Maverick Cycles lent us their demo bike for the week to test and this is how it rides…

Reviewer: Nigel Hicks

The main eye catcher with the new Kona is the “magic link” system housed just above the bottom bracket. The new pivot design is not that different to Kona’s tried and tested 4bar linkage design which has been used with great success on all their models over the past years. The new magic link however gives the suspension a 5^th bar which allows the suspension to alter the travel from 6 inches to 7.4 inches according to the terrain. This design was developed by Brian Berthold from Brake Therapy (the same guy who produced Kona’s DOPE floating rear caliper system)

The lower shock mount which used to connect to the frame is now connected to a small spring-loaded bar. The spring in the magic link is pulled forward under pedaling tension which increases the head and seat-tube angles and keeps the suspension travel at 6 inches. However when acted upon by braking forces or bumps in the trail the spring link is forced backward, slackening the head-tube angle, lowering the bottom bracket and increasing the rear wheel travel to a maximum of 7.4 inches. This variation allows for a stable and stiff XC feel when climbing, with a more aggressive feel in rough terrain. The important thing to remember though is to give some time to get the bike set up properly to get the full use out of the magic link.

The demo bike was a medium but the Kona feels like a big bike with a high bottom bracket position during climbing. For taller riders the cockpit of the bike feels cramped on long climbs, but this short top tube length and short wheelbase allows for sharp and nippy cornering on the decents. The Marzocchi fork had tons of stiction in the initial stroke but opened up nicely on big hits on the trail. The multitude of pivots and linkages on the bike caused excessive flex in the rear end which could be felt on the fast off camber single track corners where the bike battled to hold its line. The bike really comes into its own on the rough descents however, and acts like very similarly to a true DH rig with the ample travel and low head angle allowing the bike to be forced into sections much more aggressively than other trail bikes with steeper geometry.

So is it worth it? Yes! The magic link on our test bike is still in its infancy so hopefully the 2009 bike will be stiffer and substantially lighter! But for an all round bike that you can take uphill with minimal suffering and then blitz down a downhill feeling invincible it is worth it.

Reviewer: Lloyd Ramsay

I rode the Coil Air just judging it by how it rode and felt. Crazy specs and shocks that travel back in time don’t matter to me. Right away I liked how well it peddled and the brown/gold paint job. Kona always have pretty rad colourways. The little tumblers in the brake levers where you can adjust the take were pretty handy and I had the brakes dialed in quick. I really liked the Kona peddles but since they are not stock you will have to sweet talk the folks at Maverick Cycles to throw a pair on. They are a thin profile with plenty of grip which I personally like.

Something which I did find odd on the bike is that that I could not feel the front end peddling up steep sections. It would feel like it was stuck in a wheelie so I would dab the bars left and right every now and again to judge what the front wheel was doing. Different bars and perhaps a different size stem should have fixed this. This did not ruin my ride but it was something I have never experienced on a bike before. Cornering is not a problem on the Coil Air and in fact makes it pretty easy to stay on your lines. Smaller rock sections are not too much of a problem either. Pushing the bike I felt some stiction on the forks but when you are on the bike you do not feel it all.

To finish off testing the bike I decided to see how fast I could pedal it down a long dirt road. I got up to a decent speed in no time and found some rain washed ruts to hit. Before I hit them I braced myself last second remembering I was not on my DH bike and trying to think if Maverick Bikes would be bummed if their Kona came back in 2 pieces. However the Coil Air made it over the ruts with no jarring at all. Some more rain ruts came up so I hit them even faster and the bike still glided over them. It definitely likes to stick to the ground. Catching air is not that easy on this bike but then again its not meant to be but I just had to try it.

Overall I found this bike to be fun. I would never use it for DH or any big hit jumps but it would be an ideal bike for training with or just having fun pedaling around. Kona’s to me are pretty weird looking bikes yet they always work a lot better than they look.

If you would like to ride the demo bike just drop by the Maverick store and arrange a ride. The Coil Air retails for R25 000 and is also available in a Deluxe version which is basically the same bike with better components and yet even one step higher is the Supreme model. More info on the bike can be found on their official website.

Tags: coil air, kona

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 9:09 pm and is filed under All Mountain / XC, News, Products, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.