Kona Bicycle Company
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Kona Bikes is a bicycle company based in Ferndale, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia, in the volcanic Cascade Range. They specialize primarily in high-performance mountain bikes; their product line also includes racing bicycles like the King Zing, cyclo-cross bicycles including Jake the Snake, and touring bicycles like the "Kona Sutra". The company name comes from the owners' love of Kailua-Kona in Hawaii.
Names of the bicycles started out with Hawaiian and volcanic-based names like the Caldera, Cinder cone, Kula, Hei Hei (Hawaiian for "race") and Lana'i. As the company established itself, Kona started to use more tongue-in-cheek humor in their bike 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. Upon receiving enough complaints, those names were dropped. New bikes came out with names like the Stab and Shred, to which no one complained. Kona joked that violence was more acceptable than sex.
The company was founded in 1988 by Jacob "Jake the Snake" Heilbron, Dan Gerhard and early MTB racer and champion Joe Murray, who has since moved on to Voodoo Bikes. Both Dan and Jake still own and run day to day operations of the company.
Kona's Jake the Snake model won the US national championships in cyclo-cross under riders such as Anne Knapp and Ryan Trebon, and the Canadian national championships under Wendy Simms. The team bike differs from the retail model in that the team model comes equipped with a full Shimano Dura Ace groupset, while the retail is spec'ed with Shimano 105 equipment.
Kona Full-Suspension bicycles have used the "4-bar" linkage system since 1999, which can be identified by the swingarms attached to the seat tube, that activate the rear suspension, inverting the forces generated by the swing of the chain stay.
Kona has been developing partnerships with many bike parks around the world, primarily with Whistler Blackcomb Bike Park, in Whistler, British Columbia, where riders can rent customized "Park Bikes" manufactured by Kona. The park bikes are versions of the Stinky model line. Other partner bike parks are located around the world in Austria, Italy, etc..
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[edit] Kona Factory Team
The Kona Factory Team races internationally on the World Cup, NORBA & Maxxis International Circuit. These riders compete in Downhill, Cross Country, Cyclo-cross, Free Ride, Dirt Jumping and Four-X competitions:
- Ryan Trebon (USA)
- Barry Wicks (USA)
- Wendy Simms (Canada)
- Kris Sneddon (Canada)
- Erik Tonkin (USA)
- Tracy Moseley (United Kingdom)
- John Cowan (USA)
- Lluis Lacondeguy (Spain)
- Andreu Lacondeguy (Spain)
- Paul Basagoitia (USA)
- Grant 'Chopper' Fielder (GBR)
[edit] Advocacy
Kona has a long standing history of being involved in various cycling advocacy efforts.
International Mountain Biking Association Kona has been a leading IMBA corporate supporter since 1994, and has developed several creative fundraising projects, including the Kona Buck-A-Bike program, the ongoing Kona Bro Deal program (which requires all bro deal purchasers to become IMBA members), the highly successful Interbike bowling tourney and Kona/IMBA Freeriding grants.
The Kona/IMBA bowling party, held for 10 years at Interbike every year from 1998 until 2007, raised money for various project, from helping NEMBA, a New England IMBA-related advocacy group, help purchase a large area for mountain biking, to funding the KONA/IMBA freeride grants. The Kona/IMBA Freeride grants helped fund local and regional clubs throughout the US and Canada, helping clubs in towns like Rapid City, South Dakota, Grand Junction, Colorado, Hood River, Oregon, Coquilam, British Columbia, St. Charles, Missouri, Surrey, British Columbia, Anderson, Indiana, and East Burke, Vermont, among other towns. These grants went towards helping clubs build and expand freeride features on their trails, as well as building dirt jump parks in city parks.
For 2008, Kona sponsored the IMBA Epic Rides program, helping fund four new epic rides throughout the US 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]].
[edit] Kona Africabike
In 2006, Kona began it's largest advocacy effort to date. 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 make 1,000 Africabikes for the project.
