Thanks to Bez at www.konaretro.com for putting this info on the web, and letting me use it...cheers! :) |
Rich Matthews'Photo Page |
Homage to Alan Cyclo-cross bikes |
Cross Carbon Plus Cyclo-cross frame with mixed structure in carbon (3 main tubes) and aluminium (rear stays and lugs) made by the system of tubes and lugs bonded and glued with special "foldaway" lugs. |
Alan Cyclo-cross frames have been popular the world over since the late 1970's, and I recently bought my Alan in Summer 2000. I love the feeling of the lightweight frame, and the predictable ride qualities which make it a classic. Mine was set up with Shimano 105 groupset..but I'd love to have upgraded it to Campagnolo Record... now sadly sold on Ebay to raise some cash for a deposit on a new car, below are the current range of frames available from Alan for 2002. |
Mega Cross Carbon Cyclo-cross frame with mixture in carbon (3 main tubes) and aluminium (other tubes and lugs) with tubes and lugs bonded and glued. Very compact and stable by the oversize main tubes. |
Top Cross Alu LS "Classic" cyclo-cross frame with tubes and lugs in aluminium bonded and glued. Comfortable by the special elasticity of the aluminium structure with "normal" tubes dimensions. |
Unicross 7020 Professional cyclo-cross frame in aluminium 7020 double butted. Very light and stiff, by the special downtube flat in the low side for bigger stability on the bottom bracket, ovilised top tube in the middle to have better position in the shoulder during the running sections. |
Homage to cool bikes |
Pace RC100 This is possibly the best bike that was ever made...period! British born ofcourse, the guys at Pace steadily built these bikes in Yorkshire around about 1988, and have been doing so ever since, also making damn fine rigid and suspension forks to boot. My mate had a Pace like the one on the left, and loved it to bits. I was allowed to ride it once, and took it on a hack about the fields behind his house...this bike felt like a mountain goat beneath me..not that I've ridden one ofcourse!!! :) and it climbed much better than my Trek. Hats off to the guys at Pace :) |
Klein Attitude Never ridden one before, but I remember lusting after it ever since I spotted one in the local bike shop around the corner. It was just a bare frame hanging up, but the paint job was beautiful, and it was as light as a feather. Rex Trimmnel of X-lite fame, bought a Klein Rascal frameset back from the states, with his prototype fork attached to the front, and showed it off to the bike shop that used to sponsor me as a racer. Ofcourse, X-lite is now a worldwide famous brand, and he chose to start it off on a Klein. Maybe not the same since Trek took over at Klein...but still gorgeous nevertheless :) |
Homage to top mountain bikers |
Yeti FRO (For Racing Only) Another one of those sort after bikes! The first time I saw a Yeti FRO was on the rival teams (Wessex RC) team rider called 'Dinger'. His was painted black and came with Shimano XT kit throughout...what a bike. Shame he was a bit of an idiot...still he was a handy rider and came 3rd in the Southern England Team Junior championships held in 1992. This bike has the Answer Accutrax forks and is kitted out with an Answer ATAC Stem and Deore XT Seatpost, and by the looks of things a Bulleye crankset. I like the understated black paintjob, and the classic Yeti on a bike for a headtube sticker. |
Tim Gould "Team mates, Tim Gould and David Baker, and the arrival of Team Peugeot on the British mountain bike scene in the late 1980's, heralded a new age for the sport. Bringing along their Pro road and Cyclo-cross fitness with them, they simply rode off the front of races, time and time again. After a string of World Cup victories and podium placings through the early 1990's, Tim was hit with a sudden mental illness that derailed several seasons of racing for him. The fact taht he came back from this reveals the strength and determination of this man". Cited from the Mountain bike hall of Fame |
