Thanks for this link Slacker. The mere fact that they see things in black and white, to include
lameo kona's hype-driven fantasy marketing to the feeble masses.
Found under "Bogus Marketing":
"To be fair, we must note that many companies make claims for no suspension bob and 100% efficiency.
But without question, the most egregious example of bogus marketing we have ever seen regarding
bicycle rear suspensions comes from Kona, in their ads for the King Kikapu and Mokomoko [see page 7,
Mountain Bike Action, May 2001].
The ad claims, "SHOCK FUNCTION IS AFFECTED BY WEIGHT, FORCE AND GRAVITY – NOT BY PEDALLING_". One
can tell that this was not written by anyone with any significant technical knowledge. An object's
"WEIGHT" is a measure of the attractive "FORCE" between the earth and that object due to "GRAVITY".
Your guess is as good as ours. (The language here is very reminiscent of those VW commercials where
they claim that they get "a maxim amount of volume in a minimum amount of space" – !?!?)
Humorous wording aside, the phrase does claim no pedal activation of the shock, so we have a more
serious issue to consider. Since the rear pivot is on the seat stay in these designs (more on this
later) we know that the designs are essentially mono-pivots under pedaling, with the upper links
acting as suspension tuning. We have proven directly that no mono-pivot is completely non-reactive
to pedaling, so we know immediately that Kona the claim is certainly not true. For example, there
are no qualifications for gearing.
The ad goes on to claim, "SHOCK IS MOUNTED IN LINE WITH SEAT TUBE ALLOWING SMOOTH SHOCK FUNCTION AND
SUPERIOR SHOCK RESPONSIVENESS_". By "IN LINE", we suppose that they mean parallel to the seat tube.
But there are an infinity of other directions that the shock could be mounted that would allow the
same "SMOOTH" shock function (witness the Ventana Marble Peaks, and Rocky Mountains), so we ask,
"What is the point?" We also ask, "‘SUPERIOR' compared to what?" Not to any of the competing designs
we are aware of anyway. Does Kona believe that a shock mounted out of plane to the frame is viable
enough to merit a comparison?
Lastly, the ad claims that, "REAR STAY PIVOT MOUNTED ON SEATSTAY INSTEAD OF CHAINSTAY SO ALSO NOT
AFFECTED BY PEDALING FORCES_". Here is the most abject bit of nonsense. What is not "AFFECTED"?
Clearly the reader is to believe it is the suspension. Again, the "SEATSTAY" pivot essentially makes
these bikes mono-pivots (upper link suspension tuning aside). This fact, in and of itself, is
irrelevant to the degree with which the design is "AFFECTED" by pedaling forces.
Is this a deliberate attempt to mislead potential customers or just a case of extreme ignorance? We
leave the answer to the readers. We simply conclude that when it comes to suspension ad mumbo-jumbo,
Kona is King."
I'd like to flip a virtual middle finger now to all of the dingwads who tout how great kona is
without any substance to back up their hype-fed false claims. Deception begins at marketing and ends
in cut corners and crappy bikes.
JD laughing hysterically