The man himself 👆🏼. Love your channel! And I’m glad you mentioned the Dissector. I assumed it to be a solid choice out back, but wasn’t sure on it up front. I’ll probably go for it now.
@@DrJMTB It's kinda like a mini hr2 that rolls faster. You either love the hr2 or you hate it. I love it. It really hooks up. The only downside to the dissector is that it wears fast especially the cornering knobs, but it still grips even when worn. Let me know how it goes. Great vid, I've been thinking a +1.5* angleset would be a great option for this bike for so many people.
@@hardtailparty I agree completely about the angled headset being a great option for many riders. Your ESD videos have me thinking about retrying the 140mm air spring. I like your points about how headtube angles on hardtails steepen as they go through their travel and how that geo change is magnified on longer travel forks. I actually like the 150, but I really think the only reason why I didn’t like the 140 was the perceived loss of stack height.
Total heresy! I love what the 2 of you are doing right now in regards to focusing on geometry and getting your existing bike to do more and to be tailored to your riding style and terrain! Hot rodding what you already have and making a new bike out of it. This is the kind of stuff that advances the sport and design. I would love to see @Dr. J MTB flip that headset around and take it on a burly descent as well! Maybe a longer travel fork to keep the stack height? Timed comparison runs thrown in for good measure?
Great vid! the mods you made pushes the ESD more inline with the honzo DL. Differences are aluminum frame and no sliding dropouts. I was shopping the DL but picked up the ESD since my LBS had one in stock and that red sparkle sold me haha
Nice. I have always liked Kona hardtails. I had a 1990 Explosif and then a 1997 or 98 Chute. The Chute was an early aggressive hardtail. It was built like a tank but handled everything thrown at it.
Your build shows that you are more confident in your skill to turn an aggressive ht into an efficient hybrid x-duro ht while still being rad lol nice👍👍
I've since ridden it without the angled headset and with a 1 degree (the new Wolf Tooth). After all of that, I still prefer it with either of the angled headsets. Still super capable, but more versatile with than without the angled headset IMO.
I live in a predominantly xc area and I have a hardtail with a 66.5° head angle, I changed my travel down from 130 to 120 and I think I may also steepen my head angle I have a hard time climbing the seriously steep stuff. Will definitely consider doing the same to bump my HA to about 68/68.5°
66.5 is pretty steep by today's standards. Why do you have difficulty to climb? Some bike have really short chain stay, this also makes it so the bike what to do a wheelie easily.
I am not really shure but on my hardtail its HTA is 69degress. The front end lifts pretty easily but the back ( being a 445mm chainstay) feeels more planted almost like I am doing a mid air wheelie. I am thinking about using a 2degree angle kit to get a 67degree HTA and steepen the STA by a half degree just to balance things out. Ur explanation of why u make ur bike less slack was excellent
I dig it! I have most of the spare parts to build one of these out, minus the more important bits: frame and fork. Would you be able to tell me off the top of your head what the headset size is? What's the difference in ride feel with the Pike vs the Bomber?
The Pike feels slightly more active and poppy with the new 2021 Debonair airspring installed. The Bomber felt slightly more solid and would probably be better for all out DH performance. It's just a fair bit heavier.
I love Assegai's man! I can't tell the difference between the DHR II and the Assegai up front. The Assegai mat have felt slightly faster up front IMO.. Grippy but less gummy then the DHR II. Could have been the compound. Who knows
Hi, I have Process 153 29 2018, 66°hta. I would like to go - 2°, but its size Large 475 reach and its on the edge for my 6ft 2inch height. Dont want to change fork travel. My question is, will i notice reach change? I could go to 50 mm stem if needed. I want my bike to be longest and slackest as possible. Love it ❤️What size of headset do you use? I pressure its same as process. Thank you very much, great video!
I have 67 degree head angle I upgraded my fork from 120mm travel to 140mm travel I want to reach to 65 degree Which angle headset should i order the 1 degree or 1,5 degree.
Great mod! Love it! 👏 I was actually thinking about taking the honzo geo and increasing the head tube angle to 64.5 and reducing the reach to 450 and get the design built from a custom frame builder. What fork offset does the pike have? And do you think the bike would still be amazing with 15mm shorter reach? Thanks!