John Tomac "John Tomac was still a youngster when he began winning bike races; and at the age of 17, in 1984, he won the National BMX Cruiser Class Championship (held in the States). Since then, "The Tome", has crossed over into both road and mountain bike racing, excelling at them both and becoming the natural successor to the Hall of Fame racing title born first by Joe Murray, next by Ned Overend. He has won more mountain bike racesthan anyone in the sport, and done so at every level and in all aspects: cross-country, uphill, downhill, even trials. In 1988 and 1990 he won the World Mountain Bike Championships overall title and has claimed many NORBA and National titles as well". Cited from the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame Also known as JT, Tomac Attack and Jonny T, he now has a line of bikes to add to his legend....what a guy! |
Thomas Frischnecht "Today, Thomas Frischnecht is Europe's elder statesman of Mountain biking. He started his cycling career with Cyclo-cross in 1985, at the age of 15. After his father (a world cyclo-cross racer himself) gave him one of his old bikes, his previous favourite sport, football, was over. Young Frischnecht won almost every Cyclo-cross in his class. In 1987/88 he won 21 out of 22 races, including the Junior World Championships. In 1990, Dave McLaughlin brought Thomas onto the Ritchey Team to race the NORBA National Championship Series. The 2nd NORBA race he entered he won, beating all the U.S. stars at the age of 20. After travelling through North America for four months, he finished his first mountain bike season with a silver meadal at the first official (UCI) Mountain Bike World Championships in Durango." Cited from the Mountain Biking Hall of Fame |
Ned Overend The World cross-country title was his in 1987 and 1988, and NORBA National Champion titles were bestowed on him in 1986 and 1989 aswell. Ned is known for his uphill climbing ability, both as a Mountain biker amd Road racer. Now a member and coath for Team Specialized, Overend became one of the first Mountain bikers to actually make a living from competing in the sport. Cited from the Mountain Biking Hall of Fame |
Manitou HT (c.1997) I originally saw the Manitou bike previewed in an early issue of MBUK, and the lucky writer rode it at the World Championships course in Durango, I think back in 1990. It was something I dreamed about owning...and I guess alot of other people too. This bike shown here is a much later model, but still holds true to the original design. I think the latest reincarnation of this bike is the Tomac 00 Buckshot...but to me..it will always be the Manitou HT! |
The Original Manitou This was the bike that set the trend of MTB design right at the start of the 1990's...I'd say if I had a choice out of all the custom bikes at the time, Salsa, Bontrager, Mountain Goat, and a few others that escape me now..I'd have gone for this bike hands down. Even now...some 12 years later, this bike cuts the mustard....much better than the Answer Manitou HT's that came out later. Doug Bradbury...I salute you sir! :) |
Seven Sola Steel Made by the team of frame builders that originally set up Merlin Metal works. Sweet bike and a hardcore of followers. This is their gorgeous Steel framed model, but the Titanium frameset is the mutts nuts! |
Pace RC300 Newest edition to the Pace family, the RC300 frameset comes with a carbon fibre seat stay and is disk specific. Check out the new lockoutable Pace forks...another dream bike from Yorkshire! |
Trek 9.8 I couldn't really talk about mountain bikes without including the Trek 9.8 carbon fibre dream machine. Although in my book not as desirable as a Pace or a Ti bike, it still holds the record for the lightest production frameset on the planet...if I won the lottery, I'd definately add one to my collection |
Seven Single Speed Custom Ti Seven disc-only single speed with Bushnell eccentric bottom bracket..parts include: Morati Ti cranks and Ti rigid disc only fork Moots Ti seatpost Titec Ti stem Phil Wood Ti BB Formula B4 disc brakes Easton CT2 Monkey Lite low rise bar Time Ti pedals One helluva singlespeed bike...this makes me more want to build up my Trek into a singlespeed :) |
This is my Kona Hei Hei (photos dotted around the site!!) and has been a dream bike for me ever since I saw once in Mountain Biker magazine in 1991. This one is a 1996 frameset which I bought from MTBR from a guy in Canada for $700.00. As you can see, it's been put together with a hodge podge set of equipement from Spin Wheels (sold now on Ebay) Race Face Next LP cranks, Pace RC31 Carbon forks and a mixute of XT and XTR components. I've recently bought a USE Carbon post and Tune Speedneedle carbon saddle along with an Easton CT2 carbon bar, a new set of Hope Ti hubs built onto Mavic 517 rims...just to lighten her up a bit, and see how far I can go....both financially and in weight :) |
