Review: Kona Process 153 DL
OK. First things first. This is the second session I’ve had on this bike. Previously I had the bike for four days of riding, and dispite enjoying various aspects of the bike… It kind of left me with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. It’s not that I though the bike was pants… I just never found my groove with it. We didn’t bond me and it. So when “The Big Bike Showdown: Volume 2” rolled around… I took the opportunity to grab this bike off the shelf first, even though there was a heap of new models to choose from. I felt we had some unresolved issues that we needed to sort out. We needed closure.
So let’s just start with what I don’t like about this bike. Some of this is muddled nostalgia from the first session, and some is revised with new eyes… But here goes… It climbs like a pig… However… I seems to have come to terms with that… Now, let me explain… In the grand scheme of the universe, one does not purchase a bike like this to win the polka-dot jersey. Nope. One purchases a bike like this to party on the downs, so… As long as the climbs are despatched with relatively pain free and you don’t arrive at the top of the mountain feeling like you#ve been shot in the knee caps with a .22, then so be it. I did find myself camping on the climb switch a lot. I’m the kind of gys though, that doesn’t mind this. It’s there. It makes the job easier. USE IT! And I did. Frequently.
The other climbing related gripe I have with the bike is that the longer reach and the seat tube angle kind of work together to stretch you out a little more than I’m used to… This puts you in a rather odd feeling possition while climbing. This may very well disappear whith a bit more time on the bike, but out the gate it had this weird vibe with me. I also get the feeling that seated climbing possition also puts you a little too far over the rear wheel…
Now the good stuff I suppose…
Well. I took this bike out with much skeptisism. And after rolling into the first bit of trail. Spotting a bump hop over some roots and thinking “I’m not gonna clear them all, but what ever…” and them over jumping the lot… The bike started wo win me over… And fast. The slog climbs were forgotten. the odd possition a distant memory… Now it was just me, the bike and a massive grin.
This little bike loves to play… Even when I was “supposed” to be riding segments for time, I just couldn’t seem to avoid bump-hop, root gap, rock hop and depression to pump… Within the course of the first two days with this bike… After fine tuning the suspension set-up a bit, it and I were on the same page. We were one. Or getting somewhere resembling a unit. And I was really enjoying what this bike brought to the table. Fun! And it did that in spades.
And that’s that I suppose… This is a party bike. Its lazy, doesn’t like to do any real work. kind of soul destroying at times… But makes you forget all that the minute you open it up on the downward pointing bits…
OK. enough for now. Untill next bike.
Philthy.
