| Kona Steely; New bike time - yay! | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 3 2011, 10:21 AM (1,570 Views) | |
| Burningflan | Oct 3 2011, 10:21 AM Post #1 |
Couple of Spots
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Hello muddy@rse! I believe this is the right section for this sort of thing? Anyway, I thought you might like to see my new toy...   It's a Kona Steely in a 16" frame size. I've only had it a few days now (was hoping to get it in time for the Sept ride but failed!) so I'll run with some initial impressions and update once I've had a chance to use it properly a couple of times. My last bike was a full-sus Kona Kikapu. Whilst it was a really nice bike, for whatever reason I never 'bonded' with it properly. After having fun riding my ancient steel framed Specialized Rockhopper to work I thought it might be time to change my main bike for something a bit simpler and more 'fun'. I'm not going to lie, out the box the Steely is pretty heavy - when you pick it up it feels solid! It's not heavy in a bad way though, it still feels 'alive' and sharp, it never feels as though you're having to hoof something unweildly around under you, unlike [insert joke about wife here]. Some of the components are a bit 'meh' (Alivio rear mech, Deore front etc) but they're functional and work perfectly well. I'm not a 'gear snob' so whilst I appreciate XT stuff is nicer, lighter, smoother etc I've no problem with lower end bits as long as they function reliably. The fork doesn't seem very smooth, but as I say, it's only been ridden a couple of times and nothing has had time to bed in yet so I'll reserve judgement on that for now. The U-turn travel adjustment seems to work well on the forks, it's a simple system with plenty of adjustment. Likewise the rebound adjuster is simple and offers plenty of adjustment. When you're out riding the little Steely, it begs you be a hooligan, you can't help but want to bunnyhop every speed-ramp, manual off kirbs and generally just hoon around like an idiot! It's compact 'cockpit' is perfect for this, it really allows lots of easy weight shifting for leaning into turns and hanging off the back when the going gets steep (railway crossing bridge stairs!). It's plainly not built as an XC/all day ride kind of machine primarily, but raising the saddle up made it a comfortable enough commute to work and back. Whilst it won't excel here, it will do it without too much complaint. To conclude, I love it. It's a great little bike aimed at making you grin, it has it's good and bad points but (for me at least) the goods far outweigh the bads and I can see myself having a lot of fun on it 
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