First Look: Kona Process 153 & 134 – Pinkbike

Worth a watch.

Frame details

Carbon frames feature fully-guided internal cable routing, with a Y connector to make it easier to route the rear brake hose on either side of the head tube. Meanwhile, alloy ones have fully external routing (save for the dropper post) for easier home maintenance.

There’s an accessory mount under the downtube plus room for a full-size water bottle. Frame protection has been improved, and Kona uses the same widely available pivot bearings across their Process range to make it easier to order spares.

There are no specific numbers on the seatpost insertion depth, but the L and XL sizes come with 200mm posts and the M and S come with 175mm. Kona says some aftermarket 240mm posts will fit on the XL and L sizes.

Suspension

Predictably, Kona are sticking with their linkage-driven single-pivot suspension layout. This is sometimes called “faux-bar”, because it looks like a Horst-link four-bar, but the rear axle is directly connected to the main pivot.

The leverage ratio has been tweaked to offer 16% progression throughout the stroke (in the case of the 153 with 29″ wheels) which should be just enough to play nicely with coil shocks but is probably better suited to air (all models come with air shocks). Anti-squat is fairly generous but not excessive, so it should behave neutrally while pedalling.

The leverage ratio and travel increase slightly with a 27.5″ rear wheel compared to 29″ (as is often the case), so this may require a slightly different shock setup.

Geometry

While reach numbers have grown and head angles have slackened, Kona isn’t doing anything too wild with the Process’s shape. The chainstays remain at 435 mm throughout the size range and for both models – there isn’t the chainstay length adjustment you’ll find on Kona’s Process X.

Seat tube angles aren’t particularly steep, and get slightly slacker in larger sizes. In recent years we’ve seen more brands moving to steeper seat tubes for taller riders, to compensate for the more rearward weight bias they otherwise experience.

Builds