Thanks! The 450 reach was always a bit short for me on the regular Honzo ST so that part would likely be a no-go for me, but you might have shorter reach than me? I might could drop down to 460, but no shorter for me personally. And the fork offset is 42mm. Reduced offset for life for me lol.
@@DrJMTB I am 175cms tall. I am kinda aiming at a wheelbase not more than 1200mm. I currently have a fully with 1230mm wheel base and it is quite some work to move it around and hence the idea of a short playful bike.
@@DrJMTB I was wondering about the offset also. Waiting on a large Cotic Solaris max frame and have ordered the Pike in 130 flavour/42mm offset and was worried more travel and and offset might give up too much of the all rounder character. I think they would have somewhat similar handling (front half anyway) so I'm glad to hear the mod worked for you. Thanks for the vid.
Came here to ask this very thing. Seems like the changes made are in line with what you would get from a stock 2021 Honzo ST, which I am considering for a second bike.
Good stuff. My 1 and only bike is a 2020 Santa Cruz Chameleon. I have both 27.5 plus and 29er wheelsets and I prefer the 29. The LLS race war is not what I like in a bike. My lizard has perfect geo numbers for where and how I ride, and a hardtail is my dream bike. (My daughter just graduated from PT school and accepted an offer in Melbourne Aus to work as a PT... which puts her 8K miles from me in SoCal) Really digging your channel!
But we should all take advice from someone who can’t realize that a bike is tilted forward in a bike stand, giving the optical illusion that the brake levers are pointed straight down...
To settle this douchebaggery, consider this Kona Dream Build (not mine) and how much further down their brakes look than even mine does cog.konaworld.com/kona-dream-builds-joshs-jah-honzo-esd/. Now consider my Kona Dream Build (I’ve ran the same position with the ESD do as I do this Hei Hei cog.konaworld.com/kona-dream-builds-joshs-hei-hei-cr-dl/. Here’s another that is not mine cog.konaworld.com/kona-dream-builds-maltes-process-153-is-pretty-in-pink/. I guess we’re all just idiots and Kona missed it. I really do enjoy all the keyboard warriors out there.
@@DrJMTB you guys must have some long fingers, how do you even reach the levers Btw, do you find the low rake forks hard to do no-hands riding on? I've got a '15 honzo with 140mm 46mm forkk and I find the wheel really floppy, and it loves to fold under on steep switchbacks
@@felderosa for a 15’ Honzo with a reduced offset fork, most would find some real benefit in running an angled headset in the slacker position 1° or 1.5°.
I've really been loving the dissector up front. I think it'd match what you're looking for.
The man himself 👆🏼. Love your channel! And I’m glad you mentioned the Dissector. I assumed it to be a solid choice out back, but wasn’t sure on it up front. I’ll probably go for it now.
@@DrJMTB It's kinda like a mini hr2 that rolls faster. You either love the hr2 or you hate it. I love it. It really hooks up. The only downside to the dissector is that it wears fast especially the cornering knobs, but it still grips even when worn. Let me know how it goes. Great vid, I've been thinking a +1.5* angleset would be a great option for this bike for so many people.
@@hardtailparty I agree completely about the angled headset being a great option for many riders. Your ESD videos have me thinking about retrying the 140mm air spring. I like your points about how headtube angles on hardtails steepen as they go through their travel and how that geo change is magnified on longer travel forks. I actually like the 150, but I really think the only reason why I didn’t like the 140 was the perceived loss of stack height.
@@DrJMTB 140mm (or even 130) with a 10-20mm crown spacer from wolftooth should do the trick. But I realize that isn't for everybody
Total heresy! I love what the 2 of you are doing right now in regards to focusing on geometry and getting your existing bike to do more and to be tailored to your riding style and terrain! Hot rodding what you already have and making a new bike out of it. This is the kind of stuff that advances the sport and design. I would love to see @Dr. J MTB flip that headset around and take it on a burly descent as well! Maybe a longer travel fork to keep the stack height? Timed comparison runs thrown in for good measure?