My Bikes |
Click above for the Trek Website |
Click above for the Pace website |
Click above for the Seven Cycles website |
Welcome to the Photo's section of my website. Things might look a little beardy around here, but I will soon be putting that to rights, along with new photo's of my Kona, and my wifes built up Trek 8500 single speed. Spread the groove!!!! Rich 13.09.02 Site now back to it's former glory..piccy of the Trek Singlespeed coming soon. 12.11.02 |
Alan Top Cross When I started racing Cross when I was 15, I saw these bikes dominating the senior scene, usually winning their races, their classic design, and stunning good looks made me drool after one of them. So in 2000, I was lucky enough to pick up this one second hand ready to go. The kit is mainly Shimano 105, apart form the Shimano 600 crankset and front mech and the Shimano Sora hubs. Believe it or not, I haven't raced this bike, but it's kept me going on many a commute to London, and it's speed and lightweight have kept me going at a fair rate of knots. Now sold on Ebay!!! |
Trek 8500 (circa 1991) This frameset was made of Easton Program E9 Aluminium and was set up from stock, and raced for much of the 1991/1992 race season in both Cyclo-cross and Mountain Bike races. I competed at the 1992 Cheddar Challenge, and came 11th in the Southern Area Team Mountain Bike Championships aboard it. It's had many disguises since I bought it, with many different components hanging from it including Campagnolo, Cook Brothers, Salsa, Suntour, Shimano, Gripshift, Marzocchi, X-lite, Nuke Proof, Pace, USE to name but a few. Currently just a bare frameset, I'm building it up into a Singlespeed project for my Fiance, so that we can ride the hills together, and get down and dirty (in a nice way you understand :) Photos available soon |
Sunn Cycloss, great 1st cross bike |
The Kona Hei Hei with original Yellow stickers |
Trek 8500, took me on many a journey |
New Kona Hei Hei Photos (24th June 2002) Here's the latest photos of the bike, taken on Sunday on a ride around Tonbridge. You'll notice she's got road tires on her, and I was a little worried taking them offroad, but recently the weather has been quite dry, so the ground was quite hardpack...causing me no problems. The carbon bars, seatpost and saddle are all holding up well, and are noticably shock absorbing, and along with the handbuilt wheels, I have gotten her down to about 20.5 lbs or there abouts. I don't think there's much more I can do to her...maybe upgrade the stem and perhaps a few of the components like the XT front mech and V brakes, but really, the set up works well, and I'll wait till they wear out now before replacing them with better parts. It's taken me a total of 50 weeks from when I bought the frameset to getting her to like she is now, but it's been highly worth it :) Ride on!!! |
**New Photos of the Kona!!!** |
Kona Hei Hei Frame Material Titanium tubing is widely viewed as the ultimate frame material. Just as all Aluminium and Steel are not the same, the quality and properties of Titanium can vary greatly with each tube manufacturer. If you look at the Periodic Table of Elements, you will find Ti below Al, indicating that Aluminium is lighter than Titanium. However, Titanium has superior mechanical qualities over Aluminium. In addition to having an excellent strength to weight ratio, Titanium has a structure which is resistant to Fatigue and corrosion. The simplest and cheapest Titanium tubing is known as CP, or Commercially Pure Titanium. This is just what it sounds like; a simple element drawn into the shape of a tube. The typical CP frame is extremely flexible. Although Titanium can resist many more stress cycles than Aluminium or Steel, this excessive flex will quickly lead to a work hardened stress crack. Yes, even Titanium can fail To improve the ride characteristics of a CP frame, some manufacturers introduce Oxygen into the fabriation process. The Oxygen embrittles the Titanium and provides a degree of stiffness to the frame. The downside is that this process also shortens the fatigue life of the frame The best way to improve the property of Titanium is to mix in Aluminium and Vanadium. By adding 3% Aluminium and 2.5% Vanadium, you get 3-2.5 Titanium Alloy. This