specifications geometry - Kona

THE KONA TIMELINE
1988
• Kona is founded by Dan Gerhard and Jacob Heilbron, with
offices opening in Blaine, Washington and Vancouver, BC.
First bicycles are introduced as Cascade, but changed later in
the year to Kona. Joe Murray is the first bike designer/product
manager. .
• First race team consists of Joe Murray and Dave Turner. Joe is
inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame.
• Distributors in England, France & Sweden bring Kona to
Europe.
• Kona introduces the first set of front/rear MTB tires:
Maximum/Reaction designed by Joe Murray. Other MTB tire
sets introduced include Break/Enter, Equilibrium/Propulsion
and Lumpy/Gravy.
• Grassroots racing program introduced in October. More than
3,000 riders have raced for Kona since the inception of the
program.
1989
• Project Two, the first straight leg MTB production fork is
introduced. Throughout the Kona range today, there are more
than 10 versions of this fork produced for 26”, 29” and
700c wheel mountain and asphalt bikes.
• Ex-roadie Bruce Spicer (now Brodie) races on the Kona
Factory MTB team.
1990
• Doug Lafavor, “Dr. Dew” joins Kona in July 1990.
• Kona line is expanded to 8 models at Interbike Anaheim
1990, first Hawaiian names are introduced.
• Sandvik Special Metals begins production of the Kona Hei
Hei in July. 4,000 Kona titanium frames are produced during
the next 10 years.
• Kona Hot, the 2nd US-made XC hardtail begins production in
August 1990.
• Max Jones of Carson City, Nevada joins the Kona Factory
Team in March 1990. He is inducted into the MTB Hall of
Fame in 1995.
1991
• World Champion DH rider Cindy Devine joins the Kona
Factory Team. She takes the Bronze medal at the World
Championships in September 1991 and a World Cup DH
victory at Mount Snow, VT in June 1992. She is inducted into
the MTB Hall of Fame in 2003.
6
1992
• The Future Shock fork is introduced, a leading-link design by
Joe Murray. In a very amicable agreement with Specialized,
the name is changed to Z-Link. The fork is a total flop, is
never safe to ride, and all stock is dumped into the Straight
of San Juan de Fuca.
• Kona presents Max Jones race clinics at NORBA and World
Cup events. More than 200 dealer and 2-day mini-clinics are
held, with over 5,000 riders learning from Max’s expertise as
a racer and from his “Tricks of the Trade” booklet.
• Haole, the first Kona road bike, features a titanium frame
made by Sandvik.
1993
• Kona Hahanna and Fire Mountain are the first Kona Asphalt
models, designated as, “Mountain Cross” hybrid bicycles with
26 x 1.50 slick tires.
• Kona Kilauea wins 1993 “Bike of the Year” from Mountain
Biking magazine.
• AA and Kula are introduced in September, the first aluminum
(Easton tubing) bicycles produced by Kona. A total of 20
models are presented at Interbike Anaheim.
1994
• Sex One and Sex Too are introduced in September, the first
Kona dual-suspension bicycles.
• Humuhumu-Nukunuku-Apu’A wins out as the name for the
Kona singlespeed cruiser over Unit. It’s the longest name used
for a bicycle model and the first named after a state fish.
• The great Steve Peat races DH in the UK on a Kona Hei Hei
Ti frame. Future NORBA champion Kirk Molday races XC in
Canada on the same bike.
1995
• Kona introduces the Buck-A-Bike program on February 14.
A total of $80,000 is raised between 1995–1998 by the
program which supported cycling advocacy organizations like
IMBA, Rails to Trails and NORBA.
• Made by Altitude Cycles, Ku is the first aluminum mountain
bike frame produced by Kona in the USA. Altitude produced
over 3,000 high-end steel and aluminum bicycle frames for
Kona, their first US customer.
• Kona Design Group creates first original dual suspension
design—a unified, linear-rate design named Sex (for
suspension experience) One, Too and Three.