Readers’ Rides: Brian E’s Kona Process 153 DL

For this edition of Readers’ Rides, we dug one out from behind the sofa. Here’s Brian Evans’ “glorious purple” Kona Process 153 DL.

Your Name

Brian Evans

Bike brand and model

Kona Process 153 DL

Fork

Dt Swiss 535One

Shock

Fox DHX2

Suspension Set Up

The fork is running pretty much the recommended settings, a few PSI up on the air spring and slightly less compression and rebound damping – I think I took one off one and two clicks off the other from the recommended but can’t recall which was which.

Rear is a DHX2 performance with a cane creek valt progressive 500-610lb suggested by J-tech when I was having very little luck with springs. Its a whacking great lump and I’m not entirely sure if the 500-610 is the spring weight or rate. It seems to do the job though and keeps the rear on the ground like its glued down.

Wheels

The rear is a Hope Tech Enduro on a pPro 4, front is a WTBi29 KOM on a Superstar Switch Ultralight.

Tyres

Goodyear Newton 2.4 rear and a Vittoria Martello 2.35 on the front.

Tyre Inserts

Nukeproof ARD in the rear and a Schwalbe Procore in the front (the matching spare non-Boost rear has the other one in)

Drivetrain

Shimano XT chainset with a 32T Wolftooth ring, SRAM X0 rear mech, SRAM X0 shifters, SRAM XG-1195 10-42 cassette

Brakes

Formula R0

Bars & Stem

Bontrager 50mm stem with Spank Spike Vibrocore bars, both 35mm clamp

Seatpost

Brand X Ascend 170mm

Saddle

DMR stage

Accessories

I’m quite keen on flat caps, I assume that’s what you mean?

Size and Weight

XL – 15.5kg I know kg is a unit of mass but I’m going to use it anyway

Why this bike?

A few years ago I decided I don’t like [enduro type] racing, I’d had a bit of a funny couple of races and, at the top of one of the stages for the inaugural Naughty Northumbrian went from quite happy and one of a handful of riders waiting to quite uncomfortable indeed when more riders started turning up. I decided I’m really not good with crowds or queues, both of which seem to go hand in hand at UK races and thought I’d call time on my times of roster padding. I still enjoyed mass start type things where I can find my own pace from the word go but the timed stage type thing didn’t seem to suit.

Fast forward to early 2020 a time of so much promise and potential for a great year ahead, sat in the office staring at a grey wet industrial estate in the barely daylight of a January lunchtime in North Yorkshire, and I spotted something saying tickets for the Trans Varatia race were going on sale today. I’d not heard of it but thought I’d have a look, capacity was double digits so the crowds thing shouldn’t be a problem, the weather promised to be much better than the bleak grey outside my window and if nothing else I could always decide better of it once I was there and spend a few days on-top of mountains drinking red wine in the Italian the sun. Lacking much else to do but what I’m paid for I foolishly booked on, turns out looking at holidays on a January Monday is a bit like eBaying when drunk.

Then something weird happened and 2020 didn’t really happen, maybe I was abducted by aliens, maybe I just had a really good sleep or something but suddenly it was nearly September, kids were maybe going back to school and I’d seemingly not left the house, let alone raced. The race however went ahead whilst I’d been sleeping, my entry had been postponed to 2021 and via the race’s WhatsApp group I’d been inundated with a barrage of photos of bikes atop alpine passes, grinning riders, streaming sunshine blue skies, chair lifts and frankly lots of other stuff to make me a bit jealous. Then the videos. “15minutes long, I’ll just skip the waffle at the start, oh no waffle, crikey he’s quick, that’s quite rocky, oh that 15minutes was cropped. oh.”

We’re gonna need a bigger bike.

So the search started in earnest. Somewhere along the lines whilst I was sleeping or being abducted by aliens it turns out bikes also got abducted and were increasingly hard to find. The DT forks popped up online at a price I really couldn’t resist so Ii snaffled a pair of those with as yet no frame to put them on which led me down the line of a 160mm 29er.

A few weeks later and I’d just about settled on a heavily reduced Mondraker Foxy RR 29er frame I’d found in XL, end of line and for a price I could just about justify but there were a couple of things gnawing at me about it so I put it off and put it off. In the interim I’d spotted the Kona frame up for sale, the price was rather more than I wanted to spend on second hand and was only spitting distance from the foxy but I’d fallen for it and that was that really and probably what stopped me buying the Foxy, I read plenty of reviews, all positive, oh and the colour, but ah the Foxy. A month of indecision and I got very lucky, having had no bites the Kona went up on eBay at a price I did like, I ended up sole bidder and the proud owner of a Process 153 in glorious purple.

I was lucky to manage to grab the parts I didn’t have already to finish the build. The drive train had previously been in service on my short lived hardtail experiment so swapped straight over. The XT cranks I’d bought from the classifieds here as spares. The R0 brakes I got second hand for a bargain price as the levers were too big for the sellers hands but suit me well. The wheels on currently are spares, I really must get round to building the proper ones but it seems I’ve spares of spares so the urgency isn’t there. Grips were spare cartridges I bought when superstar discontinued the Excel as I find them very comfortable I bulk bought those and just added some new collars. Presently I’m on the ever excellent nano flats, that particular pair have floated around in the garage for years as I mostly ride clips but couldn’t seem to get the cleats far enough back on this bike, even though the same shoes are perfect on the following, I’m guessing because the following is much shorter. The dropper is a 170mm brand X, could really do with a longer post but I’m holding out for a 230+ one if anyone gets round to making one.

The frame ships with an RS air shock, I’ve bought into the hype and put a coil on instead but I can’t really decide if its emperors new clothes or not, it climbs a lot more tenaciously with the coil but I’m not all together sure the benefit on the down is there enough to warrant the extra weight, and you really can feel that weight and extra plushness on the way up.

Additional Comments

So when I finally pull my finger out and get them built I’ve a set of stans rims (flow Mk3 for the front and arch Mk3 for the rear) to build onto a pair of novatech hubs, and the tyres will change, I think I’ll stick with the newton in the rear and I’ve a 2.6 for the front but I’ve also got a 2.6 butcher and a purgatory 2.4 to mount up so not sure yet.

Want to share you bike with the group?

Whether you’ve got a special new bike or just a bike that’s special to you, this is where you get to tell us about it! You send us your submissions, and then we cast our judgemental expert lustful eyes over them and bring them to the world to ooh and ahh over. We’re picking the prettiest, the most curious, and the ones with a good story for you to appraise, praise, and maybe look wistfully at.