next point is important; all 3-2.5 Titanium Alloy is not the same. How the tubing is produced greatly affects its strength and ride properties. Depending on the method used to draw the seamless tube, minimum yield strength can range from 75,000 psi to 105,000 psi. Additionally, by cold working the tube, the grain can be altered to better meet specific load requirements. Sandvik is one of the largest and oldest fabricators of Titanium tubing. They control the production from the raw ore to the finished tube, and make all their Titanium tubing to areospace standards. Kona have been designing and and selling Sanvik made 3-2.5 Titanium Alloy frames for over 8 years. Through our extensive experience amd Sandviks massive capacities, we have produced one of the finest Titanium mountain bikes in the world! (Can you guess I got this from the Kona website???) :) |
Hei Hei ("Race" in Hawaiian) is also made by Titanium Sports in Kennewick, Washington, with the same Sandvik areospace quality certified Titanium Alloy tubing as the King Kahuna. Sandvik custom drawn 3-2.5 seamless Titanium tubing 6-4 Titanium plate dropouts made with "Bullet" plugs for superior strength & perfect rear wheel alignment. Made for 27.0mm seatpost, 31.8mm front derailleur, 68mm bottom bracket, & 1-1/8" headset Made entirely in the USA, 3.3lbs (18") |
Ritchey Softail This is a top bike, Morati Ti stem and bar combi and cranks, Moots Seatpost, Pauls brakes, Bebop pedals and at the heart of it, a Ritchey Softail frameset. Talk about kick ass! :) |
Ritchey P20 Below is a rather tasty Ritchey P20, kitted to the max!!! This bike weighs in sub 21lbs. Nice! |
Kona King Kahuna (1998 Model) Same material as the Hei Hei, but with gussets and biangonal downtube...sweet ride! |
Kona Hei Hei (1999 Model) They painted the front end of the bike red, to match the forks...hmmm, I still pefer the natural look! |
Coming Soon |
Yeti ARC Ti This is a truely gorgeous bike tricked up to the max, with Morati Ti forks, and Ti Stem and handle bars. Said weight of this beauty is 18lbs, and very nice it is too. |
Kona Hei Hei (c. 1992) This is the original photo from the Kona manual and shows the Ti Fork and the rather gorgeous Suntour XC Pro groupset. :) |
Kona Hei Hei (c.1990) This one has been built up into a single speed and looks pretty smart. Sorry for the poor picture... :( |
Click above for a cool Yeti Fansite :) |
Kona King Kahuna (1999 Model) They painted the front end of the bike orange, to match the Atom 80 forks...hmmm, I pefer the natural look! |
Kona Score (2000) The Kona Score is the little known to our shores out of bounds hardtail frame, also made by Titanium Sports in Kennewick, Washington, with the same Sandvik areospace - quality certified titanium alloy tubing as the King Kahuna (see above). Frameset set up as follows Sadvik custom drawn 3/2.5 seamless ti tubing. 6/4 ti plate dropouts made with bullet plugs for superior strength & perfect rear wheel alignment. Disc brake compatible Made for 30.0mm seatpost, 34.9mm derailleur, 68mm bb and 11/8" headset frame weight is 4.2lbs (18") |
Single Speed Version coming soon |
Kona Ti Bikes Around the World |
Kona Hei Hei c.1997 Model Here's a nice one that was recently on sale on Ebay. Decked out with Rock Shox SID forks, XTR kit, what looks like a Ti seatpost and Ti flite saddle. The agressive lay down stem adds to it's racey looks...I bet she goes like poo off a stick :) |
Klein and AND Products |
I came across the above website www.wink.jp after searching for Klein Mountain Bikes, and by the looks of things, something has gone wrong with the HTML...anyway, if you click on the hyroglphic hyperlinks, you can view what these people get upto with customers old and bashed Kleins. Two above look absolutely gorgeous, and are adorned with AND products ranging from the paint jobs, to pedals, bottom brackets and my favourite, the carbon fibre brake bridges...hmmm, now where did their e-mail address get to?text. |
Merlin Mountain Bikes |
Click above for the Merlin Metal Works Website |
These bikes were the most desirable around in the early/mid/late 1990's before the take over of Litespeed Cycles in th late 1990's. Merlin Metal Works then split , and the hardcore set up Seven Cycles. Merlin Metal Works still make kick ass bikes, but seem now to be concentrating their efforts on road bikes, and using carbon fibre/titanium together. This bike here is their flagship XLM, and very nice it is too with the new 2003 Shimano XTR Groupset. Below is a custom one off 29" wheeled bike which was on Ebay at a starting price of $3000...not bad for a custom Ti bike. |
