At this point, there are many sub-genres in the world of off-road bikes, yet none are ready to contain the LBF. That’s the Legend of Big Fork, and it’s Kona’s latest masterpiece. It’s a bike that, on paper, doesn’t really make sense. But if you know how to let it run wild, you’ll be rewarded with one hell of a good time.
Now, Kona is no stranger to drop bars. Over the years, the brand has covered everything from road & cyclocross bikes to commuters and MTB-influenced gravel bikes. But the LBF is something different entirely. This is not a gravel bike built with bigger tires. This is a mountain bike, purpose-built for drop bars that just happens to be adventure-ready.
Like many of the great Kona frames, the LBF starts with steel. Reynolds 520 butted cromoly to be exact. The frame has modern MTB fitments, including a 73mm threaded bottom bracket with ISCG05 tabs, a 44mm headtube that allows for a tapered fork, and Boost 148mm rear spacing.
But more than just a Boost spaced axle, the dropouts are built with chunky sliders to allow for single speeding. It also allows you to adjust your wheelbase for more stability when bikepacking or more playfulness when shredding. It’s also UDH compatible, so you can upgrade to the latest SRAM Transmission drivetrain if that’s your style. Along those lines, it’s built around a 55mm chainline and can clear up to a 34t chainring, for 1x drivetrains only.
The LBF frame seems incredibly burly, so it should be just as precise when fully loaded down with cargo for backcountry expeditions. There are a ton of mounts, including two bottle cages on the downtube (lower mount has three bolts), a top tube mount, rack mounts, and three bolts under the top tube to allow for bolt-on frame bag options.
Since this isn’t a gravel bike, you get a Rock Shox SID suspension fork with 100mm of travel. No more, no less. This bike is specifically built around a 100mm fork with 29″ wheels, and Kona points out that to “stray from this in either direction will result in: warranty voided, potential injury or worse, and anxiety from Kona staff.”
Geometry
The geometry is specifically built around drop bars, and you’ll find much shorter reach numbers than you would on a comparative hardtail with a flat bar from Kona. Don’t let that fool you – the LBF runs on the larger size, and if you typically ride a medium like me (5’8″), you’ll also likely be a medium here. Note that with my 690mm saddle to center-of-BB measurement, I was just able get the saddle at the right height with the 150mm travel dropper – it’s almost as low as it goes. However, if I needed to get it lower, the +RAD dropper is internally adjustable by up to 30mm.
You’ll also find the front end to be on the tall side with more stack than a Kona Honzo ESD (which has a 150mm travel fork). I’m on the small side of a medium on the LBF, so I slammed the stem, and it’s still a very upright position. Combined with the 75º seat tube angle across the size range, you should have no problem getting upright and comfy on this bike.
Up front, the 67º head tube angle makes it feel like a properly modern mountain bike, and again – not a gravel bike with big tires.
Build Kit
While the LBF does have drop bar levers, these are not your typical build. In fact, Kona claims this is a custom “SRAM-authorized combo built specifically for Kona.” That means you’re getting SRAM Apex Eagle mechanical levers with hydraulic G2 four-piston brake calipers. That should give you some indication of the purpose of this bike – especially when you consider that you can run up to 200mm rotors.
The remainder of the build equation is largely made up of the wheels and tires. RaceFace ARC 27mm rims are wrapped in 29 x 2.4″ Maxxis Dissector/Forekaster tires. Slow on the road, but you’ll be happy to have them if you’re really pushing the limits on the trails.
The cockpit includes a massively wide 50cm Ritchey Beacon Comp XL dropbar with a stubby 45mm Comp Trail stem, and a TranzX +RAD dropper post with their DL Butterfly lever.
All of this adds up to a medium bike that is 30.86lbs with sealant in the tires but no pedals. Definitely not light, but a few key upgrades could shed some serious weight.
Pricing
Offered in a single build and a single color, the LBF will sell for $3,699… which doesn’t seem terrible? I don’t even know what to compare this to for pricing. The closest thing that comes to mind is maybe the Chumba Yaupon Steel, which is definitely built more for exploring than sending big jumps. That bike starts at $1895 for the frame only, so $3,699 for the complete build seems reasonable.
Kona LBF Review
It’s always fun when a bike shows up that you have absolutely no preconceived notions about its intent before the first ride. I knew that the LBF would have dropbars, but that was about it. The bike showed up in the midst of a fairly snowy winter, which meant even fat bikes were no match for non-groomed trails.
So I patiently waited until it all melted away. When the day finally came, I set out for my first ride and was thoroughly underwhelmed. It was heavy, it was slow, and it left me wondering just who this bike was for.
But that first ride was confined to roads and gravel trails, as any off-road sections were so completely saturated that it was impossible to ride without mud packing up and stopping the tires almost immediately.
On the next ride, I had an epiphany: this bike really comes alive when you realize that you’re not just on a gravel bike with bigger tires. This is a mountain bike with drop bars. Once you remember that, you start riding it like a mountain bike, and you start having a lot more fun.
