Red2 Custom Bicycle: First Ride video: Kona Process DL and Satori

BikeRadar puts the Process DL, Kona’s new all mountain and enduro bike through its paces and finds its stiff, plush ride a joy when the trail points down. The Kona Satori 29er is high performing all-rounder. It’s built for heavy hitting thanks to 140mm front and 130mm rear travel but performs extremely well on rolling terrain too.

Please install Adobe Flash player to view this content

Kona Process DL

Ride and handling: stiff, plush all-mountain machine

Climbing isn’t the Process DL’s primary purpose. It’s not the lightest bike in the world, and going uphill with the suspension left alone resulted in it bobbing, which wasn’t helpful for power transfer. Fortunately the Monarch Plus shock comes with compression adjustment and the ability to effectively add 50lb and 125lb of damping to push against when climbing. This certainly reduces the pain, but doesn’t eliminate it completely. The relaxed head angle can also make more technical climbs a little tricky, as can the reasonably long wheelbase (46.9 inches in a large). However, the 24x36 bottom gear makes the bike more than winchable up a hill, so technical climbs are certainly not off the menu.

Being fair to the Process, it’s a bike designed to hits the descents hard. The weight, length and head angle immediately give a sense of stability when the trail points down. The 160mm Lyric fork coped well with big and small hits, being supple enough to reduce the chatter of repeated hits through rock gardens. It also coped well with drops and jumps and there were no obvious bottom-out clunks. The stiff chassis afforded by the bolt-through axle, power bulges and 35mm stanchions kept steering precise.

With its large section tubing, tapered head tube and bolt-through rear end, the frame (which is common to the cheaper Process) is certainly stiff enough, allowing you to push the bike hard into corners and through rocky sections without too much fear of being knocked off line. In long, fast corners, the bike compresses into its travel a little, hugging the ground, inspiring the confidence to push it further. The HighRoller 2 tyres hook up well on both dry and softer ground, although there is a slight no-mans land when the bike is rolled between the central and edge treads, though this just encourages you to lean the bike more.

The Monarch shock performed well, giving consistent feel. With minimal stiction, it felt super plush, soaking up small and big hits alike. The only time we caught it out was with a completely uncomposed drop to flat where the shock bottomed out, although at that point it was set up softer to cope better with fast rock gardens, as opposed to big drops.

Frame and equipment: the top quality spec lets you hit the trail hard

We rode the highest-spec £4399 Process DL, which comes with a 160mm Lyric RC2 fork, XO groupset, and RockShox Monarch Plus HV RC3 shock.

The package as a whole is very cohesive - there are no obvious flaws in the specification and everything is clearly designed to create a bike suited to descending, while also possessing the ability to help you climb where possible.

The frame is built from 6069 aluminium, designed around a 66 degree head angle and 73.4 degree seat angle. Holding it all together is the RockShox Monarch Plus HV RC3 shock, which is simple to set-up through its Solo Air design. Thanks to the Monarch’s adjustability from the dual flow rebound adjustment, you can set rebound speeds for small and big hits.

Increasingly, dropper seatposts are infiltrating gravity-orientated bikes, giving the rider the ability to adjust saddle heights for climbing and descending on the fly. The Process DL comes with the excellent RockShox Reverb Stealth, with its hydraulic line concealed inside the seat tube, reducing the risk of it getting snagged on passing foliage and rocks, and also keeping the lines of the bike clean.

The wheels are an important part of the package on a bike like this; they need to be wide and strong, stiff enough to shrug off big hits, while also light enough to get you to the top of the hill without busting a gut. Kona have achieved this by including a full Stan’s wheelset with Stan’s hubs and Stan’s Flow EX rims. Stiffness is aided by a 20mm bolt through the front and a 142x12 bolt-through at the rear. The Process rolls on 2.4 inch Maxxis High Roller 2s, which benefit from the extra puncture resistance from the EXO sidewalls.

The cockpit is taken care of by Raceface’s 758mm wide Atlas bar and short 50mm stem. Contact points are handled by Kona G-LOG grips, a WTB Volt saddle and Kona Wah Wah pedals.

Kona Satori - first impressions

Sporting 140mm front and 130mm of rear travel, the Satori is one of the new breed of bigger-hit 29er trail bikes, having burst onto the scene in 2012. With its big wheels, longer travel and nimble handling, at first glance the Satori appears to be ideal for the UK gravity enduro racer.

Ride and handling: smooth and stable to help push your limits

You’d expect this bike to ride well in all situations – and for the most part it doesn’t disappoint. At 33lb (14.8kg) although it’s not the lightest bike in the world, the 29 inch wheels and 26x36 lowest gear make climbing on a range of surfaces perfectly acceptable. In ‘Trail’ mode, pushing a higher gear out of the saddle does induce energy-sapping bob, but with the shock in ‘Climb’ this is mitigated – you’ve just got to remember to switch it on and off. At speed though, hitting short power climbs in a lowish gear, even in ‘Trail’ mode, it was a very capable climber, with the rear wheel offering plenty of traction on looser surfaces.

The Satori excels on rolling terrain and the trail modes on both the shock and fork keep the bike stable and responsive, pedalling well. The 29 inch wheels just seem to roll over everything, resulting in a very smooth ride, and once up to speed they provide the momentum to carry you through rougher sections with ease. In tighter sections, the bigger wheels and relatively slack head angle mean that handling is slightly compromised, but you’d only really notice this very occasionally.

This smoothness and the stability afforded by the stiff frame and forks mean that fast, rough descents are handled well – this was especially noticeable on some of the faster rocky trails where we rode the bike in Spain. Instead of having the rear wheel pinging around, the back end was very composed through rock gardens, with the suspension rarely being pushed to its limits.

Heading into steeper terrain and with the saddle dropped out of the way, the Satori performed well. Thanks to the large wheels and choice of tyres there was plenty of grip on offer, which along with the powerful brakes, aided control on loose surfaces. The only real issue was the tendency of the fork to dive slightly under light braking but having the suspension tuned, or adding a slightly heavier weight oil may help with this.

The only comment on the rest of the components is that we feel this bike would benefit from a shorter stem and wider bars. The shorter stem would quicken up the handling in tighter sections, and wider bars would really let you muscle the bike around – the Satori could be a real hooligan if you let it.

Frame and equipment: dependably specced to keep you out all day

The frame is constructed from Kona’s Race Light 6061 aluminium, with suspension handled by its Swing Link design - there to allow longer travel on their 29er frames. The BB92 bottom bracket enables the use of bigger weld junctions to increase stiffness, as does the tapered head tube, which features a zero-stack headset. Further stiffness is gained from having a 142x12 rear bolt-through axle to keep the rear wheel tracking where it should be.

In keeping with its all mountain roots, Kona have specced components which take the hits without giving away too much weight. The Fox 34 CTD fork offers 140mm of stiff, plush, controlled suspension with 34mm stanchions and a 15mm front axle. The CTD system allows you to simply adjust the compression settings for climbs, trails and descents, keeping the fork doing what it should be. Shimano’s excellent SLX groupset drives the bike forward, with SLX brakes on hand to stop you.

The Satori benefits from a stiff set of wheels, which allow you to ride it as intended – hard and fast. WTB tubeless-ready hoops spin on SLX hubs, with a 2.4 inch Maxxis Ardent on the front and 2.25 inch High Roller on the rear. With enduro bikes benefiting from dropper posts, Kona have included the Kronolog from Crank Brothers. The rest of the finishing kit is largely made up of own-brand items and a WTB Volt Comp saddle.