![]() ![]() They’re okay, if you like kinda gentle brakes that don’t bite hard. I think the shift performance and “feel” of Deore is amazing for what is ostensibly “budget” componentry. So, almost 2500 bucks for a hardtail, with Deore? Yep.ĭeore is actually a pretty rad drivetrain. Just maybe… Anyway, I’ll be playing around with sliding the chainstays around and seeing how the handling responds as we get more saddle time. The FORTY EIGHT inch wheelbase might have something to do with this sense of unflappable stability. But I digress… First couple rides, with the dropouts slammed all the way back, I would have sworn the bike was at least a degree slacker up front than it is. On a hardtail, the only thing that may sag will be the fork, in which case the effective seat angle actually steepens a touch. I know it’s all the rage these days on the squishy bikes, but on a long travel bike you’re sagging at least a degree, sometimes two, into the geometry when you sit on them. For a hardtail, that seat angle almost feels a little bit too steep. For the record, I run about 29.75” inches from bb to saddle, and don’t really know what to do with a 200mm dropper post anyway).Ħ6-degree head angle, 76-degree seat angle. Thankfully that is super easy to accomplish on the Tranz-X post. The standover is super-low, with the gusseted seat tube jutting up but still remaining short enough for a 200mm Tranz-X dropper to be fit in place (although, my dwarfism dictated that on this size Large test bike the travel on the dropper post had to be reduced to 170mm. These dropouts sit at the rear of a set of chain and seat stays that bulge and flare either sensuously or obscenely - depending on your personal aesthetics and/or parochial sensibilities - before meeting a slightly more reserved main frame. The shortest setting yields a VERY short 417mm chainstay. Two big pinch bolts per side, along with forward mounted adjustment grubs, clamp down on a dropout that carries a 12x148mm axle and allow for about 13mm back and forth slide. The modular sliding rear dropouts are well thought out and cleanly executed. The Honzo’s 6061 butted aluminum frame has some neat touches, and a few nods to the absurd. So here’s the initial view from the cheap seats. I’ve got a whole spring and summer ahead to get my head around not just this bike, but the state of the union as far as hardtails are concerned. This is a first look, with only two quick rides under the belt so far. Big, burly, tough, battleship stable, adaptable, and insanely fun. By the numbers, the Honzo DL is just another status quo trail hardtail, and there’s a pretty big scrum of brands clamoring to mine this vein. It’s 2022 now, and apparently everyone is radder than me. Nobody would want a hardtail with a 140mm fork and a 66 degree head angle. Nobody would in their right mind want a hardtail that weighs as much as most 140mm travel trail bikes. It’s all 29” and aluminum, and the blue bomber hits the trail at a meaty 31 pounds five ounces (wearing Shimano XT clipless pedals).Ī decade ago, every aspect of the above description would have made me choke. Gone are the 27.5+ tires of the bike I once swooned over, and there’s no swank carbon fiber option. Forking over that money gets you an aluminum frame that pushes burliness into burlesque with some of the most overbuilt and heavily sculpted chain and seat stays that I have ever seen, a mostly Shimano Deore build, a quite nice RockShox Revelation RC 140mm fork, and a commendable Maxxis Dissector 2.4”/Minion 2.5” tire combo. Kona’s latest twist on the Honzo is this $2499, smurf-blue, aluminum-framed sled. ![]() SO, when the opportunity presented itself to get some saddle time aboard the latest variation of the Honzo line, I raised my hand without hesitation. I liked it so much that since then I’ve had two steel hardtails built in homage to that geometry and versatility of purpose, and my current go-to yellow 29” hardtail is not a whole lot different by the numbers to that original 27.5+ beast. This was a bike, I thought, that would breathe new life into an entire category, dragging the overlooked hardtail segment back into relevance thanks to aggressive tires and fun-hog handling. ![]() In the particular guise of that first meeting, the member of the Honzo family I met was the Big Honzo CR DL – a plus-tire, carbon frame, new school geometry hardtail. I first met the Kona Honzo in Squamish, at a Kona media launch in 2016. ![]()
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