Price: £2199.95

Frame: Easton Scandium main tubes, triple butted stays.

Fork: Rock Shox SID SL.

Stop: Avid MAG.

Go: XTR rear mech, XT front, shifters and chainset, Shimano SPD’s.

Wheels: Mavic Crosslink, Hutchinson Mosquito Air light 26 x 2.0 tyres.

Trim: Race Face Prodigy stem, Easton Carbon Monkey Lite bar, Kona Pseudopod Glow grips, SDG Satellite SL Leather Ti saddle, American classic seatpost

Total weight: 23.6lb complete.

From: Second Level Sport 01784 251000

Test logbook
Only 3 hours on this one, but they were about as chaotic, filthy and technical as we could have managed without going to Vancouver.

The Explosif has been Kona’s lightweight race and XC warrior since they hit these shores back in 1989. Don’t expect any stretched speed iron with minimal technical capability though, Konas have always been renowned for their singletrack capability and the Explosif takes this mix of synapse fast handling and agility with planted stability to its high performance conclusion (if you don’t count the exotic titanium King Kahuna). Last year they switched from the steel frames that had always characterised the Explosif to Easton’s new Scandium tubeset, and this year they’ve added even more tempting components from the sweet trolley.

When scandium was introduced it came with a barrage of hype about Soviet missile fins slicing through the polar ice cap which might well be true, but Easton’s SC7000 alloy is more concerned with reducing weight and maintaining strength than scaring penguins. The tubeset itself is a taper butted minimal weight beauty. It’s only available in main tube (top tube, down tube, seat tube) fornat though, so the rest of the mix is triple butted aluminium with cold forged lattice dropouts, bottom bracket and machined headtube joining it all together.
The layout is typical Kona, with long sloped top tube for big clearance and seat tube extended above the top tube with a forward facing clamp slot to keep out filth. Thin seatstays, and assymetric chainstays plug into Kona’s new lattice dropouts complete with international standard disc mounts and hose guides ready and waiting.

We don’t normally comment on the paintwork as it’s a personal taste matter, but we have to say we absolutely loved the Explosifs white front-black rear, which is straight off Chas Robert’s mid 90’s DOGS BOLLOX custom specials. They’ve also taken the time to colour match stem and saddle in as well for spectacularly spanky looks. Nice.

Settle your hands onto the big succulent flanged grips (luminous so, err, you can find them at night?) and you can feel your grin spreading to match the mid-width riser bars. It’s immediately obvious this is a bike to be flung through the woods, leaving your mates trailing far behind.

The shock comes when you step on the gas and the Explosif nearly leaves you sitting on your arse in its wake. Take another look at those riser bars and you’ll notice they’re the ultralight but buzz-cutting Easton Monkey Lites and the weight saving carries right through the spec. Avid Mag brakes, SDG titanium saddle (apparently with specially light foam) Rock Shox SID SL forks, Hutchinson tyres and XTR, XT kit all hung on a compact Scandium frame all contribute to the lightening acceleration. It’s not the 21.9lb the Kona catalogue claims (which bits do they leave out?) but at 23.6lb this is still a seriously lightweight wagon.
Yet there’s no feeling of fragility or hysterical featherweight twitches. The ultra butted frame, triple butted stays and carbon bars lay a silky smoothness between rider and the trail, but all the vital traction and trail surface feedback is acutely felt for wringing maximum speed and cornering slide from the fat but lightly treaded tyres. The lightweight front end is supremely liftable for cut and paste technical corrections, and the steering can be flicked into treacherous autumn corners with full assurance that any slide can be tweaked and corrected before it exits altogether.

The compact rear end with its deep chainstays combine with the hollow arms and big bore bottom bracket axle to transmit your power straight to the trail, while the long top tube gives plenty of room to heave and breathe, or shift weight back and forth to slide either end through corners at will.

Rock Shox’s SID is run at 80mm of travel to handle the hits you can’t avoid, though it’ll shimmy and flex slightly in protest if you belt it into blunt stuff or wrestle it up climbs. Fully adjustable positive and negative air pressure means the fork can be set up entirely to taste and the new ‘Pure’ damping cartridge with adjustable rebound and compression (including full lockout switch damping) floats your bars seamlessly once you’ve got it set up right.

So if the frame and handling are a demonstration of applied singletrack supremacy does the kit match up?

Running from front to back we’re all in favour of the big flange grips for keeping your hands in place when everything else is in freefall, and they’ll provide “right, now turn the light off” amusement for the blissfully simple folk you know (well we chuckled more than once anyway). There is no better singletrack bar than the Monkey Lite, and that’s that. Don’t fret about the carbon build or lightweight, they’re guaranteed for life and we’ve not heard of anyone who’s had to claim. Race Face’s Prodigy range is their budget selection but it held the bars and bike together fine. Avid Mag brakes have lost no fucntion when they’ve lost weight and anchorage is pin sharp and plentiful. XT chainset and bottom bracket are the lightest and stiffest around and XT, XTR transmission does the do with few equals.

We haven’t seen American Classic gear for ages, and we’re not sure if it’s making a comeback or Kona just found a load of old ones in a store cupboard, but they’re light and durable enough from what we can remember. SDG saddle also gets the thumbs up as one of the more survivable lightweights.

Mavic’s Crosslink wheels aren’t much lighter than conventional mid price gear though they aren’t as easy to find spares from, but they look very smart. Can’t comment on how the bearings last after 3 hours but Mavic have always been pretty good in the past. The round profile Hutchinsons are light for acceleration, with a fair amount of shock absorbtion, but while they roll smoothly into corners only the Explosif’s superb handling stops them sliding straight out the far edge in the wet.

It might be black and white but the Explosif isn’t that clear cut. Scandium frames are normally the preserve of stiffback race irons but this bike is laden with Kona’s insatiably playful character. It’s certainly light and fast enough to race, but we’ve a feeling you’d get bored of chasing wheels and just want to get back and do the technical singletracky bits again, which – from experience – does little for podium hopes.The singletrack handling isn’t as solid and planted as heavier hardcore specialists, and the SID’s are nervous if you confront them with anything too big or steep, compared to say Marzocchi, Pace or Rock Shox’s own Psylo’s. However this bike has instant agilty which a skilled rider can use just to bypass the really threatening stuff and leave the big hitters trailing in it’s hard kicking wake.

The rest of the kit is about as close to what we’d have personally chosen as you could hope for (though you’ll want to change the tyres for winter work) and the whole lot comes in at just under £2000, which seems like a good price for the packaged performance you get. We were very sorry when it had to go home so quickly.

We’re not sure why Kona’s Canadian team have called their collection of bikes a Klump, but then again we’re not sure why they like Ice Hockey either. So if you want to have a look at the rest of the bikes click here but if you think we’ll link to an ice hockey website too you must be joking.