Don’t call it a comeback.
After Jon’s beloved Kona Sutra was stolen in September, he wasn’t sure how he’d replace something that had gone with him all over the world. It had toured across Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, ridden the length of the west coast of the USA, and had carried him on thousands of miles of roads, paved or otherwise. “I knew that whatever replaced it had to be a Kona. Anything else wouldn’t have felt right. It had to have that perfect blend of aesthetics and practicality. It had to be steel and it had to be capable of anything. So that’s what I built. This Kona Rove LTD is ready to take me across town, to the next town over, to the next country, and hopefully even farther than that. It’s not my old bike. It never will be, but it’s pretty fucking rad, and I love it to bits.”
Pedals are VO Sabot pedals, because they’re classy as all hell and I can ride to work in Blundstones.
The frame, fork, wheels, and groupset are all stock Rove LTD, but everything else was specifically chosen to add a little bit of character and practicality to the ride.
The fenders are 650×58 Velo Orange wavy aluminum fenders that give plenty of coverage for the 50c Donnelly MSO X’Plor tires. I love the fat 650b tires for riding Winnipeg’s gnarly roads (if you’ve ever ridden here you’d understand), and the tread on the MSO’s means I can ride anywhere without changing out the rubber.
Handlebars are Velo Orange Randonneur bars, which are super comfy, especially when they’re wrapped in leather macchiato brown bar tape.
We had just finished the bike and the photographer would be there in an hour and the owner wouldbe there not long after and I suddenly thought about making a chainstay protector in the right style. So I called a local shoemaker, who is a huge bike enthusiast for a strip of leather to attach to the chainstay. I glued the strip of leather on a piece of Velox handlebar tape and glued it on the chainstay. We’re pretty stoked with the result!
The bars are matched to my trusted Brooks Swift which is reaching its ninth birthday this year and my build would nt be complete without a Salsa Nickless bottle cage and a Woodcock Cycle Works bottle.
So far, I love this bike and can’t wait to get out on a proper adventure. Hopefully, over the next few years, I’ll build as many memories with this new ride as I had with the last.
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