Fat Chance Cycles The bikes here are the 10th Anniversary Titanium Fat Chance, and blow it is the awesome Team Fat Chance bike. Chris Chance was one of the Ivy League frame builders (including trch masters Ross Shafer, Gary Klein, Doug Bradbury, Keith Bontrager and several others who set the seen alight in the early 1990's) back in the day, and I first saw his bike ridden by Jake Elliot when he was a junior category racer in 1990 aboard his Yo Eddy! bike. This Team Fat Chance bike shows off the beautiful clour schemes that were available, and comes with top components from Race Face, Rock Shox, Mavic and Shimano. I bet it goes like the clappers! Truely a bike to behold. |
Cool Components!!! |
Carbon Works Replacement Lever I originally saw this item on Dave Hemmings Kona Hei Hei when he used to Race for Team Kona way way back in 1992...super exotic and super gorgeous. Click on the picture for more information from the Bike Pro Site |
Campagnolo Brake Levers and Shifters These were the bees knees back in 1991, and loads of bikes at the 1991 Bikeshow in the UK, were adorned with Centaur and Euclid Campy components. They were heavier than Shimano and Suntour equipment, but no doubting they were more beautiful to look at |
Original Onza Ti Barends These set the racing world alight in 1990, and were hung on such famous bikes as Juli Futardo's Yeti and GT bikes, Greg Herbold's bike and David Baker's bike. Super cool, and super expensive, I just missed out on winning a set on ebay. Original price set them at about $200.00. In later yars they went to bonded Ti versions and cromoly/aluminium versions, but they weren't a stitch on these babies. |
Kona King Kahuna 2001 Frameset What can I say, I just love the look of Kona's.... |
Kona Hei Hei 1999? This bike was advertised on the Team Cow website (thanks for the photo's guys!) set up for the Vancouver North Shore, with hydro brakes Raceface crankset and flatties, it must be a pretty mean set up! |
Kona Hei Hei 2000 Super mean set up, with Mavic wheelset, RaceFace Next LP crankset, and XTR/XT throughout. Ouch..how much? |
Kona Hei Hei 1996 This is Zech's Kona Hei hei, same year as mine. He'd been after one for ages, and finally found his dream bike. Here, it's set up with Pace forks, Syncros stem, original XTR (1992) crankset, super gorgeous brakes and general goodness. |
Kona Hei Hei 1994/5? Old skool Hei hei with the original Rock Shox Yello Judy forks. Check out the Dr Dew brake lever extentions for use with bar ends. |
Kona Hei Hei (1994/1995?) This is Zech's wife's Kona Hei Hei of around 1994/1995...what a lucky couple! Looks like it's been set up with a mix of XTR and XT components. |
Kona Hei Hei 1994/5 On sale on Ebay, what a great little bike! Those tioga biscuit colour tires were all the rage in the early to mid 1990's. Once again, Magura hydro brakes handle the stopping duties, and retro Judy XC forks handle the front of the bike. Almost forgot to mention the toeclips and straps...wow! |
Thanks to Bez at www.konaretro.com for putting this info on the web, and letting me use it...cheers! :) |
Tioga Disc Drive This was the item to have in the early 1990's, as owned and promoted by John Tomac. You could usually tell someone had a Disc Drive by the rumbling sound coming around a corner. Whether they were areodynamic and efficient remained the question, and certainly after John Tomac stopped using it, you didn't see them on many bikes after. It was this product which kinda made me think about going for the Spin Composite wheelset, which I eventually did in 1995. You can still buys these sometimes off Ebay...recently saw a wheelset going for about $200.00 that included the super cool and sexy Bullseye Hubs...mmmmmmmm :) |
Pauls Components Super gorgeous components from the CNC master! |
Kona King Kahuna Here's one that was on sale on Ebay...the frameset looks pretty well used, but these pictures show off the double frame gussets on the top and down tube pretty well. The stickers are pretty cool too, and look as if they're 1999/2000 edition. |
Kona Score 2000 Here's a better picture of the Kona Score frameset. Check out the massive downtube...looks pretty mean! |