Kona Proves You Can Build A Lightweight 6″ Travel Mountain Bike

SEA OTTER CLASSIC 2010 – Besides the prototype carbon Jake cyclocross bike, Kona wanted to prove that you can indeed build their 6″ travel Abra Cadabra mountain bike into a lighweight racer.

Shown here claiming to be just 24.75lbs, we put our Park Tools scale to it for verification.  Can it be done with the right parts mix? Hit ‘more’ and see for yourself…

Considering the claimed weight, like all claimed weights these days, is without pedals but our scale-proven weight is with pedals, I’d say they nailed it. Here’s how:

Rockshox Blackbox Revelation fork with remote lockout cable/housing/remote removed.

FSA carbon bar and seatpost, alloy stem. Lightweight grips and SRAM / Avid XX brakes, shifters, levers and rear derailleur.

Shimano XTR singlespeed front crank and pedals.

XX cassette.

Stan’s NoTubes Podium MMX wheels with Maxxis tires.

All built around their Scandium Abra Cadabra frame with their Magic Link suspension.  Why would you want a lightweight 6″ travel bike?  Well, for starters, if you have to ask why, then, um, perhaps you’ve never pedaled up or sat around the trailhead as you and your buddies did the bike weight equivalent of whippin’ ’em out to measure.

More to the point, Kona’s Magic Link claims to offer the short travel efficiency of an XC bike with the air shock and the big hit capability of an all-mountain bike with the coil shock.  The problem is, their Magic Link bikes as they sit on the showroom floor aren’t the lightest rigs on the rack, so they built this up to show it could be done.

How does the Magic Link work?  It’s better that you hear it directly from the source.

Rumor: Is this going to be a production version?  Well, the official word is it’s only a proof of concept…for now.