Kona bikes
Kona Bikes is a bicycle manufacturing company in Ferndale, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded in 1988 by Jacob Heilbron, Dan Gerhard and Joe Murray (Murray has since left the company) Kona bikes have become a firm favorite amongst biking enthusiasts.
The company name is derived from a district in Hawaii called Kailua-Kona. The first Kona bikes started out being named after Hawaiian Volcanos or words but this was later changed in favor of humerous names such as,the Stinky, Shred, Coiler and Stab. Two earlier names Sex One and Sex Two were deemed unacceptable following complaints and were quickly dropped.
Kona bikes are highly regarded especially in the field of competitive mountain biking. Also known for producing racing and touring bicycles the Kona bike company is better known as a specialist in high-performance mountain bikes.
The Kona bike company has been a long term supporter of many cycling projects and have lent their name to several fundraising events in aid of the cycling world. Most projects have been concerned with creating parks and trails for bike riding to allow riders to test and improve their skills, which in turn helps to further the sport of mountain bike riding in all its different aspects.
Nowadays Kona bikes are a mainstay at most of the major mountain bike sporting events around the world, and even outside of the sporting world the name of Kona bikes has become widely recognized through much of its humanitarian work. Africa has been one of Kona's main concerns, where cycles have been donated by the company to aid health care workers in their efforts to control diseases such as AIDS and HIV. The donation of Kona bikes has helped with the delivery of medication to patients and other much needed services.
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