Kona and Brake Therapy Team Up on D.O.P.E. System
-Floating Brake System Eliminates Brake Feedback on Long Travel Bikes-
KonaWorld – See Jack disappear. The engineers at Kona and Brake Therapy put their heads together, took some input from back-to-back World Champ Fabien Barel, Overall World Cup Champ Tracy Moseley and the Clump Freeride Team and came up with the Drop Out Performance Enhancement system, a floating caliper brake system that effectively kicks brake jack to the curb, giving riders more control and eliminating brake feedback on long travel bikes while the suspension is working.The D.O.P.E. system, which has helped Kona’s gravity riders top podiums around the world, comes as standard equipment on the Stinky Primo and Stinky Deluxe, and is available as an upgrade kit for use on all 2007 Stinky, Coiler, Coiler Deluxe, CoilAir and CoilAir Supreme “Dope Ready” bikes and frames. The system features a light, machined floater body with thrust bearings that eliminates side to side play, and remains in the frame during wheel removal.
Another benefit of the D.O.P.E. system is the flexibility to use various combinations of QR wheel vs. 12mm thru axle wheel, and fixed brake vs. floating brake setups. The system effectively gives riders a variety of brake and wheel options to choose from depending on their personal preference. The system will retail for $350 US.
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Check out www.konaworld.com/dope.htm for a video lowdown from Dr. Dew himself.
So, keep your eyes open for D.O.P.E. system equipped Konas on a hill near you. They’ll be the ones at the top of the podium.
D.O.P.E. system images courtesy of Shimano.
About the Kona Bicycle Company:
The Kona Bicycle Company designs, manufacturers and distributes more than 60 models of purpose-built, high-performance mountain, road and urban bicycles. Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Ferndale, Washington, USA, Kona bicycles are distributed worldwide in more than 60 countries through independent specialty bicycle dealers. Kona funds several professional road, mountain and cyclo-cross racing teams that include World Cup Champions, World Champions and National Champions. www.konaworld.com
KonaWorld – See Jack disappear. The engineers at Kona and Brake Therapy put their heads together, took some input from back-to-back World Champ Fabien Barel, Overall World Cup Champ Tracy Moseley and the Clump Freeride Team and came up with the Drop Out Performance Enhancement system, a floating caliper brake system that effectively kicks brake jack to the curb, giving riders more control and eliminating brake feedback on long travel bikes while the suspension is working.The D.O.P.E. system, which has helped Kona’s gravity riders top podiums around the world, comes as standard equipment on the Stinky Primo and Stinky Deluxe, and is available as an upgrade kit for use on all 2007 Stinky, Coiler, Coiler Deluxe, CoilAir and CoilAir Supreme “Dope Ready” bikes and frames. The system features a light, machined floater body with thrust bearings that eliminates side to side play, and remains in the frame during wheel removal.
Another benefit of the D.O.P.E. system is the flexibility to use various combinations of QR wheel vs. 12mm thru axle wheel, and fixed brake vs. floating brake setups. The system effectively gives riders a variety of brake and wheel options to choose from depending on their personal preference. The system will retail for $350 US.
Check out www.konaworld.com/dope.htm for a video lowdown from Dr. Dew himself.
So, keep your eyes open for D.O.P.E. system equipped Konas on a hill near you. They’ll be the ones at the top of the podium.
D.O.P.E. system images courtesy of Shimano.
About the Kona Bicycle Company:
The Kona Bicycle Company designs, manufacturers and distributes more than 60 models of purpose-built, high-performance mountain, road and urban bicycles. Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Ferndale, Washington, USA, Kona bicycles are distributed worldwide in more than 60 countries through independent specialty bicycle dealers. Kona funds several professional road, mountain and cyclo-cross racing teams that include World Cup Champions, World Champions and National Champions. www.konaworld.com
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19 Comments
- 3 0
bikertrash
(Jan 22, 2007 at 12:37)
Break therapy actually helps so much when in rocky sectuons wher you have to controll your speed. with out it your rear suspention stiffens when you break causing your rear suspention to not soak up the bumps. also on wash board it helps so much eliminating the death grip
- 3 0
husstler
(Jan 28, 2007 at 18:57)
i have used the brake therapy floating brake on a stab supreme and it felt awesome. i cant wait to get it for my coilair supreme. no brake jack at all, and no chain elongation like a true 4-bar. good for kona to make it easier to get a brake therapy kit to make the bikes better.
