Kona Bicycle Company

File:Konabikeslogo.png

Kona Bicycle Company logo

A 1995 Kona Kula hardtail

Kona Bikes is a bicycle company in Ferndale, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia. It specializes in high-performance mountain bikes, racing and touring bicycles. The company name comes from the owners' love of Kailua-Kona in Hawaii.

Initially the company marketed bicycles under the brand name "Cascade", but had to change the name after a trademark dispute. Kona was the second choice, and is used to this day. Names of the bicycles started out with Hawaiian and volcanic names like the Cinder Cone, Explosif, Hei Hei (Hawaiian for "race"), Hahannah (Hawaiian for "hot"), Fire Mountain, Hot, Lava Dome and Kilauea (released in 1993 and named after the Hawaiian volcano). Kona started to use tongue-in-cheek humor in the names. Names like the Stinky and Coiler started to appear. Some of the earliest full suspension bikes were named the Sex One and Sex Two ("Sex" was short for "Suspension EXperience"). Those were dropped after complaints. When nobody complained about bikes called Stab and Shred, Kona joked that violence was more acceptable than sex.

The company was founded in 1988 by Jacob Heilbron, Dan Gerhard and early MTB champion Joe Murray, who has since moved to Voodoo Bikes. Heilbron and Gerhard still own and run the company.

The 1999 Kona Stab Dee Lux with the s-bend downtube. This frame is custom painted. Photograph by Alex Cameron, courtesy asilvertouch.com

Kona's Jake the Snake model won the US cyclo-cross championship under riders such as Anne Knapp and Ryan Trebon, and the Canadian championship under Wendy Simms. The team model has Shimano Dura Ace groupset while the retail has Shimano 105.

Kona full-suspension bicycles have used the linkage driven single pivot suspension with low main pivot location system since 1999, identified by swingarms attached to the seat tube to activate the rear suspension, inverting forces generated by the swing of the chain stay.

Kona has been developing partnerships with bike parks, primarily with Whistler Blackcomb Bike Park, in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, where riders can rent versions of the Stinky. Other partner bike parks are in Austria, Czech republic and Italy.

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 and 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.

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.

Kona Factory Team

The Kona Factory Team races on the World Cup, NORBA & Maxxis International Circuit, in downhill, cross-country, cyclo-cross, free ride, dirt jumping and four-X:

• Ryan Trebon (USA)
• Wendy Simms (CAN)

Advocacy

Kona Stab Supreme.

Kona is involved in cycling advocacy.

International Mountain Biking Association Kona has been an IMBA corporate supporter since 1994, and has developed fundraising projects including the Kona Buck-A-Bike program, the Kona Bro Deal program, the Interbike bowling tourney and Kona/IMBA Freeriding grants.

The Kona/IMBA bowling party, held at Interbike from 1998 until 2007, raised money for NEMBA, a New England IMBA-related advocacy group. Its purpose was to help purchase a large area for mountain biking by funding the KONA/IMBA freeride grants. The Kona/IMBA Freeride grants helped clubs throughout the US and Canada including:Rapid City, South Dakota; Grand Junction, Colorado; Hood River, Oregon; Coquitlam, British Columbia; St. Charles, Missouri; Surrey, British Columbia; Anderson, Indiana, and East Burke, Vermont. The grants helped build freeride features on trails, as well as building dirt jump parks in parks.

For 2008, Kona sponsored the IMBA Epic Rides program, helping fund four new rides throughout the United States and Canada. The trails set aside as Epic rides for 2008 were the Mid Mountain Epic in Park City, Utah; Comfortably Numb in Whistler, British Columbia; the trails sponsored by PAMBA outside of Peoria, Illinois, and the Loon Lake Epic in Tamarack, Idaho.

Kona Africabike

In 2006, Kona began its largest advocacy effort to date - BikeTown Africa. The Kona Africabike was a bike built in partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb and Bicycling Magazine. The Kona Africabike was designed specifically to assist health care workers treating HIV and AIDS patients with the delivery of home health aids and other services in African Cities, starting with Bobonong, Botswana and Gaborone, Botswana. More recent projects have included Delft and Stellenbosch.

For 2008, Kona pledged to donate 1,000 Africabikes for the project and due to the overwhelming customer support of this project, Kona set up a non-profit/humanitarian organization from their European HQ in Geneva, Switzerland called Kona Basic Needs http://www.konabasicneeds.org. This organisations aim is to continue to raise more funds and awareness of the Kona Africabike program and to continue the donation of these bikes. .

Ford Focus Kona Edition

In May 2000, Kona and Ford Motor Company marketed a special edition of the Ford Focus featuring an "Out Of Bounds" Kona bike, bolt-on roof bike rack, nylon washable seat covers, unique colors Dirt Metallic and Rainforest Green, unique side moldings with molded-in Kona Moto logo and bike tire treads; 16” six-spoke machined aluminum wheels and heavy-duty black rubber floor mats with Kona Moto logo and bike tire treads.

External links

• Konaworld Official Website
• Kona Steely Advert Video
• Konabiketown site about the Kona Africabike project
• Kona Basic Needs site about the Kona Africabike project & donations
• Factory Team site
• About Jacob Heilbron Founder
• Kona Retro, a collection of old Kona catalogs and bikes
• IMBA/Kona Epic Ride program press release