2021 Kona Honzo ESD Review
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Cons:
- Extremely shreddy
- Sliding dropouts
- Short chainstays
- Surprisingly great at climbing
- Very supple ride
- Exceptionally good balance point for wheelies\
Cons:
- Low bb
- 150mm fork may be overkill, causing a divey ride feel
- Heavy build
- Juvenile graphics
Who it's for:
- Shredders who primarily ride steep black diamonds
- People with STEEP terrain
- Experienced riders
- Strong riders
Who it's NOT for
- Weight weenies
- People who live in flat areas
- People looking for a bikepacking bike or all-rounder
My full thoughts on the 2021 Kona Honzo ESD Steel Hardtail
today we're reviewing the kona hanzo esd
we're in beautiful sedona arizona riding the high line trail the perfect trail to demo this bike i've been on a few rides with this and i can't wait to share my riding impressions with you let's go i'm going to come right out and say that i love this bike it's not perfect at everything but i'm going to show you what i like and don't like about it today when you hop on it you immediately feel how slack it is and it feels like a chopper you just kind of wander all over the place like this at first until you get used to it but it's pretty easy to get used to slack bikes at least for me you have to balance more so you can't be as lazy as with the steep head angle but if you have good core balance you'll be just fine i think the 175 cranks are a little long for this bike i'd prefer 170s i do pedal strike every now and then on this bike where i don't on other bikes that steep seat tube angle is awesome it feels really good on steep climbs this bike balances really well and i like the short rear end makes it a lot easier to weave through these sections
gotta catch my breath this is hard
oh i bobbled let's try that again
i actually struck my pedal on that little lift there that doesn't normally happen does have a low bottom bracket which i like but with the 175 cranks i do tag them more all right redo
time my pedals a little more man another pedal strike there
a little ugly and sloppy but i got it
as always these things are steeper and harder than they look on camera but a lot of people think slack bikes don't climb well they do you just have to be on your game a little more
it's a fun climb love it nice job hanzo oh it's a beautiful day in sedona sunrise
this frame is not stiff like the older hanzos i rode i'm impressed they also picked a nice soft wheel set to go with it with this race face ar30 rim it suits it really well but i'll show you at the end my rim's already got some wobbles in it from some hard hits so at slow speeds people who aren't used to a slack head angle are gonna struggle with this it requires the kind of balance like you're riding a skinny if you're awful at skinnies you're gonna struggle on this bike but hopefully i can prove today that it's not too flat for a trail bike this is a 63 degree head angle with the 150 fork if you haven't already seen my video where i walk through all the angles and features and stuff go check that out this review today is more about writing impressions this is slow awkward tech here does just fine and the reach this is the longest reach i've ridden for my size zero problems
it actually feels really good it's 465 reach on a medium so reach on all bikes is measured to the top of the head tube so head angle doesn't really affect reach but when you have a slack head angle that pulls your bars back a little to be in line with the fork so when you're slacker you need a little bit longer reach so i'm glad they went with the 465 reach on this size medium because it feels really balanced i was really afraid it would feel too long and i'd just be way over the front but it feels really natural for me i'm five foot six with the torso of someone five foot ten and the legs of someone four foot ten i'm all torso tiny little legs so a bike like this suits me really well you can get the dropper really low and the reach is nice and modern i never feel like i'm about to go over the bars on this bike
what a beautiful view cathedral rock out there i've got the chain stays in the shortest position which is my favorite way to climb if i were really being nitpicky and trying to set the fastest time on this on the down i'd stretch them out to a longer position i'm faster on longer chain stays but i play around less and i like to play around that's why i ride hardtails that's why i mountain bike i don't really care about lap times spike stands and sprints really well
good little climber really good i've had about six pedal strikes today these cranks are too long people always want to know how slack bikes handle switchbacks here we have a series of two very tight very steep very chunky switchbacks they're pretty hard to get let's see how the old no problem
