Mountain Biking - 1994 Kona Fire Mountain Rebuild (Pics, Long)

I am 85% done with a rebuild of my 1994 Kona Fire Mountain. It was my only bike from 1996, when I bought it gently used at a shop here in Austin, until last year when I bought my Salsa La Cruz. It had seen all the punishment Austin, NYC and Philadelphia can dish out for 12 years and it showed.

Here are the before pictures (apologies for the camera phone quality):

http://chriscortez.com/images/kfm/old/sm/sideview.jpg

Original Project 2 Fork:

http://chriscortez.com/images/kfm/old/sm/fork.jpg

Quill stem, nut was slipping, treacherous:

http://chriscortez.com/images/kfm/old/sm/stem.jpg

The chainrings were in bad shape, and the BB was corroded. Heavy cranks.

http://chriscortez.com/images/kfm/old/sm/crank.jpg

Under load, I was getting lots of ghost shifting in the middle of the cassette. Chain stretch, broken teeth, flaky derailleur, all of it...

http://chriscortez.com/images/kfm/old/sm/cassette.jpg

http://chriscortez.com/images/kfm/old/sm/reardir.jpg

And the flat bars were making my hands hurt. I needed them a little higher, but the quill stem, clamp size and everything else made changing the bars a PITA.

http://chriscortez.com/images/kfm/old/sm/front.jpg

Anybody still with me? :thumb:

The build took place over the past 3 weeks. The parts are stuff I either had around, bought on ebay, or sourced elsewhere on the Internet, mostly Jenson.

Fork - Surly 1x1
Stem - Ritchie Pro
Bars - Ritchie WCS Rizer
Post - Thomson Elite
Saddle - Ritchie WCS Logic Ti
Crank - Shimano XTR 960, Blackspire 22-32-44
Front Der - SRAM X.7
Rear Der - SRAM X.7
Shifters - SRAM X.7 Trigger
Cassette - SRAM 9 speed 11-34
Chain - SRAM Powerlink
Pedals - DMR V8 / Shimano M520

This was my first ground-up build, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. The 15 mile shakedown ride today was phenomenal. I'm sure I was riding around with a weird smile on my face...

http://www.chriscortez.com/images/kfm/new/sm/sideview.jpg

http://www.chriscortez.com/images/kfm/new/sm/front.jpg

http://www.chriscortez.com/images/kfm/new/sm/fork.jpg

http://www.chriscortez.com/images/kfm/new/sm/crank.jpg

http://www.chriscortez.com/images/kfm/new/sm/stem.jpg

http://www.chriscortez.com/images/kfm/new/sm/rightbar.jpg

http://www.chriscortez.com/images/kfm/new/sm/rearder.jpg

http://www.chriscortez.com/images/kfm/new/sm/saddle.jpg

Still remaining:

- new cantilever brakes for the rear;
- hydraulic disc for the front? haven't decided;
- powdercoat/paint; thinking white, open to suggestions...

Thanks for looking. :D

Wow...quite a crank upgrade.

It would be odd to have a cable brake lever for the rear, and hydro for the front. Perhaps a linear pull rear, and BB7 front would work better?

LOVE IT! I should ride it, where you at?

Wow...quite a crank upgrade.

It would be odd to have a cable brake lever for the rear, and hydro for the front. Perhaps a linear pull rear, and BB7 front would work better?

I thought about that too, and you may be right. I have BB7 on the Salsa and love them. Might work. Paul stoplights front and back might also work. Tough decisions. :D

The crank is unforkingbelievable. I can't believe the difference, and I expected it to be night and day. I paid $150 in an ebay auction that saw 30-ish bids, many in the last seconds. Lucky.

LOVE IT! I should ride it, where you at?

Central Austin. Let's go!

This is one of the coolest threads running right now.(since Siu canned the Penis one) It's like (enter valley-girl accent) like, like total bike makeover.

This should be on HGTV!


Need some action pics now.


Good job man:thumb:

Nice build. I rebuilt my '99 Specialized Hardrock. Went from Alivio to XT, V brakes to Hydraulic disc, acera wheels to DT swiss.. and i'm very pleased :D

Wowsers!

this is nice! hopefully i'll see you around sometime, im in austin as well.

^ cool. i've been riding walnut creek on sunday mornings, starting real early these days...

my quick loop during the week is from my house in the brentwood neighborhood down the shoal creek/pease park/town lake trails and back.

where do you ride?

when i get out it's usually walnut creek although i live out in the cedar park area. maybe i can talk a buddy into getting out tomorrow morning.

I think it's kind of cool with it's origonal skin ,scars and all.It should look a little different with that 1" fork,but if you had to paint it ,electric blue would look sharp. imho

it is what those guys at classics & vintage are saying about the old steel frames "upgrade the comps...)...
.
i like it alot!
.
how does the Surly fork work?

Quill stem, nut was slipping, treacherous:

http://chriscortez.com/images/kfm/old/sm/stem.jpg

And the flat bars were making my hands hurt. I needed them a little higher, but the quill stem, clamp size and everything else made changing the bars a PITA.




It's no wonder your hands hurt, those bars are angled 180 degrees in the wrong direction. Talk about an ergonomic nightmare...my wrists hurt just looking at that photo.

Good job on the resurrection though.

It's no wonder your hands hurt, those bars are angled 180 degrees in the wrong direction. Talk about an ergonomic nightmare...my wrists hurt just looking at that photo.

Good job on the resurrection though.

Ha, nice catch. I call that bar the "Hate-360". I tried them in every position there is - the one in the picture was neither the most nor the least painful, a routine fail rather than an epic one.

how does the Surly fork work?

I didn't ride it enough with the old wheels/tires to know for sure. I think it's a little more forgiving due to the (newer) material, and because it's curved/raked rather than straight. Mostly, it's threadless, which was my main/only motivation for changing it. That part is working out great, b/c I love the Ritchey stem and bars.

I'm headed off to Walnut Creek in a few minutes for the real test. Ride report to follow...