Price: £1,199.00 / From: Kona, konaworld.com
The Kona Unit has a long history, from a Canadian company with an equally deep heritage. While Kona celebrates its 30th birthday in 2018, the Unit name dates back at least half that. The Unit was (and still is) Kona’s cross-country singlespeed bike. Afiordable and fun and fast, it was one of the first ever ‘production’ singlespeed mountain bikes and it’s still in the line today. Kona continues to delight its many fans by producing some incredible bikes, many of which seem a touch too edgy for the mega corporations to come out with, but which seem to sit well with Kona’s slightly anti-establishment, or at least devil-may-care stance. We’ve previously tried, and liked, the carbon Honzo, the Process and the Hei Hei Trail in the last couple of years and none have disappointed.
What then is this? The Unit X takes that challenging, fun singlespeed attitude of that original Unit and adds just enough gears that it’s no longer such a stupid idea. Especially if your knees aren’t what they were in 2003 (ahem…). Kona has taken that skinny steel frame and rigid fork and added 11 wide-ranging gears without seemingly reducing that sense of attitude, or compromising that classic Kona silhouette. The singlespeed Unit still remains in the range, but now we can leave that for the youngsters.