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Kona King Kikapu review by Sean Noonan
Earlier this week, Kona enduro team rider Sean Noonan published a review of the Kona King Kikapu on his website.
I looked at the King Kikapu when I was thinking about a new full suspension 4″ bike earlier this year but I eliminated the bike early on, mostly because of the bike’s build spec. The King Kikapu features a Scandium frame paired with a Fox RP3 rear shock, a Fox FRL100 fork up front, Hayes HFX-9 Carbon brakes, and Shimano XT derailleurs and shifters. Everything looks good so far, right?
When you move on to the rest of the parts spec for this bike, a number of obvious questions arise. First, why is Kona spec’ing a high end bike (it’s the most expensive full suspension cross country bike in their bike lineup) with Deore hubs? My Giant Rainier, which cost me just over $1000cad, came with the same set of hubs. Second, the King Kikapu comes stock with a Shimano LX 9 speed cassette. Aside from the fact that the LX doesn’t perform nearly as well as the XT, it’s significantly heavier (about 70 grams). Combined with the weight difference between XT hubs and Deore hubs and the Race Face Evolve XC crankset and the Deus XC crankset, you’re looking at about 200-250 grams in extra weight on your bike. While that’s ‘only’ a half-pound, on a high end bike intended for racing it’s quite a bit over the course of a 3 hour marathon or a 6 hour enduro.
I understand that Kona is trying to fit the King Kikapu into a lower price bracket without compromising the performance of the bike too much. However, are riders who are looking to drop about $3000 on a bike going to quibble about a couple of hundred more for higher end parts? I’m sure Kona did their research when putting the bike together, but I know I’d prefer to have better hubs, a top-notch drivetrain, and the weight savings of the Deus XC cranks when I purchased a King Kikapu rather than having to upgrade select parts at retail prices after 6 or 12 months.
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