First Look: Kona Process 153 & 134

It’s worth an hour.

Frame details

The carbon frames feature fully routed internal cable routing, with a Y connector to make it easier to route the rear brake hose to either side of the head tube. Meanwhile, the alloy ones have fully external routing (except for the dropper post) for easier housekeeping.

There’s an accessory mount under the down tube plus space for a full-sized water bottle. Frame protection has been improved and Kona uses the same rolling bearings widely available in their Process range to make ordering spare parts easier.

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

Suspension

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

The leverage ratio has been modified to provide 16% progress throughout the stroke (in the case of the 153 with 29″ wheels which should be enough to play nicely with coilover shocks, but is probably better suited for air (all models come with air shocks).

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

Geometry

While the reach numbers are up and the head angles are slack, Kona isn’t doing anything too wild with the Process’s shape. Chainstays remain at 435mm across the size range and for both models – there’s no chainstay length adjustment that you’ll find on Kona’s Process X.

The seat tube angles aren’t particularly steep and get a little steeper at larger sizes. In recent years we’ve seen more brands move towards steeper seat tubes for taller riders to compensate for the greater rearward weight bias they experience.

It builds