Vivien Faye had been on the the hunt for the perfect bike for a long time.
He’s pretty sure that with his Kona Unit he found it.
“I wanted a bike that matched my vision of this sport and one that was capable of enduring thousands of intense rides. I wanted the ultimate weapon.”

After checking out many bikes, Vivien eventually chose the Unit X, his first mountain bike back in 2006 was a Kona and he’d owned a number since, so it all made sense. “The fully rigid steel Unit was comfortable, and oozed style! It wasn’t my first Kona, I had a Dawg Deluxe when I was a kid, it was my first real MTB that took me on many great adventures!”

“The geometry and sliding dropouts on the Unit allowed me to switch the stock 27.5+ tyres to 29″. The frame and fork are 100% Kona but I decided to built it from scratch as I really wanted specific parts for the finished bike. the only real factor that dictated what I used in the build, was I needed the parts to be available and easy to find everywhere in Europe.”

Vivien has just completed a massive months long trip from his home in France to Scotland and the Unit didn’t miss a beat. You can retrace his journey on his Instagram channel right HERE.

Wheels: HOPE Pro4 XC 29
Fork: Kona Project 2
Crankset: Shimano SLX M7000 / Cassette Shimano XT 11-46
Brakes: Avid BB7
Saddle: Brooks B17 Imperial
Pedals: Shimano Saint
Grips: Reverse Components Seismic Ergo
Tyres: MAXXIS IKON 29