Great vid! the mods you made pushes the ESD more inline with the honzo DL. Differences are aluminum frame and no sliding dropouts. I was shopping the DL but picked up the ESD since my LBS had one in stock and that red sparkle sold me haha
Nice. I have always liked Kona hardtails. I had a 1990 Explosif and then a 1997 or 98 Chute. The Chute was an early aggressive hardtail. It was built like a tank but handled everything thrown at it.
My wife rocks a 2013 Explosif and the thing is sick!
Your build shows that you are more confident in your skill to turn an aggressive ht into an efficient hybrid x-duro ht while still being rad lol nice👍👍
This is exactly what I planned to do with the ESD i have inbound.THANKS!
I've since ridden it without the angled headset and with a 1 degree (the new Wolf Tooth). After all of that, I still prefer it with either of the angled headsets. Still super capable, but more versatile with than without the angled headset IMO.
thanks for posting-- i just did the same to my 160/170 enduro rig by 1.5 degree-- definitely much easier around corners
One more thing the 1.5 degree headset does, which may have contributed to that low front end feeling is that it lengthens the effective reach a bit.
I live in a predominantly xc area and I have a hardtail with a 66.5° head angle, I changed my travel down from 130 to 120 and I think I may also steepen my head angle I have a hard time climbing the seriously steep stuff. Will definitely consider doing the same to bump my HA to about 68/68.5°
66.5 is pretty steep by today's standards. Why do you have difficulty to climb? Some bike have really short chain stay, this also makes it so the bike what to do a wheelie easily.
@@1067148The seat tube angle on my hardtail is 73° so that might be part of it.
I am not really shure but on my hardtail its HTA is 69degress. The front end lifts pretty easily but the back ( being a 445mm chainstay) feeels more planted almost like I am doing a mid air wheelie. I am thinking about using a 2degree angle kit to get a 67degree HTA and steepen the STA by a half degree just to balance things out. Ur explanation of why u make ur bike less slack was excellent
I dig it!
I have most of the spare parts to build one of these out, minus the more important bits: frame and fork. Would you be able to tell me off the top of your head what the headset size is?
What's the difference in ride feel with the Pike vs the Bomber?
FSA Orbit 1.5 E ZS is what comes on it per Kona
The Pike feels slightly more active and poppy with the new 2021 Debonair airspring installed. The Bomber felt slightly more solid and would probably be better for all out DH performance. It's just a fair bit heavier.
Not exactly the same but pretty dang close if you over fork the Honzo ST. Stock it's 66 degrees. 150 travel fork should put it at about 65.5 degrees.
You could put a link of those headphones to mount on my Honzo esd ?
I love Assegai's man! I can't tell the difference between the DHR II and the Assegai up front. The Assegai mat have felt slightly faster up front IMO.. Grippy but less gummy then the DHR II. Could have been the compound. Who knows
Hi, I have Process 153 29 2018, 66°hta. I would like to go - 2°, but its size Large 475 reach and its on the edge for my 6ft 2inch height. Dont want to change fork travel. My question is, will i notice reach change? I could go to 50 mm stem if needed. I want my bike to be longest and slackest as possible. Love it ❤️What size of headset do you use? I pressure its same as process. Thank you very much, great video!
Great Vid. I like the changes you made.. What is the offset of the Pike compared to the Marzocchi?
Good question. Marzocchi is 44mm, the Pike is 42mm offset.
Heyo, can you share a link to the Works C headset you used?
I have 67 degree head angle
I upgraded my fork from 120mm travel to 140mm travel
I want to reach to 65 degree
Which angle headset should i order the 1 degree or 1,5 degree.
2 degree
Great mod! Love it! 👏
I was actually thinking about taking the honzo geo and increasing the head tube angle to 64.5 and reducing the reach to 450 and get the design built from a custom frame builder. What fork offset does the pike have? And do you think the bike would still be amazing with 15mm shorter reach?
Thanks!