oh look at that view a lot of people upgrade bikes after years on an older bike and they think this feels foreign i don't like it and we have to adjust our riding technique for these modern bikes we can't just ride the same old way we did and expect everything to feel the same otherwise there'd be no reason to get a new bike because it'd be the same they ride really different and if you haven't spent a lot of time on a new modern bike you need to before you judge it everything's different cornering climbing descending even braking so go check that video out up on the top right i just linked if you're struggling to connect with modern bikes this thing's a good little climber it does wander a little especially if you're used to steep bikes bikes over 66 degree head angle you're going to feel it wander as you use the bars to balance but as you learn to balance vertically with your core it won't wander so much so we're at the top of our climb and while i've had bikes that climb a little more calm and controlled there was nothing i couldn't climb with this so it was completely controllable contrary to popular belief a lot of people think really slack bikes do not climb well it takes more skill to climb them and to keep that balance on the slow speed over the teetery stuff but with that short chainstay i'm able to to track stand and keep that slow balance really well this bike reminds me a ton of the cottage bikes i've been reviewing the beefy max and the solaris max only with the short rear end so it's more playful it's easier to move that back end around for a small guy like me who doesn't have long legs i love the tucked up rear end if in an ideal world i would probably move this back a couple centimeters in the the rear chain say i didn't bring all the tools to do that it will give it a little more planted feel i can ride a little more relaxed it'll be a little bit more calm at speed um it'll go faster at the expense of playfulness i'm not here to go as fast as humanly possible so i'm going to keep it in this playful short mode but you're going to see this thing still plenty plenty capable dropping in what's amazing is how poppy and fun and jumpy this bike is despite its long slack front end a lot of people think oh i should size down if i want a more playful bike i think you should size down in the chain stay department
not necessarily in the reach department oh this bike charges got some hikers up here i need to look out for
that hop is super annoying it does that intermittent for that stuff morning thanks perfect thank you so much yeah that hub won't decide if it wants to be quiet or noisy so it does a little bit of both messes with your head a little the early shimano hubs for the press releases were totally silent and then shimano came out and said well that was so fun to pop around bunny hop so well and then shimano said well we've decided it's too hard to make them silent so we're not
so they won't be silent and so they're now kind of weird sounding
listen how quiet this bike is though there's no rattles this bike is a blast
it's still a hardtail thankfully all right where's my bonus line over here
so composed down that so much traction that's so much deeper than it looks
this bike you never feel like you're going to go over the bars that's where steep cross-country-ish bikes
this fork is swallowing up the holes but the back's not because it's a hardtail it bounces across them that's one of the reasons i personally prefer a little bit shorter fork i 150 has a lot of travel range and you kind of end up blowing through it and your geo changes a lot
and hang on i gotta concentrate this is a big roll
super composed on this man you just lean forward and you don't have to worry about going over the bars anyway the reason i prefer shorter forks even on my super aggressive bikes like this think about it when we hit a bump the rear end doesn't move up like a full suspension but the front dives so right now we have a 63 degree head angle when that's bottomed out it's going to be 70.1 degrees so that means that hardtails get steeper as they get on more challenging terrain which is awful because we want them slacker on the hard terrain not steeper so that's why i prefer a shorter fork like a 130 140 max on my hardtails because you actually do feel the geometry change when it moves that much so yeah you'd think well if you're hitting big stuff and steep stuff you'd want more travel but i actually like 120 130 is kind of my sweet spot anyway that's my philosophy on it just since the back can't absorb big stuff for something to bottom out a 150 fork you're going to be bouncing and it's going to be a buck and bronco ride on the back so it's surprising what a really good 130 fork can do these days
yeah this bike is surprisingly fun at slow speed some bikes like the solaris max just wanted to keep going faster and faster and faster and being pushed not this bike this bike's super fun whether you're going 25 speed or 100 speed and yeah i'm impressed this frame does not feel as stiff as the old steel hanzo it's not quite as compliant as the solaris max or that johnny rotten i rode but it feels every bit as good as my rsd middle child tie this is a heavy bike it's almost 33 pounds it feels like a 30 pound bike feels solid but it doesn't feel like a tank it actually rides really well yeah i'm impressed with this thing could this be my only bike for sedona yes
but i definitely want to swap 170 cranks on i probably had 10 pedal strikes today i'm super curious to try this with the 130 fork but it's going to lower the bottom bracket which is not what i need at the moment i'm still going to do it though so stay tuned for that video when i under fork this i'm also going to run at single speed because i love single speed and i think this would be a super wild and fun single speed this spike's a joy to ride it's really fun
but i'm used to slack bikes that said this is the slackest hardtail i've ever ridden and it feels a degree slacker than my middle child which it is all right now we're on the double black diamond section of things this is the section highline is known for which is kind of a shame because the other stuff's awesome too but this is pretty cool this is pretty unique
so the front wanted to slide a little because i was backing away from it i need to get over that front
a lot of people think oh a steep head angle is just going to make it easy
not so if you back away from it and get timid you've got to stay over that front
man these brakes are great they feel fantastic i love the big 200 mil rotors
oh that's gotten bad wow this trail changes every time and people are stacking rocks and not doing a good job it's a little bit sketchy right now
yeah i would actually like this with less travel which sounds crazy i just feel the front end diving quite a bit
still a fun ride but it's a little too much travel which seems weird but remember it's a hard deal the back has zero inches of travel
so a front that drops six inches on every big hit the back can't keep up with it
and the geo's changing quite a bit yeah super composed there aren't a whole lot of hardtails i would take down this trail this bike feels good it's at home in this stuff at the zero to 20 percent speed range it's a little bobbly from that slack front end it's doable once you're used to it but a lot of people are gonna hop on it immediately start wandering and never give it the time to get used to it to give it the benefit of a doubt and they're gonna take it in a parking lot and just say that's way too slack i could never ride that well you have to get used to it
oh this bike is maximum fun so fun if you don't have steep terrain you're not going to be able to maximize this bike what i'm talking about is if 50 of your downhills are so steep you are on the brakes hard for them so steep it's hard to hike down it that is what this bike is meant for and that's where the 63 degree head angle will really come into play i wonder if some people be better served throwing a positive two angle degree headset on this to put it to 65. it doesn't ride like an overbuilt bike like a chromag or the rsd middle child steel those bikes are over built and they're not flexing they are stiff even though they're steel their geo's good but the ride quality is not the same as this
oh this is a joy to ride but if you don't like slack bikes this isn't for you because it is definitely slack all right highline's over this is baldwin super fun
fast section
oh this bike loves to jump and manual manual so well it does not feel like you're driving a bus
thank you so much
really fun bye
he likes to get rowdy
yeah that front end is diving a little too much with all that fork i need a little less fork
this bomber z1 feels good it's a good fork for the price it's heavy but it feels pretty good it doesn't feel as good as my helm not even close but it feels good i'm gonna bunny hop this two-foot ledge no problem no problem
this bike is so quiet and smooth except for that rear hub
oh this frame is a joy it gives up a little in the flat flowy twisty single track due to the slack head angle so you've got to decide what you value more high speed stability or do you like zipping around blues and greens this bike really comes alive on the black diamond in double black diamond trails if 95 of your riding is on black and double black diamond trails man this is a fantastic bike one of my favorite aggressive hardcore hardtails
oh boy
oh thank you so much appreciate it
wow this bike climbed out like a goat thanks to that short chainstay that's not an easy climb if you've ever been here you know it's a hard climb too
yeah yeah oh very rarely do i get both of those back-to-back first try that just goes to show a bike is so much more than a head angle or a frame material or a brand it's a collection of its parts and kona has nailed it on this hanzo esd so there you have it the kona hanzo esd this bike surprised me i expected it to feel over built and rigid and it did not it felt just right that frame compliance was just right it wasn't noodly those bladed seat stays did their trick that super short rear end made this bike for me it feels a lot like the solaris max where it is very stable and planted on fast stuff but that short rear end kept it keeps it poppy and playful it wants to jump more it wants to goof around more it has a little bit more of a juvenile personality than just shred as fast as possible downhill and as you saw it tackled technical climbs just fine now i'm used to these trails and i'm used to riding a slack hardtail if you're coming off a 69 degree head angle and you hop on this you'll think you forgot how to ride a bike it is so different even me used to 64 degree head angles when i hop on this immediately the first thing i thought was whoa that's slack and you feel how it steers different and it's noticeable one degree makes a huge difference personally i would love to see this thing spec with a slightly higher bottom bracket so i could run a 130 fork i think that would be the sweet spot but i am going to experiment with that so stay tuned and make sure you're subscribed for future videos when i try this in single speed mode when i try it with the 134 and a couple other experiments i've got coming up let's talk about the spec i'm actually a bit disappointed with shimano lately the hub sounds awful and when you're riding you hear that z z z z it doesn't sound right and i find the 12 speed even with the xt shifter to feel thin and cheap and when it shifts gears it's kind of if you feel how thin each one of those is and it just doesn't feel super precision to me now that's personal preference and i know people online and on the forums love to hate on sram and love shimano i just don't feel like shimano has the quality that it used to have and every shimano cassette i've used lately has creaked it creaks on the climb just goes and i'm really disappointed in that it's not the hub it's the cassette i've had it on xt xtr and now slx and it just doesn't feel like quality so i'm not super thrilled on that personally i'd probably buy a frame throw a helm on it either run it single speed or run the new micro shift advent x on it that's how i would build up this bike that said this bike is fantastic and for the price you get a ton of bike for your buck they did a great job speccing it the only thing i would change is the cranks i'd shorten them to 170 but everything else it wouldn't be worth swapping anything i would just ride this thing till the wheels fall off speaking of the wheels the wheels do have a little bit of a wobble in them because i've been riding this so hard they're a little bit softer wheel which makes a non-punishing ride but it also means the wheel's gonna get some wobble in it over time so let's rate this thing on long fire road sustained climbs i'm gonna give it a seven out of ten it wanders a little bit on punchy technical climbs i'm going to give it a 9 out of 10. it wanders just a little bit with a little steeper head angle it would be a little bit easier to balance but it still climbs extremely well plenty good of a climber for me this bike is happy whether it's going 10 miles an hour 20 miles an hour or 30 miles an hour it doesn't seem to have a preference where it settles in and gets happy at that speed it's happy going as fast or slow as you want unless you're going really slow and kind of bobbling then it struggles a little bit this thing corners so well i'm going to give it a 10 out of 10. whether it's a slow tight corner or a slow uphill switchback or a fast corner this thing really corners well when it's fast and that's the slack head angle head angle affects steering more than anything for me and i love the way a slackhead angle steers and this thing steers so well for fun factor i'm going to give this thing a 10 out of 10. it manuals it wheelies it bunny hops but it still shreds on downhill stuff it's hard to get those two things in a bike you can either get something that straight lines really well or that pops off everything well but this is the best bike i've ridden that does both really well this is a super fun bike there's a handful of bikes that i love that i would be totally happy with as my everyday bike and i wouldn't feel like i'd need anything else this is on that list but it's really at the aggressive point of the spectrum so if i'm riding more flow stuff more xc stuff it'll do it just fine it loses a little bit of that zip and fun that a shorter travel a little bit steeper head angle bike like a chameleon per se would have but this thing isn't meant to be a flat single track roller this thing's meant to be an aggressive shreddy bike and they knocked it out of the park it's not too slack it's still fun you can still ride it on everything but it really comes alive on technical chunky terrain i feel like it's got a little too much fork which sounds weird but unless you've ridden a lot of hardtails with a lot of different travel you're probably not gonna know what i'm talking about so i'm gonna throw a 130 fork on this test it out see if i can find the perfect sweet spot for this bike thanks for watching make sure you're subscribed and if you want to support this channel consider becoming a patron today there's a party in the mountains and you're invited
we're in beautiful sedona arizona riding the high line trail the perfect trail to demo this bike i've been on a few rides with this and i can't wait to share my riding impressions with you let's go i'm going to come right out and say that i love this bike it's not perfect at everything but i'm going to show you what i like and don't like about it today when you hop on it you immediately feel how slack it is and it feels like a chopper you just kind of wander all over the place like this at first until you get used to it but it's pretty easy to get used to slack bikes at least for me you have to balance more so you can't be as lazy as with the steep head angle but if you have good core balance you'll be just fine i think the 175 cranks are a little long for this bike i'd prefer 170s i do pedal strike every now and then on this bike where i don't on other bikes that steep seat tube angle is awesome it feels really good on steep climbs this bike balances really well and i like the short rear end makes it a lot easier to weave through these sections
gotta catch my breath this is hard
oh i bobbled let's try that again
i actually struck my pedal on that little lift there that doesn't normally happen does have a low bottom bracket which i like but with the 175 cranks i do tag them more all right redo
time my pedals a little more man another pedal strike there
a little ugly and sloppy but i got it
as always these things are steeper and harder than they look on camera but a lot of people think slack bikes don't climb well they do you just have to be on your game a little more
it's a fun climb love it nice job hanzo oh it's a beautiful day in sedona sunrise
this frame is not stiff like the older hanzos i rode i'm impressed they also picked a nice soft wheel set to go with it with this race face ar30 rim it suits it really well but i'll show you at the end my rim's already got some wobbles in it from some hard hits so at slow speeds people who aren't used to a slack head angle are gonna struggle with this it requires the kind of balance like you're riding a skinny if you're awful at skinnies you're gonna struggle on this bike but hopefully i can prove today that it's not too flat for a trail bike this is a 63 degree head angle with the 150 fork if you haven't already seen my video where i walk through all the angles and features and stuff go check that out this review today is more about writing impressions this is slow awkward tech here does just fine and the reach this is the longest reach i've ridden for my size zero problems
it actually feels really good it's 465 reach on a medium so reach on all bikes is measured to the top of the head tube so head angle doesn't really affect reach but when you have a slack head angle that pulls your bars back a little to be in line with the fork so when you're slacker you need a little bit longer reach so i'm glad they went with the 465 reach on this size medium because it feels really balanced i was really afraid it would feel too long and i'd just be way over the front but it feels really natural for me i'm five foot six with the torso of someone five foot ten and the legs of someone four foot ten i'm all torso tiny little legs so a bike like this suits me really well you can get the dropper really low and the reach is nice and modern i never feel like i'm about to go over the bars on this bike
what a beautiful view cathedral rock out there i've got the chain stays in the shortest position which is my favorite way to climb if i were really being nitpicky and trying to set the fastest time on this on the down i'd stretch them out to a longer position i'm faster on longer chain stays but i play around less and i like to play around that's why i ride hardtails that's why i mountain bike i don't really care about lap times spike stands and sprints really well
good little climber really good i've had about six pedal strikes today these cranks are too long people always want to know how slack bikes handle switchbacks here we have a series of two very tight very steep very chunky switchbacks they're pretty hard to get let's see how the old no problem
oh look at that view a lot of people upgrade bikes after years on an older bike and they think this feels foreign i don't like it and we have to adjust our riding technique for these modern bikes we can't just ride the same old way we did and expect everything to feel the same otherwise there'd be no reason to get a new bike because it'd be the same they ride really different and if you haven't spent a lot of time on a new modern bike you need to before you judge it everything's different cornering climbing descending even braking so go check that video out up on the top right i just linked if you're struggling to connect with modern bikes this thing's a good little climber it does wander a little especially if you're used to steep bikes bikes over 66 degree head angle you're going to feel it wander as you use the bars to balance but as you learn to balance vertically with your core it won't wander so much so we're at the top of our climb and while i've had bikes that climb a little more calm and controlled there was nothing i couldn't climb with this so it was completely controllable contrary to popular belief a lot of people think really slack bikes do not climb well it takes more skill to climb them and to keep that balance on the slow speed over the teetery stuff but with that short chainstay i'm able to to track stand and keep that slow balance really well this bike reminds me a ton of the cottage bikes i've been reviewing the beefy max and the solaris max only with the short rear end so it's more playful it's easier to move that back end around for a small guy like me who doesn't have long legs i love the tucked up rear end if in an ideal world i would probably move this back a couple centimeters in the the rear chain say i didn't bring all the tools to do that it will give it a little more planted feel i can ride a little more relaxed it'll be a little bit more calm at speed um it'll go faster at the expense of playfulness i'm not here to go as fast as humanly possible so i'm going to keep it in this playful short mode but you're going to see this thing still plenty plenty capable dropping in what's amazing is how poppy and fun and jumpy this bike is despite its long slack front end a lot of people think oh i should size down if i want a more playful bike i think you should size down in the chain stay department
not necessarily in the reach department oh this bike charges got some hikers up here i need to look out for
that hop is super annoying it does that intermittent for that stuff morning thanks perfect thank you so much yeah that hub won't decide if it wants to be quiet or noisy so it does a little bit of both messes with your head a little the early shimano hubs for the press releases were totally silent and then shimano came out and said well that was so fun to pop around bunny hop so well and then shimano said well we've decided it's too hard to make them silent so we're not
so they won't be silent and so they're now kind of weird sounding
listen how quiet this bike is though there's no rattles this bike is a blast
it's still a hardtail thankfully all right where's my bonus line over here
so composed down that so much traction that's so much deeper than it looks
this bike you never feel like you're going to go over the bars that's where steep cross-country-ish bikes
this fork is swallowing up the holes but the back's not because it's a hardtail it bounces across them that's one of the reasons i personally prefer a little bit shorter fork i 150 has a lot of travel range and you kind of end up blowing through it and your geo changes a lot
and hang on i gotta concentrate this is a big roll
super composed on this man you just lean forward and you don't have to worry about going over the bars anyway the reason i prefer shorter forks even on my super aggressive bikes like this think about it when we hit a bump the rear end doesn't move up like a full suspension but the front dives so right now we have a 63 degree head angle when that's bottomed out it's going to be 70.1 degrees so that means that hardtails get steeper as they get on more challenging terrain which is awful because we want them slacker on the hard terrain not steeper so that's why i prefer a shorter fork like a 130 140 max on my hardtails because you actually do feel the geometry change when it moves that much so yeah you'd think well if you're hitting big stuff and steep stuff you'd want more travel but i actually like 120 130 is kind of my sweet spot anyway that's my philosophy on it just since the back can't absorb big stuff for something to bottom out a 150 fork you're going to be bouncing and it's going to be a buck and bronco ride on the back so it's surprising what a really good 130 fork can do these days
yeah this bike is surprisingly fun at slow speed some bikes like the solaris max just wanted to keep going faster and faster and faster and being pushed not this bike this bike's super fun whether you're going 25 speed or 100 speed and yeah i'm impressed this frame does not feel as stiff as the old steel hanzo it's not quite as compliant as the solaris max or that johnny rotten i rode but it feels every bit as good as my rsd middle child tie this is a heavy bike it's almost 33 pounds it feels like a 30 pound bike feels solid but it doesn't feel like a tank it actually rides really well yeah i'm impressed with this thing could this be my only bike for sedona yes
but i definitely want to swap 170 cranks on i probably had 10 pedal strikes today i'm super curious to try this with the 130 fork but it's going to lower the bottom bracket which is not what i need at the moment i'm still going to do it though so stay tuned for that video when i under fork this i'm also going to run at single speed because i love single speed and i think this would be a super wild and fun single speed this spike's a joy to ride it's really fun
but i'm used to slack bikes that said this is the slackest hardtail i've ever ridden and it feels a degree slacker than my middle child which it is all right now we're on the double black diamond section of things this is the section highline is known for which is kind of a shame because the other stuff's awesome too but this is pretty cool this is pretty unique
so the front wanted to slide a little because i was backing away from it i need to get over that front
a lot of people think oh a steep head angle is just going to make it easy
not so if you back away from it and get timid you've got to stay over that front
man these brakes are great they feel fantastic i love the big 200 mil rotors
oh that's gotten bad wow this trail changes every time and people are stacking rocks and not doing a good job it's a little bit sketchy right now
yeah i would actually like this with less travel which sounds crazy i just feel the front end diving quite a bit
still a fun ride but it's a little too much travel which seems weird but remember it's a hard deal the back has zero inches of travel
so a front that drops six inches on every big hit the back can't keep up with it
and the geo's changing quite a bit yeah super composed there aren't a whole lot of hardtails i would take down this trail this bike feels good it's at home in this stuff at the zero to 20 percent speed range it's a little bobbly from that slack front end it's doable once you're used to it but a lot of people are gonna hop on it immediately start wandering and never give it the time to get used to it to give it the benefit of a doubt and they're gonna take it in a parking lot and just say that's way too slack i could never ride that well you have to get used to it
oh this bike is maximum fun so fun if you don't have steep terrain you're not going to be able to maximize this bike what i'm talking about is if 50 of your downhills are so steep you are on the brakes hard for them so steep it's hard to hike down it that is what this bike is meant for and that's where the 63 degree head angle will really come into play i wonder if some people be better served throwing a positive two angle degree headset on this to put it to 65. it doesn't ride like an overbuilt bike like a chromag or the rsd middle child steel those bikes are over built and they're not flexing they are stiff even though they're steel their geo's good but the ride quality is not the same as this
oh this is a joy to ride but if you don't like slack bikes this isn't for you because it is definitely slack all right highline's over this is baldwin super fun
fast section
oh this bike loves to jump and manual manual so well it does not feel like you're driving a bus
thank you so much
really fun bye
he likes to get rowdy
yeah that front end is diving a little too much with all that fork i need a little less fork
this bomber z1 feels good it's a good fork for the price it's heavy but it feels pretty good it doesn't feel as good as my helm not even close but it feels good i'm gonna bunny hop this two-foot ledge no problem no problem
this bike is so quiet and smooth except for that rear hub
oh this frame is a joy it gives up a little in the flat flowy twisty single track due to the slack head angle so you've got to decide what you value more high speed stability or do you like zipping around blues and greens this bike really comes alive on the black diamond in double black diamond trails if 95 of your riding is on black and double black diamond trails man this is a fantastic bike one of my favorite aggressive hardcore hardtails
oh boy
oh thank you so much appreciate it
wow this bike climbed out like a goat thanks to that short chainstay that's not an easy climb if you've ever been here you know it's a hard climb too
