Bike Setup: XTR mechs, hayes el camino discs, Raceface deus cranks and headset, handlebars. interloc pro seat post, Shimano dx pedals, Sun ufo rims and tioga tyres.
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Submitted by
Patrick Weil
a Cross Country Rider
from New River, AZ, USA
Date Reviewed: January 9, 2005
Strengths: Light-weight, stiff and fast
Weaknesses: Stock rims and headset leave something to be desired
Bottom Line:
I love this bike!!! The fork eats any bumps, and the hardtail is a great combination of pedaling efficiency, power and stiffness. Very light and fast!
This is not the daily commuter bike, nothing soft about this bike--but for someone looking to get a true feel of what a fast and smooth hardtail can do, or someone looking to get into xc racing, this is the bike for you!
The rims do require regular maintenance to keep them true (not a huge issue w/disc brakes), not mavic's best rims, and the Aheadset could stand to be swapped for something with a little more quality, but overall a great product at a fair price.
Similar Products Used: trek 8000, gary fisher supercal
Bike Setup: full xt, hayes hfx-9 carbon, race face deus xc, chris king, easton monkeybar, thompson, fox forx f100rlt.
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Submitted by
stian
a Cross Country Rider
from skien, Norway
Date Reviewed: October 28, 2004
Strengths: Light, great fork, ok spec.
Weaknesses: Paint job, bottom braket.
Bottom Line:
Very nice ride. Good both up and down the mountains. Exelent Fox fork, perfect for my riding stail(?) xc and some freeriding. I am 182 cm high and the 18" size is perfect for me.Waight 79kg. Bottom braket was making a klickin noise from the start but Sykkelbuttiken,Bergen, changed it for free, no hassel. Paint job cheeps of very easely.
Bike Setup: Chris king hubs+ Dt swiss spokes and rims. Deore 525 discs, Thomson seatpost and stem. CK headset. Fi'zi'k Gobi saddel(very nice saddel)
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Submitted by
Johno
a Cross Country Rider
from Canberra Australia
Date Reviewed: December 18, 2003
Strengths: Easton frame & Fox Forx
Weaknesses: Fragile paint job
Bottom Line:
Well this is the most fun bike I've owned. I wanted a hardtail primarily for commuting and longer training rides. This bike was on sale due to release of 04 model. It's fun because it jumps without effort, and feels so lite on the trail. It helps to fit like a glove too. I swapped the XTR bits off my Scalpel cause I prefer to ride the Kona. Raced the Kona and the Scalpel back to back recently. Once again had fun on the Kona, and thought the Scalpel should have been better in comparison. I think it comes down to the Scalpel's longer wheelbase and top tube. The Kona sprints better, but the Scalpel climbs better! The Fox is awsome. After riding dullies for 3 yrs you really need a good fork. This goes a long way to making the transition back to the hardtail enjoyable.
Similar Products Used: Kona Muni Mula, F1000, Mongoose Ti also Dale Super V and Scalpel.
Bike Setup: XTR Shifters & rear der. Egg Beaters,WTB Laser V Ti Saddle, Control Tec 120 Stem,EA70 flat bar
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Submitted by
timbertom
a Cross Country Rider
from sudbury, ontario,canada
Date Reviewed: August 23, 2003
Strengths: got the kula deluxe frame as a warranty replacement fo my three year old kona pahoehoe. good geometry and probably a tad lighter than the pahoehoe. A sharp colour scheme
Weaknesses: none yet
Bottom Line:
i'd like to thank the people at kona for honouring their warranty. i was without my bike for only 8 days. thanks to the people at the outside store for making all the arrangements. i like the feel of the new frame, i do feel a bit quicker. alot of the trails around here are pretty rough, but the bike hasn't let me down. perhaps it has helped me to improve on my skills. i had ben thinking of getting into a new full suspension bike next season, but i think i'll just upgrade the kula with some disc brakes instead
Similar Products Used: as i said it relaced my pahoehoe frame
Bike Setup: i was able to place all the components from the older frame to the new one...so there was not a whole lot difference in the feel of the ride
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Submitted by
Mark pennell
a Racer
from dartmoth, nova scotia, canada
Date Reviewed: August 11, 2003
Strengths: Super light race bike. Fox fork is amazingly stiff, and it is very well spec'd//
Weaknesses: The headset will NOT stay tight, and won't really seal properly. Had an issue with the BB, got rid of the Race face and went to shimano... Havnt had a problem since..