Thanks! The 450 reach was always a bit short for me on the regular Honzo ST so that part would likely be a no-go for me, but you might have shorter reach than me? I might could drop down to 460, but no shorter for me personally. And the fork offset is 42mm. Reduced offset for life for me lol.
@@DrJMTB I am 175cms tall. I am kinda aiming at a wheelbase not more than 1200mm. I currently have a fully with 1230mm wheel base and it is quite some work to move it around and hence the idea of a short playful bike.
@@DrJMTB I was wondering about the offset also. Waiting on a large Cotic Solaris max frame and have ordered the Pike in 130 flavour/42mm offset and was worried more travel and and offset might give up too much of the all rounder character. I think they would have somewhat similar handling (front half anyway) so I'm glad to hear the mod worked for you. Thanks for the vid.
@@stevodevo6505 👊🏼
Why not just get a RSD middle child. 64.5 HTA chainstays 415-430. Plus tires chromoly frame and it’s waaaaaay cheaper than the Kona
How did you like the large size vs medium? I’m about your size and I’m looking into getting one of these
Definitely liking the medium much better. It’s still a relatively huge reach and feels great.
Hey how tall are you for the medium?
5'9"
Turn the headset around to make it 61.5 degrees 😂. FOR THE TH-cam!!
I say go 90 degree and call it a day
I'm running a hello Dave with that angle and it's not as bad as you think
Put aggressors on front and back.
Light casings. Wide 35 mm id carbon rims. Whew man......
Throw on some 31.8 aluminum bars instead of carbon. They offer similar damping and flex as a 35 clamp carbon. And you save money.
Luv the bike
For sizing, how tall are you?
5'9"
Awesome video! Any chance of reviewing the 2021 honzo ST with the updated geometry? Would be curious to see how it stacks up to this!
Came here to ask this very thing. Seems like the changes made are in line with what you would get from a stock 2021 Honzo ST, which I am considering for a second bike.
@@DeanH51 I hope so, I'm mainly concerned with the compliance of it as the previous years seem to be a little stiff.
Good stuff. My 1 and only bike is a 2020 Santa Cruz Chameleon. I have both 27.5 plus and 29er wheelsets and I prefer the 29. The LLS race war is not what I like in a bike. My lizard has perfect geo numbers for where and how I ride, and a hardtail is my dream bike. (My daughter just graduated from PT school and accepted an offer in Melbourne Aus to work as a PT... which puts her 8K miles from me in SoCal) Really digging your channel!
Thanks and congrats to your daughter. That’s a huge accomplishment!
Z1 feels like a Fox 36.... Where's the facepalm emoji?
I’m sure your Fox 36 is WAY better than a Marzochi… my bad
@@DrJMTB you’re misinterpreting my sarcasm. The Z1 is a Fox 36. And my Fox 36 is actually a Fox 34 disguised as a Z2.
#fermee
Sacrilege!
Nobody should listen to someone who runs there brakes pointing at the ground like that :-/
There is personl preference, then there is wrong
But we should all take advice from someone who can’t realize that a bike is tilted forward in a bike stand, giving the optical illusion that the brake levers are pointed straight down...
@@DrJMTB they're pretty dang low bro!
To settle this douchebaggery, consider this Kona Dream Build (not mine) and how much further down their brakes look than even mine does
cog.konaworld.com/kona-dream-builds-joshs-jah-honzo-esd/.
Now consider my Kona Dream Build (I’ve ran the same position with the ESD do as I do this Hei Hei
cog.konaworld.com/kona-dream-builds-joshs-hei-hei-cr-dl/.
Here’s another that is not mine
cog.konaworld.com/kona-dream-builds-maltes-process-153-is-pretty-in-pink/.
I guess we’re all just idiots and Kona missed it. I really do enjoy all the keyboard warriors out there.
@@DrJMTB you guys must have some long fingers, how do you even reach the levers
Btw, do you find the low rake forks hard to do no-hands riding on?
I've got a '15 honzo with 140mm 46mm forkk and I find the wheel really floppy, and it loves to fold under on steep switchbacks
@@felderosa for a 15’ Honzo with a reduced offset fork, most would find some real benefit in running an angled headset in the slacker position 1° or 1.5°.