Kona importers Paligap have announced a limited edition Colin McRae “Stage One” mountain bike for the pedalling petrol heads amongst us.

Despite the Kona team no longer being sponsored by Ford Focus, top rally driver Colin McRae has signed on “to ride, train and “Feel the groove” of Kona bikes for the next two years” according to the Paligap press release.

The power sliding Scotsman and his co-driver Nicky Grist have been using mountain bikes for training for several years, and the pair already had various Kona’s holed up around the world ready to ride between rallies.
Colin said “Well, I thought it was a great idea, having a signature bike as I am really into the biking and I know that Kona is a major brand. It feels good to have a respected name as a personal sponsor.”

The “Stage One” comes with a 6061 Aluminium frame, custom McRae graphics, Shimano group set and Suntour Forks at £400. Although mud flaps, roll cage and a barking mad rally spec. engine are unfortunately missing. It’ll be out in major Kona dealers and Halfords in May and expect to see a lot of it in ads and even the new Colin McRae 3 game.

For more Kona’s look here and for more Colin look here.

We’re sure that celebrity signatures like this have a big impact on the younger end of the market, but will a bike endorsed by a bloke who cartwheels cars down tracks at 150mph be likely to sway serious mountain bikers? We’ve already had discussions on the forum about whether sponsorship of pro teams makes any difference to the purchases of cynical cyclists, but what do you think about links to folk outside the sport?

Still, at least McRae does do the ‘forests at huge speeds, with fractional margin of error and enormous skill and nerve thing’ that we all aspire to repeat in some way on our humble push irons.