Dear Honzo. A letter. (and explanation)
Dear Honzo.
Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Love.
Team @ Bikeaholic xxx
So remember when you were a kid. You had all that free time to just go and hang out with your mates in the woods and 'dick about on bikes' ? No, or maybe burn things on campfires? or just drink and have a great time? Or all of the above? Remember? I do. Seems like ages ago.
Bikes were always just that. Get bike. Go to Woods. Have a great time. Sometimes on one track, sometimes on one corner or jump. No agenda. Just escapism and mates. Sometimes we went on a 'mission' and actually WENT somewhere! But normally just hamming around in the woods. Great. Well that doesn't really happen anymore, for me, for us in the shop, for most people with a family or dogs. Life, kinda gets in the way sometimes. There is always somewhere to go, a race to do, a specific trail to ride, a friend to beat, a distance to achieve, a climbing total meterage for the month(???!!!) or, new for me, a heartrate zone to 'train' in. And for some, a Strava time to beat (come on, its so inaccurate!). You cant just go and 'session' a trail anymore. Sad.
Bring in the Kona Honzo. Named after, rumour has it, either a Japanese Sword, or a Drunken Monkey. It's a HARDTAIL. It's STEEL. Its CHEAP. It's from the good guys at Kona who built an aggressive 29er hardtail in a time when 29ers were only used for XC. They nailed a new kind of geometry and this gave birth to the Process line of bikes which are still going now. Many brands have emulated this geometry, and for good reason, its rad.
The Honzo won't let you do anything but 'dick about' in the woods! Its bloody great. It's that little devil on your shoulder saying, "HA! Call that a line! Get over there and try THAT one WIMP!" It's saying "I KNOW I'm a hardtail, but I can TOTALLY keep up with that Santa Cruz/Yeti EnduroTowerSuperbikeGoat" or simply "GO FASTER!" It makes riding fun again. It gets in your head and you just want to leave your 'Enduro' weapon in the shed. Get the over-complicated linkage and just leave it there. Just ride it. Put it back in the shed then ride it. Again and Again. Simple. Easy to understand, and faster than you ever think you could ride a hardtail. Good Fun.
Kona love the Honzo so much they make a LOT of different versions. Alloy, Steel, Carbon and Titanium. There's even two different types of Alloy to keep all budgets happy. Starting from NZD $2199 they go thru to $3999 for the CR in Carbon. If you want the Ti frame then don't worry about how much it costs Just Say Yes. It Is That Good. Good luck finding one tho. But the Steel is our go to. We have five staff in our wee shop. We all ride a Kona Honzo each. Jake, Colin, Jarna and Justin have the Steel. I have a Titanium. (Mostly due to a car crash, long story.) We love them.
We love them so much we have built a custom designed Bikeaholic Honzo Build Kit. It's got what we use on it. It's Great. Really its all you need if you wanna get all 'Core' about it. Here is a link. Get in quick if you want one. We have a limited supply of frames. In fact we have two build kits One is $3599 and our Bikeaholic II, the one we ride, is $4299. But hey, sky is the limit right? We can put what YOU want on one. Just get in touch.
Does any other shop sell as many Honzo's as us in NZ? I seriously doubt it. And do you know why we sell them every week? It's cos we LOVE what we do, and we do Honzo's.
Justin, Jarna,Colin and myself all say ours are our forever bikes. (see this blog)[internal Link needs creating] Jake will sell his to you if you ask him, but only if there's a fresh colour that he can get somewhere. Tart!
Chk them out at Kona World or at our Webstore[internal Link needs creating] or just pop in for a chat In Store.[internal Link needs creating]
Choose Honzo. Choose good times!
Once again, sorry for the probably mostly incoherant ramblings. I just wish I could go ride my Honzo, It's quite nice.
This ST SE is Bolins.
Couple of Instagram Links here. Justin Jake Ti vs CR Mats Ti with Skye More Ti
Drool.