- 3 0
kombi73
(Jan 26, 2007 at 21:38)
My stinky does fine as a freeride bike, what it's designed for
know your bikes guys don't bash on Kona for doing research on making what some will call a better brake system
- 1 0
ptowndave
(Jan 22, 2007 at 7:47)
These things make a huge difference if you use your brakes alot. ;-) I came from a Horst-link to a single pivot and my first day with the single pivot at Whistler the brake bumps treated me like their bitch - it felt like my bike had just a few inches of travel. I put on a Brake Therapy kit and it all went away. Unfortunately, as I got better and used my brakes less, I appreciated the brake squat my bike had without the kit on. Ultimately, I took the thing off and my bike feels better setting up for corners, I think because of brake squat. I didn't know you could set them up to induce brake squat - wonder how that works. . .
- 1 0
jvnixon
(Jan 22, 2007 at 7:57)
Depending on where you attach the brake-therapy arm on the seat tube dictates what it does.
- 1 0
svettbob
(Jan 24, 2007 at 10:45)
well but the specializeds linkage works...this dont.. or well...not that god. ive ride some rides whit a friend stinky down the local mountain, and i hate the kona 4-bar linkage. 7" of travel, feels like 4". But, it works pretty good in jumps and things. but ist a single track/freeride bike. not a cowan. to make it work, you need a SOFT spring to the rear shock... but kona, hey, its going forward! alot!
- 3 2
lepricon
(Jan 24, 2007 at 18:17)
Okay, I went to Whistler and only having my hardtail, I thought I d rent a stab something... that bike was a piece of shit. It brake jacked everytime I just feathered the brakes, looking up the back end and making it soo hard to control. This dope system sounds like it would fix that but you shouldn't have people pay more to fix a problem due to SHITTY frame design.
- 1 0
hockeynut
(Jan 22, 2007 at 4:42)
Look like it would be very useful if you rode without a spring!
but for the average rider i don't think it would help you alot.
only person i see it helping are lie world cup racers like fabien barrel where 0.01 of a second can mean 1st or 2nd
pretty kool i dea though
- 1 0
bullitxl
(Jan 22, 2007 at 5:43)
Other than the fact that they integrated the Therapy system into the frame I don't see much of an improvement to the existing aftermarket Therapy system. Hell, the pricing isn't that much different than the aftermarket version. You would expect that you would see a considerable pricing improvement given the potential for mass production in association with a company like Kona. Oh well, it's still a great idea to keep the suspension active on an psuedo 4 bar linage frame like a Kona.
- 2 0
hockeynut
(Jan 22, 2007 at 11:08)
again why would you pay 350 bucks for a bar and a piece of metal with two holes in it that doesn't really help you especially if your good from what i hear
- 1 0
ov3r1d3
(Jan 22, 2007 at 17:56)
I think youre all right especially about the price!350 and the only real specialized piece is the machined bracket-you can source the rest for pretty cheap still looks good-my buddy bought the Foes version for 220 US dollars
- 2 1
dwlinkage
(Jan 23, 2007 at 12:35)
go away you stupid canadian weirdo everybody knows kona's are the most succesfull bike company around
- 1 0
jvnixon
(Jan 22, 2007 at 6:18)
Fabien Barrel setup his Brake Therapy to help INDUCE brake squat.
- 1 0
dwlinkage
(Jan 22, 2007 at 12:00)
I think it helps it gives the bike more control when braking.
- 0 2
pistol2ne
(Jan 23, 2007 at 20:45)
hahahaha Jamie are you kidingme? Lets see here, trek giant, norco are all bigger names than kona will every be. Getlowgetfast is right they should put a "dw" or a "vpp" in there frame and eliminate this problem
- 2 5
kykykyle
(Jan 28, 2007 at 12:39)
Pretty gay idea i think,
kona bikes suck,
and this is just a way of getting peoples money,
wehn this costs them like 10 dollars to make, and sell it for 350
they just want your money they could careless if you ride there bikes or not its all about the money for them
- 1 0
andy100
(Jan 22, 2007 at 17:28)
looks like the original
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