Posted in category: Reviews
Nov 14 2009
It was the perfect opportunity - a sunny warm forecast in November and an invite to ride the new Kona Abra Cadabra with our local Kona-master Dik. Other appointments were rescheduled and we met at the DB North Van for some North Shore fun.
The Abra Cadabra is the top model of Kona’s all-new ighter Magic Link bikes. It’s big brother the CoilAir debuted in 2009 with a first version Magic Link, and that bike has also been fully redesigned for 2010. The Magic Link is the heart of the new suspension design - a secondary spring-loaded linkage attached to the main rear shock that actuates under larger loads to increase and soften the rear travel, and simultaneously slackening head angle. Sounds Magic….
While the CoilAir features 5.5” of rear travel that “expands” to 7”, the all new Cadabra bike is more XC/All mountain oriented, with 4” of rear travel that expands to almost 6”, and is mated with a 150mm Fox 32 fork. This combined with a sleek looking Scandium frameset provides a light bike that promises a unique level of trail riding versatility.
The planned two hour ride turned into almost four hours as we took advantage of great conditions and rode a variety of Mt Seymour trails. Although only one long ride, I came away with a few impressions of the new bike:
- The magic link definitely works. Sure, when just bouncing on the bike, it felt a bit strange, even springy. But when on the trail, it ranged from barely noticeable, to very apparent when dropping off ledges or hitting large impacts, g-ing out through low points or corners. The geometry change was definitely different than other suspension designs but it quickly became familiar and it was easy to push the bike harder as you got used to teh behaviour.
- This bike is very nimble for a bike with 6” of travel. It felt like a shorter travel bike on the climbs and flats but seemed to grow longer legs on the descents.
- It is an excellent climber. We did some steep, technical climbing and given the wet nature of the trails it climbed like glued to the ground with little need for position gymnastics - just smooth power kept it climbing.
- suspension set up is key. We fiddled a bunch before the ride to set up the correct magic link preload and air pressures. With these right, everything worked very well.
The overall first impressions are very positive on this new bike. The second generation of the Magic Link not only looks better, it seems to work extremely well. Different Bikes will have a full demo fleet of these bikes by early 2010 when they become available. Come and try one for yourself!
Learn more about this bike here
