Kona Hei Hei frame

Steve Niece said:

I'm looking at picking up a used Kona Hei Hei frame for a
(rarely ridden) mountain bike. It's a fairly old frame, but
seems to be in good shape. My question is, I think the
bike is from the pre V-brake days, and doesn't appear
to have a cable guide for the rear brake at the top
tube/seat tube junction. Is this right, or should I be looking
for a spot where the guide was potentially broken off?

Pre-V-brake Konas used a clamp-on cable guide that fitted around the seat
tube just above the top tube.

http://www.konaretro.com/articles/catalogues/1994/8.jpg

Nothing's broken off your frame, but you'll need to either find the
necessary guide (called a "dog collar" by Kona, IIRC) - or if you intend to
use V-brakes, provide a stop of some kind at the rear of the top tube, or
run a full length of housing to the rear brake.

James Thomson

Steve Niece <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I'm looking at picking up a used Kona Hei Hei frame for a (rarely
ridden) mountain bike. It's a fairly old frame, but seems to be in good
shape. My question is, I think the bike is from the pre V-brake days,
and doesn't appear to have a cable guide for the rear brake at the top
tube/seat tube junction. Is this right, or should I be looking for a
spot where the guide was potentially broken off?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Stephen

I have an 12 year old Hei Hei that I put V-brakes on a number of years
ago. The bike is currently in a storage locker so I can't easily go
look at to see of there is a cable guide but I suspect something is
missing on the bike you're looking at because I had no problem putting
V-brakes on mine.

Thanks for the inputs guys. A couple of friends of mine who are
previous Kona owners confirmed that the rear guide isn't a part of the
frame. Like you say, it looks like for V-brakes I'll need to anchor
some kind of cable stop to the top tube which shouldn't be too much of a
problem. The whole bike (cheap components and a rigid fork) cost me
$160 Canadian, so I think I can make some concessions!

Steve

Eagle Jackson said:

Steve Niece <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I'm looking at picking up a used Kona Hei Hei frame for a (rarely
ridden) mountain bike. It's a fairly old frame, but seems to be in good
shape. My question is, I think the bike is from the pre V-brake days,
and doesn't appear to have a cable guide for the rear brake at the top
tube/seat tube junction. Is this right, or should I be looking for a
spot where the guide was potentially broken off?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Stephen

I have an 12 year old Hei Hei that I put V-brakes on a number of years
ago. The bike is currently in a storage locker so I can't easily go
look at to see of there is a cable guide but I suspect something is
missing on the bike you're looking at because I had no problem putting
V-brakes on mine.

Steve Niece <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

The whole bike (cheap components and a rigid fork) cost me
$160 Canadian, so I think I can make some concessions!

Awesome deal you got! Until I finally got a FS mtn bike last summer,
I used my Hei Hei for over 10 years of heavy use. It is a great bike.
It's light but still almost indestructible. I crashed it many times
with no ill effects to the bike. Every part except the cranks has
been replaced multiple times, but the frame is still in great shape
and never had any problems. The dropouts are 6-4 Ti and withstood
crashes that would have bent or broken any other dropout (and did with
my previous mtn bike, a Bontrager Race, which is a legendary bike but
I prefer the Hei Hei).

Slap some slicks on it and it's a great city bike too.