Not looking great for Kona
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Yeah, they are literally DOAā¦been circling the drain for almost 2 years now since Kent bought them. Likely overpaid for them as a result of the COVID boom only to see the bubble burst almost immediately.
Brutalā¦hate to see this.
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The bike industry will miss having names like the Kona Sutra and the Hei Hei.
Maybe Ibis will bring back the Hakkalugi.
Anyone know what ever happened with Nateās experiment with the Chamois Hagar?
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They sorta didātheyāve had the Hakka MX since 2017.
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The Hakka MX is a gorgeous bike. I have a DV9 and a Ripley and Iām going to need to restrain myself from eventually grabbing an MX, too.
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Was going to get a Hakka a couple years ago, but back then bikes were hard to come by and didnāt have my size. Ended up with a Crux, which donāt get me wrong is a great bike, but admittedly I still ogle the Hakka now and again!
Hakka is not the same as Hakkalugi.
Maybe Iām showing my age here. But hock a loogie has a very specific meaning to teenage boys in the US.
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I have one, and am about to get anotherāwith the current 25% off sale, itās too good to pass up. The old one will be my pit bike for now, and then pass it on to my daughter when she grows another inch, which by this point will be in about 6 months.
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Oh, it definitely isnāt as funky a name.
Been a long time Kona fan, and even have a great single speed from the mid 90-s Humuhumunukunukuapuaāaānow THATs a name
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And Ibis DID retain the non-PC rear cantilever cable guide that has an even less PC name than āHock a Loogieā
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Iām glad they got rid of some of their more offensive names of the past, but āLoogieā and āMojoā being removed are kinda funny.
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Back when I was in grad school (early-2010ās) it seemed like a third of the riders at our weekly cross race were on a Kona Jake the Snake (or Jake or Major Jake)
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I commuted on a Jake! Great bike.
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As a UK 
resident i can say that these arenāt making sense to me, but donāt get yourself banned trying to explain!
These days (and maybe in the past too), the two LBS near me have also branched into cafe/pub services. Both are located off a popular MUP, so they do a good trade in coffees, pastries/pre-made sandwiches, and beer. One has its own microbrewery that is popular enough they had to start brewing off-site at a contract facility. And theyāve begun to can as well. Probably make more on beer than bikes today.
And Iām not sure how the other LBS keep up without that extra non-bike revenue.
Years ago when I was in pharmacy school we had a guest lecturer from a small town who had a building that was 1/2 pharmacy and 1/2 hardware store. This gave me an idea of owing a pharmacy and bike shop. One side to pay my bills and the other to pay my soul
I never did go down that route though
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Interpol is about to knock on your door
āThe Hub At Pisgahā
Iāve heard they make more in beer sales than bikes salesā¦doesnāt hurt they are at the gateway to Pisgah.
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One guy on a ride exclaimed that his bike shifting was dead. He was stuck in a low gear, and was dropped by the pack, and since I was tired from riding the previous day, I hung back to keep him company. After about 45 minutes, he all of a sudden says āOh, I forgot that my bike has SRAM shifting. Iāve been riding a DI2 bike for 2 weeks on a tour!ā (face palm * 3)
I didnāt know to laugh or flat out scream with laughing and fall off my bike. I get it that the shifting is different. I did try a SRAM road bike, and it was āoddā. (Like the day I test rode a āEuropeanā dirt bike, with everything on the opposite side. Yeah, hard no, even at 16. Iām sure I could have gotten used to it, but how many times would I have ended up on my face/butt 
)
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All this is covered well in the podcast. It was a hellacious time to be in business, and sounds like the ripples of the pandemic tsunami are still being felt. And bad management just dumped more fuel on the fires.
I was talking to the owner of a local bike shop in the heat of the pandemic (as I remember it) and he was lamenting the crazy bike business and not being able to get any new bikes, well any āhigh endā new bikes. I believe it was Specialized that sent out a threatening letter to their dealers requesting they immediately cancel all orders they didnāt have a customer committed to. If they were ordering for stock, they would be āpunishedā for it. I thought *What? Really? You canāt get your dealers bikes, and they know that dealers selling lots of bikes were likely to actually get bikes, so they over ordered knowing that they would not get them in less than x number of years. (Ironically a local Specialized dealer took on Kona and a couple of other brands just to hopefully get some bikes on the floor. Another one was saying they had their employees bring in their bikes just so they had something on the floor. Some of them actually sold their bikes, for a profit.
Did manufacturers over order, like they were accusing their dealer network of doing? And then they got everything they ordered? (I couldnāt get a simple chain (that wasnāt a counterfeit), or a cassette, what I consider āsimple commodity itemsā that I should have ordered right away as the pandemic started looking like it would close the supply chain)
I felt sorry for the dealers who were stuck trying to find almost anything they could sell.