After many years of service, my trusty bike needed replacement parts. The suspension didn’t work, my front discs had lost teeth, rust was beginning to form and the brakes were less than ideal under wet circumstances. The bike itself had only cost €250 and when checking out the replacement parts, I quickly found out why. Apart from the shimano 101 shifter/brake levers, every part was of unknown Chinese origin and not compatible with replacement parts. (only the brake pads are). Since a mountain-biking, windsurfing, xboxing buddy of mane had considerable experience in bike parts, I got his advise to see what would be a good replacement for my trusty bike. 
Turns out Kona makes some pretty good bikes for a very competitive price, and barracuda (www.mtbikers.com) often does promotions where they sell the model from last year or two years ago at nearly half price. He has a full suspension Kona coilair and Kona Dawgma which were very smooth riding and felt very nice. Coilair is heavy though and suited to all-mountain and Freeride, Dawgma a less-extreme version more for backcountry. Since my bike will be doing a lot of on-road commuter traffic as well, the Kona Four turned out to be my ideal match. It is full suspension, very light and with good braking and fast shifting capabilities. Lucky for me, around my birthday, Barracuda was doing a 40% off on the 2008 Kona Four Supreme, which is the luxury model with the best components. Kona’s come in regular, deluxe and supreme version with the supreme costing twice as much as the regular version but with the best specs and parts. It took considerable savings, but the new bike is really worth it (at least it is at half price, since 2800 euro would have been way over budget : ).
I’ve ridden it on and off-road for 60 kilometers last weekend and it’s a huge difference with my old setup. faster, more agile, smooth over bumps, propedal to prevent pedal power loss on street/pavement. My average speed is now 22kmh and I can finally keep up with my wife when out biking (not something I could manage with my old, heavy bike) As far as ergonomics is concerned, two hours biking in a row and I felt nothing the next day where my old bike would invariably result in a sore behind and hands. Technical specs: 16″ frame, fox float RP23 rear, fox F-series remote lockout RL-100 front, race face evolve mechanics, shimano XT shifting, hayes stroker carbon brakes, FSA XC-300 wheels and Kona Scandium frame. First thing to do was to make it street legal, so I’ve upgraded/added a few parts:
- planet-x clingon2 pedals (with added reflective tape) for off-road
- pedalite micro-generator cycling pedals for night riding in winter
- Topeak Defender M1 mudguard
- Orange Reflectors
- Blackburn Mars 3 rear light
- Roadsign wireless solar cycle computer
- Garmin Nuvi GPS + bike holder
- Bspoke 1/2 watt front led (for being seen)
- Ergon GC2 ergonomic grips
Still on my wish list, some really good front led lights. (probably a hope vision or exposure maxx)
