be non-standard. The spec states it should be fitted with black Rock Shox forks rather than these silver SR Suntours but that's no real issue.

I now have to decide what to do with it... There are several bits missing, not least the obvious wheels, so it's needs some money spent on it. My two main issues are would I ride it if I spent money fixing it up, and where would I store it in my already fairly crowded garage Answers on a postcard...

 

[tom73]

Send it my way

 

[JhnBssll]

Send it my way

Let me have a play with it first then it might be up for grabs

I've just bought it a new gear hanger and pair of old used STX mechs, £24 spent so far

 

[JhnBssll]

These arrived today, also missed delivery of the mechs so I'll pick them up tomorrow afternoon along with some spokes from the lbs

I hope they're round and true

 

[JhnBssll]

STX mechs collected and test fitted this afternoon after my works xmas lunch and last working day of the year Both mechs have a bit of play in them but I'll see what they shift like once its built up - lets face it, it's hardly going to be the bestest bike ever so they should do just fine I've left the hubs and rims with the lbs to order me in a box of spokes as they didnt have enough of the right length in stock.

I've ordered some touch up paint to try and make the frame a little less shabby, when that arrives I'll probably strip everything off, clean it up, touch it up and reassemble with fresh grease in the headset. I've got a spare set of jagwire gear cables in the cupboard so they'll go on, I believe I've got an 8-speed cassette kicking around somewhere too which would be handy. I've got spare tyres, just need to check the chain to see if it's salvageable but otherwise I should soon have all the bits I need to reassemble her...

I'm really tempted to get some retro hope brakes for it, I keep finding myself browsing ebay for bargains