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