Love for the unloved, 2000 Kona Hahanna nostalgia project

Author:
28.04.2022

This bike build is a little different to the others I’ve completed. I’ll go back in time to set the scene. It’s somewhere in the very late 90s, and I’m riding about on a Raleigh Max, which reflects my budget and not the dreams I find in the latest issue of Mountain Biking UK magazine. I’ve upgraded a few bits slightly, but I’m limited by a quill stem and derailleur bolted directly onto the axle. A friend sells me a rigid steel Saracen frame and fork that had seen some abuse. I spend a lot of time stripping its dark red paint, and repainting it black with rattle cans. The new frame gives me 1 & 1/8th headset compatibility, and a frame attached mech hanger. I take my birthday money to Stiff in Leeds and come away with a RST 461 fork, not amazing, even at the time, but to me it was exciting to finally have a sprung front end. The bike saw many weekend miles, and even a few dirt jumps (which I was terrible at clearing).

Many years have now passed and the Saracen has long since been weighed in for scrap. A few of the parts live on including the forks (surprisingly good condition), and the STX-RC V-brake set that I bought at Blossomgate cycles after school. They’ve survived several house moves, and not seen a frame since that Saracen. Recently a cheap Kona Hahanna came up for sale with a stuck seatpost. It’s roughly the Kona range equivalent of the old Saracen, so I thought it would be nice to do a bit of a nostalgic build with some of the depths of the parts bin. The plan is to build something that’s close to the spec I originally had, without spending any further money on it. It’ll only see light track and towpath use with the kids, but it’ll be nice to give the parts a new lease of life along with the discarded bits from some other projects that have been upgraded.

To get started, I’ve dug out the 461 forks, and a WTB momentum headset that I knocked out of a ’00 Kona Caldera in favour of a Cane Creek Forty. The bearing races are in good shape, and a blast out with some GT85 and a regrease should keep them happy.

2000 Kona Hahanna Frame and Fork

 

Component Part Name
Frame 2000 Kona Hahanna Steel
Fork RST 461
Headset WTB Momentum Comp ST
Bottom Bracket Shimano BB-LP27
Seatpost Interloc 27.0mm
Saddle Planet X Uranus Yellow
Brakes STX-RC V-Brakes
Brake Levers STX RC

 

 

2 comments on “Love for the unloved, 2000 Kona Hahanna nostalgia project”

  1. Geoffrey says:

    Keep oon working, great job!

    Geoffrey

  2. Bradly says:

    I always emailed this web site post page to all my friends, since if like to read it
    afterward my links will too.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *