Kona House of the Big Wheel Press Launch – Tucson, Arizona

For the last six years Kona has been the title sponsor for the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo, what has become one of the most revered 24-hour events in North America. For this year’s event – our last as title sponsor – we invited 15 of the world’s top mountain bike journalists to join us for four days of riding, racing and reviewing Kona’s high grade offering of 29-inch wheel cross-country and all-mountain bikes, highlights from our House of the Big Wheel collection: the King Kahuna, Hei Hei 29 Supreme, Honzo, Satori and Raijin.

Editors from UK’s Mountain Bike Rider and Privateer, the US’s Mountain Bike Action, Bike and Bicycling, France’s Velo Vert, Norway’s Terrengsykkl, and Belgium’s O2 Riders, as well as many other great publications, packed their sunscreen, lungs, legs and puffjackets as they readied themselves to race, ride and explore the epic singletrack of Arizona in February. The goal was not only to get some of the world’s top mountain bike journalists on great trails (riding great bikes), but to meet and ride with the people behind the bikes–our Kona USA sales staff, product managers, marketeers, and the always shred-ready Kona Team.

Here’s a video account of our desert adventure, and some sweet photos from the great Sterling Lorence to help tell the tale.

We started in the saguaro steeped trails outside of Tucson, where red earth contrasts wildly with green cactus, and every single plant is guarded with flesh tearing spines.