As soon as some trails dried up enough to venture off-road, the LBF came into its own. Suddenly, I was riding everything I would on any other mountain bike – I just happened to be on drop bars. Jumps, drops, North Shore features, this bike can hit it with the best of them.
It really is a bizarre feeling to feel like you have this much control off-road while looking down at dropbars. Don’t get me wrong, I love underbiking. Most of my riding from the house is on gravel bikes that I use to link up smaller mountain bike trail systems. I’m no stranger to putting drop bar bikes to the test, but on the LBF it never seemed like I was actually doing that. More like it was putting me to the test.
Why Drop Bars?
Why does this bike exist? Well, why not? I have to say, after riding it on some sketchy trails, there was never a time when I thought, “I would really prefer some flat bars right now.” I don’t think flat bar mountain bikes are going away anytime soon, but for a bike that’s going to be ridden longer distances to the trail, it seems to make sense.
That’s particularly true when you factor in bikepacking to the mix. The added hand positions will be welcome on long days in the saddle, and the ergonomics of the Ritchey bar still allow you to feel confident in technical terrain.
Dropper Woes
Before I even got the LBF outside, I ran into an issue with the dropper post on my test bike. As built, the DL Butterfly lever was basically unusable, which came down to a few things. First, the housing and brake hoses on the bike were all too long. Additionally, the housing anchor point near the seat tube for the dropper cable puts it in a fairly tight bend if the zip tie is tight, which binds up the cable inside the housing even more. Finally, the handlebar tape was wrapped so the lever was rubbing and catching.
After fixing all three of these issues, the lever was at least usable, but it still wasn’t very easy to actuate. It just seems that the cable has to enter at an awkward angle, which binds things up, and the lever itself is fairly small and doesn’t provide much mechanical advantage and also doesn’t stick out far enough from the bar tape.
I had been wanting to try out the Wolf Tooth Components ReMote Drop Bar lever for a while, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. After installing it, the ease of use was night and day different than the stock lever. Due to the lever shape and the bearing that it rides on, I could actually activate it just using my ring finger while on the hood, or with my thumb in the drops.
At first, I wasn’t crazy about the large bulge from the lever clamp, but after riding it, I realized it didn’t really interfere with my hand placement in either position.
There are other drop bar dropper post levers you could try, but in my experience, you’ll have to do something to address the limited function of the Butterfly dropper lever out of the box since this is a bike that demands an easily-functioning dropper.
Bar-to-Top-Tube Contact
The only other build-related issue I experienced was due to the position of the massively wide bars. With a 50mm wide handlebar on a bike with a 65º head tube, the fork has a tendency to flop when leaning it against things, working on it in a stand, etc. On the medium frame, the end of those handlebars perfectly aligns with the top tube, which will likely result in scratches at best, or dents at worst over time. I wrapped a thick piece of dual-sided velcro around the top tube to act as a bumper, but other methods could be used as well.
About that Weight
There’s no getting around it, the LBF is a heavy bike. At 30.86lbs out of the box, my build was over 34lbs by the time it was ready to ride (water, small frame bag, tools, front fender, pedals). The weight is less noticeable on the trail, but when coupled with the rolling resistance of chunky MTB tires, you’ll definitely feel it on the road or gravel.
Just out of curiosity, I threw a set of carbon wheels with 30mm rims and some lighter tires on the bike, and it instantly dropped almost 2.5lbs. With some smart upgrades (and some $$$$), I think a 25lb build would be in the realm of possibility without giving up the bike’s aggressive nature.
But also, on a bike like this, weight isn’t the first priority. And it’s worth pointing out that after a 3-hour early-season ride, I was left feeling better than I have in what seems like years. Whether it’s the steel frame, the beefy tires, or a combination of everything, there’s some magic to this build that you might not want to mess with.
That weight should also help if you plan on using the LBF for bikepacking duties. Even fully loaded, the frame and components should be up to the task without feeling flexy and vague.
Should I Get This or a Gravel Bike?
If you know you want a drop bar bike but aren’t sure which side of the spectrum you fall into, ask yourself this: do you want to prioritize shredding mountain bike trails and carrying heavy bikepacking gear or going faster over long distances? The LBF is a bike that puts up with long road and gravel miles as long as it means you get to ride the fun stuff when you get there. But without that trail carrot at the end of the stick, this isn’t the bike for standard road & gravel.
Kona is Back
There’s just something about the LBF that reminds me of my first “real” mountain bike, a Kona Lava Dome, and it’s not just the green color. This bike certainly has more in common, at least spiritually, with the original Lava Dome than the new aluminum models.
More than anything, it seems to have that go-anywhere, ride-anything mentality that mountain bikes had to have in those days because there weren’t so many different categories. Like many of those early bikes, the LBF is a genre-defying bike that is up for just about anything – including recapturing that Kona Magic that made so many fans along the way.
