There comes a time when one’s bike collection is full*. But there is always place for a one more 19″ steel Kona from the 90s – especially if it is of colour that one does not yet have**. In this case 1994 Kona Fire Mountain in Porsche Red.

* Never
** Titanium Hei Hei is an exception to that rule

The destiny of many older bikes is to get acerated or aliviolated, meaning that as components wear out they get replaced with newer, mediocre replacement parts, such as Shimano Acera, Alivio etc. But this is inevitable: especially shifters break down in 30 years, rear derailleurs bend and saddles get ripped.

Many older bikes get “acerated” or “aliviolated”.

When one acquires such bike, the first thing to do is to “de-acerate”: Stripping the bike of all that junk and to get it to a bare frame.

Actually the shifters above work relatively well compared to the originals but in these projects … they just got to go.

There are different approaches to restoring or restomodding these bikes. I always replace the consumables, meaning cables, cable housings, tyres, chain, grips and brake pads.

Kona Fire Mountain was an entry-level bike and the frame itself is not especially light nor special. But the colour – named Porsche Red according to the 1994 brochure – is so nice that this bike deserved a second chance and place in my heart … I mean collection.

The problem with me is that these projects start modestly but always end up off the rails. Nothing fancy ends up being too nice to leave locked, outside a railway station. But so does my errands bike, a 30 EUR Helkama Special Power.

‘Nothing fancy’ ends up off the rails.

The frame has plenty of scuffs, scratches and the decals are not the best. Patina-rich frame then. I tried Farecla abrasive paste to bring some glow back to the paint but it seemed not to do much. Eventually, I applied basic Turtle Wax on it, polished it and managed to return the gloss.

Recently I got my very first pair of Schwalbe Billy Bonkers and boy, do they make any bike glow up! These wheels are borrowed from the previous Kona project and I need to get some nice tyres for this one too.

I’ve had a Shimano Deore XT M737 groupset waiting for a suitable frame. Although I wanted to get something nicer, Tange Prestige etc frames are rare.

The M737 series has cantilever brakes. I would have had BR-M739 brakes that are first XT V-brakes, but the cantis are timeless and classy. Style before braking power it is then.

As I had replaced original Velocity stem (with brake cable routing), I had to get cable stopper as I was planning to install the cantilevers. Luckily, a fellow enthusiast had one and he was willing to part with it.

Style before braking power.

In terms of functionality, it would have been the safest bet to have thumbshifters, but as I had the BL-M737 brake lever / shifter combo (nowadays they call them brifters) I wanted to give them a change. They should work fine unless the old grease has seized and the mechanics don’t function properly.

I’ve once made the mistake of disassembling a rapidfire shifter and I will never do that again. The unlucky Deore DX shifter is still in pieces. Fortunately on can remove the shifter covers and soak the shifter in some solution / de-greaser to remove the old grease.

The original bottom braket was some low-spec Shimano with a plastic cap. I did have a spare UN-91 that was of the right width, so in it went.

I had recently acquired a joblot of new old stock (NOS) chainrings, so this project has a front derailleur. I have doubts about the functioning of a rapidfire shifter and a front derailleur, but time will tell if it works well enough.

The hubs are M737 with Araya RM-400 PRO XC rims. The cassette is a CS-M737 and the chain HG-90.

Well, yet another project finished and one more Kona in the collection. Then again, if I wouldn’t be preserving these beauties for the next generations, who would then?

Probably some other idiot.