Bottom Line:
This bike is super sweet. AWESOME paint job. You can use it for strct XC racing or it can be your back country all around bike...
Similar Products Used: rocky mountain oxygen,c'dale f1000
Bike Setup: standard
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Submitted by
Justin Guy
a Cross Country Rider
from Christchurch, New Zealand
Date Reviewed: June 12, 2003
Strengths: A great all around bike, it is quite light and responsive and is reasonably well spec'd for the price including some nice Raceface bits. Its solid all-around performance makes it well suited to the local hill trails as well as flat fast stuff. Other than a few things mentioned below it has been reasonably reliable and it is one of the better buys on the local market at the moment.
Weaknesses: The stock tyres are hopeless in the wet and the v-brakes are mud-magnets. More worryingly, the bottom bracket and headset are on the way out after just six months and the fox forx's lock-out is unreliable even with the blow-off threshold set to maximum. The somewhat dissapointing bottom bracket setup (spacers to accomodate the crank spacing) and the failure of the Aheadset to seal properly on the forx yoke (it deforms when the headset is tightened properly)mean upgrades will be required, so factor that into your equation.
Bottom Line:
A great all-around bike and a lot of fun, but some of the maintenance issues are beginning to worry me. The change to Maxxis hard drive tyres and Hope minis make it a lot better in the mud and wet, but I will need to spend more money replacing the second rate bottom bracket and headset. Buy it if you want one bike to do most things on and don't mind spending a bit on upgrades.
Bike Setup: Reasonably standard other than a Flite Ti saddle, Maxxis hard drive tyres, and Hope mini's
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Submitted by
Alton Cooper
a Cross Country Rider
from Christchurch, New Zealand
Date Reviewed: January 15, 2003
Strengths: Lite, great fox fork,Geometry feels very responsive to mostly all riding conditions cornering and power transfer.
Weaknesses: Bike seat slips. Can't pedal backwards on big f-chainring (sometimes even middle chain ring) while rear cluster in lower gears (big end of r-cluster)without the chain trying to move down the f-chain ring onto the smaller ring & jams in the f-derailer (bent mine). What a mouthful! This is caused by spacers on the bottom bracket which are off setting those race face chain rings out of alignment so the cranks have plenty of clearance from the frame. My bike sometimes makes a ticking noise from the bottom bracket, I checked the cranks were tight OK. Also appears to be a small amount of flex in the bottom bracket (don't think it's the race face cranks) Maybe that b-bracket is simply stuffed from new!
Bottom Line:
Im just under 6ft and ride 18inch frame, it feels great, although some how Ive smacked my knee into the head set 3 times. Cant quite figure out how its possible and why I do it but has'nt happened for a while.
You couldnt buy a better bike. What you see is what you get a bit disappointed with the bottom bracket scenario though.
Favorite Trail: Anything up hill with winding downs
Duration Product Used: 3 months
Price Paid:
$1900.00
Purchased At: penny sport cycles
Similar Products Used: KHS hard tails, Lawell leader front forks.
Bike Setup: standard
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Submitted by
Frankie
a Cross Country Rider
from Auckland, New Zealand
Date Reviewed: November 18, 2002
Strengths: Lightweight, Can race out of the box, excellent singletrack bike, good solid component spec, Fox Forx very adjustable
Weaknesses: Seatpost slips, Grips too hard, No XTR bits as standard, OEM tyres not too good for any surface here in New Zealand - maybe good as a slow road slick!
Bottom Line:
Have ridden this bike one hundred+ miles in the first couple of weeks of ownership. Brilliant single-track bike, steers real quick, and climbs really nicely as the power goes right down. Surpringly not too bad on descents either.