yeah yeah oh very rarely do i get both of those back-to-back first try that just goes to show a bike is so much more than a head angle or a frame material or a brand it's a collection of its parts and kona has nailed it on this hanzo esd so there you have it the kona hanzo esd this bike surprised me i expected it to feel over built and rigid and it did not it felt just right that frame compliance was just right it wasn't noodly those bladed seat stays did their trick that super short rear end made this bike for me it feels a lot like the solaris max where it is very stable and planted on fast stuff but that short rear end kept it keeps it poppy and playful it wants to jump more it wants to goof around more it has a little bit more of a juvenile personality than just shred as fast as possible downhill and as you saw it tackled technical climbs just fine now i'm used to these trails and i'm used to riding a slack hardtail if you're coming off a 69 degree head angle and you hop on this you'll think you forgot how to ride a bike it is so different even me used to 64 degree head angles when i hop on this immediately the first thing i thought was whoa that's slack and you feel how it steers different and it's noticeable one degree makes a huge difference personally i would love to see this thing spec with a slightly higher bottom bracket so i could run a 130 fork i think that would be the sweet spot but i am going to experiment with that so stay tuned and make sure you're subscribed for future videos when i try this in single speed mode when i try it with the 134 and a couple other experiments i've got coming up let's talk about the spec i'm actually a bit disappointed with shimano lately the hub sounds awful and when you're riding you hear that z z z z it doesn't sound right and i find the 12 speed even with the xt shifter to feel thin and cheap and when it shifts gears it's kind of if you feel how thin each one of those is and it just doesn't feel super precision to me now that's personal preference and i know people online and on the forums love to hate on sram and love shimano i just don't feel like shimano has the quality that it used to have and every shimano cassette i've used lately has creaked it creaks on the climb just goes and i'm really disappointed in that it's not the hub it's the cassette i've had it on xt xtr and now slx and it just doesn't feel like quality so i'm not super thrilled on that personally i'd probably buy a frame throw a helm on it either run it single speed or run the new micro shift advent x on it that's how i would build up this bike that said this bike is fantastic and for the price you get a ton of bike for your buck they did a great job speccing it the only thing i would change is the cranks i'd shorten them to 170 but everything else it wouldn't be worth swapping anything i would just ride this thing till the wheels fall off speaking of the wheels the wheels do have a little bit of a wobble in them because i've been riding this so hard they're a little bit softer wheel which makes a non-punishing ride but it also means the wheel's gonna get some wobble in it over time so let's rate this thing on long fire road sustained climbs i'm gonna give it a seven out of ten it wanders a little bit on punchy technical climbs i'm going to give it a 9 out of 10. it wanders just a little bit with a little steeper head angle it would be a little bit easier to balance but it still climbs extremely well plenty good of a climber for me this bike is happy whether it's going 10 miles an hour 20 miles an hour or 30 miles an hour it doesn't seem to have a preference where it settles in and gets happy at that speed it's happy going as fast or slow as you want unless you're going really slow and kind of bobbling then it struggles a little bit this thing corners so well i'm going to give it a 10 out of 10. whether it's a slow tight corner or a slow uphill switchback or a fast corner this thing really corners well when it's fast and that's the slack head angle head angle affects steering more than anything for me and i love the way a slackhead angle steers and this thing steers so well for fun factor i'm going to give this thing a 10 out of 10. it manuals it wheelies it bunny hops but it still shreds on downhill stuff it's hard to get those two things in a bike you can either get something that straight lines really well or that pops off everything well but this is the best bike i've ridden that does both really well this is a super fun bike there's a handful of bikes that i love that i would be totally happy with as my everyday bike and i wouldn't feel like i'd need anything else this is on that list but it's really at the aggressive point of the spectrum so if i'm riding more flow stuff more xc stuff it'll do it just fine it loses a little bit of that zip and fun that a shorter travel a little bit steeper head angle bike like a chameleon per se would have but this thing isn't meant to be a flat single track roller this thing's meant to be an aggressive shreddy bike and they knocked it out of the park it's not too slack it's still fun you can still ride it on everything but it really comes alive on technical chunky terrain i feel like it's got a little too much fork which sounds weird but unless you've ridden a lot of hardtails with a lot of different travel you're probably not gonna know what i'm talking about so i'm gonna throw a 130 fork on this test it out see if i can find the perfect sweet spot for this bike thanks for watching make sure you're subscribed and if you want to support this channel consider becoming a patron today there's a party in the mountains and you're invited