First Look: 2013 Kona Jake
 

So new you can still smell the sweat of Taiwanese craftsmen who made the frame....

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What a thing of beauty. I especially love the head badge. Congrats on the purchase.

Yeah, the head badge is pretty sweet. Here's a better look at it.

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What is the MSRP? How would this compare to some other brand like Trek/Giant/Cannondale? I think it looks great.

SRP is $1149

I was looking at one of these, or maybe the 2012 or Jamis Nova Race for about the same.

Biggest difference would be triple on the Jake vs double on the Jamis and carbon fork on the Jamis.

Are the Kona road bikes over priced? $5499 for an aluminum frame and carbon for with Di2. Di2 is nice, but is that the only reason why it's so expensive?

No idea...are you looking at the 2013 Red Zone? That is a carbon frame and it says Di2 ready, but the bike has SRAM red.

Yeah. That seems over priced, but I'm probably wrong. A Cervelo S2 has a carbon frame and is equipped with SRAM Rival, yet it's $2,800 compared to Kona's $5,499. What am I missing?

Isn't SRAM Rival the low end of components? It's equivalent to Deore or something like that right? And then Red is like XTR or Dura Ace.

Sub-1000 gram frame? Also Red vs. Rival is a big difference in price.

Whoa, holy crap. $1,600~ for SRAM Red. Never mind then. Sorry for the unnecessary post, I was just confused lol.

interesting. i think you guys in the US have a much broader selection of CX bikes than us. it looks like an interesting machine, but i'm still not sure about drop bars/brifters.

First Look: 2013 Kona Jake
 

Andy - That is a great looking bike. I just love the Kona line.

What's your opinion on the brakes? I'm sure they stop the bike, but anything else come to mind?

Looks nice. Also kind of curious about the brakes. They are 140s, right?

Very sweet! I like the triple as well (hoping to haul a kid trailer one of these days). Thanks for posting the pictures!

Shame you had to move out the Cross Check to make room for this one...

Somebody's been reading craigslist. :)

Yeah, that was a tough call, but it was either that or build a bigger garage. The Cross Check didn't fit me nearly as well as this does anyway.

The brakes are actually better than I expected. They're definitely better than cantilevers. It has 140mm rotors front and rear. (Notice the weird adapter that's necessary to drop the brake caliper low enough to use 140 in front. I'm wondering if that might also help with fender installation.) I've been using a BB7 with 160mm rotor on the front of my 2008 Jake, so I expected a big drop off in braking experience. When I took it out for the test ride, it didn't even feel like the brakes were going to stop me from rolling down the slope of the LBS parking lot, but the spokes were also pinging like mad so I quickly realized this just meant that I got to be the one to bed in the brake pads. Within a minute or so they were performing pretty well.

I've only ridden the bike for about 8 miles so far, but my first impression is that when applying both front and rear brakes the stopping power is similar to applying the front BB7-160 and rear Shorty 4 cantilever on my old bike. With just the front brake, I think it's noticeably weaker than the BB7, but even that could be my imagination to some extent. I'll have a better evaluation in a couple of weeks. I had been toying with the idea of switching over to BB7's right away, but I decided I'd give the Lyras a try. After one ride, I'm not really in hurry to change them. I think I'll at least wait until the first rain and see how they do.

One thing I will say is that the LBS mechanic spent a good 5 minutes tinkering with the front brake, truing the rotor and such and it still had a bit of a scrape this morning. By the time I got to work I didn't notice it anymore. I am of the opinion that disc brakes are self-truing within the range of minor adjustments, but it's something I'll be keeping an ear out for.

As you can see in the pictures, the Lyras have a built-in barrel adjuster. They have slots for an allen key on both sides of the brake caliper. I can't seem to open the user manual from the Tektro website, but an old manual I found online somewhere else indicates that only the fixed pad is meant to be adjusted with the allen key, with the barrel adjuster being used to move the other pad. I'm not sure if the outside bolt is there for assembly purposes or if it also move the pad. The manual also claimed there was something on the caliper to let you adjust the spring tension, but I can't find that.

I also think the Lyras are better looking that the BB7's, but that doesn't help stop the bike.

I was in the market for a cross check, but Im liking this one too. If the Surly had fit you better, would you still be riding it instead of this?

Well, let me say that my garage currently houses these bikes (plus a couple others):

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So, I might have a bit of a bias.

That said, I would have gotten the 2013 Jake regardless, because it's exactly what I've been looking for for years. I decided to sell the Cross Check instead of the 2008 Jake in part because I have more sentimental attachment to the Jake, but also in part because I like the 2008 Jake better than I liked the Cross Check. My 2008 Jake is a 52cm and is actually a bit small. My 2008 Major Jake is a 54cm and fits me like a glove. My 2013 Jake is a 53cm and fits exactly like the 54cm Major Jake. My Cross Check was a 54cm and was, to my tastes, too long in the top tube and too short in the head tube -- meaning it was simultaneously too small and too big by my standards. In reality, it probably fit me pretty well according to its intended design. That just turned out not to be the geometry I wanted.

The Cross Check fits more like a road racing bike, I think. The proportion of its head tube to its top tube means that it is built for an agressive riding position, low and stretched out. If you want that, then it's probably a better choice than the Jake. The Jake geometry is more compact and upright, but moderately so. The new Kona Rove is even more upright, kind of like the Salsa Vaya. It's all a matter of what you're looking for. For the way a bike fits, stack and reach (which roughly describe the relative position of the pedals and bars) are a good numerical indicator. The 54cm Cross Check has a stack height of 539mm and a reach of 395mm. The 53cm Jake, by comparison, has a stack height of 558mm and a reach of 385mm. The proportions are just different, by design. Of course, you can change that somewhat with tall spacer stacks and sloping stems, but then the geometry of the bike is working against you.

Anyway, I actually did like the Cross Check. It was just my least favorite of the bikes that I had that would be worth selling.

To the extent that a lot of our CX bikes aren't built for CX racing, that's certainly true. It's probably an artifact of the U.S. predilection for road bikes combined with the recognition that modern road bikes aren't particularly well suited for everyday use.

The Jake geometry is actually pretty good for racing, and I have raced my 2008 Jake, but the selection of components on the base level Jake tips the fact that it's really intended as an all-around bike. Specialized has recognized this division by making two different lines of bikes, the Crux and the TriCross. The Ridley X-Bow also seems to be targeted at general purpose use. It makes me wonder if Ridley developed that one for the U.S. market. I notice that Raleigh's website lists their Roper and Furley in a 'cyclocross' subcategory under 'steel road' rather than with the rest of their cyclocross bikes.

Eventually someone will come up with a marketing term for these general purpose CX-like bikes and they can split off as a new category. The old "sport touring" bikes or the 70's served essentially the same purpose.

Again, that is one pretty bike. I am terrified to go into the local Kona dealer now.

Guilty as charged. Looked familiar.