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2012 Kona King Zing Road Bikes, Made in Italy by Dedacciai

2012 Kona King Zing carbon fiber road bike made in Italy by Dedacciai
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2012 Kona King Zing carbon fiber road bike made in Italy by Dedacciai

Kona recently introduced their all-new King Zing carbon fiber road bike. It’s made in Italy by Dedacciai, uses custom designed “spined” stays and sports a pretty solid component spec for the price. So why haven’t we heard about it?

We asked Kona just that, here’s the response and some details on the new road bikes:

“People see us as a mountain bike company, which is really how we started, but we’re all roadies here, too,” said Dewey, Kona’s head designer. “I guess we need to hire a better marketing manager,” he joked.

“We do all kinds of road bikes, and we’ve done titanium models in the past and had some of the earliest sloping top tube frames. And we’ve been doing different forms of carbon bikes for a while, and over time we’ve run the gamut from bonded to monocoque. With our new King Zing, we looked at our changing volume-versus-cost dynamic. In the past, we haven’t had the volume to put a lot of money into road bikes. Now, though, we’ve done enough business with Deda that they said we could take one of their frames and customize it to make it Kona. So we’ve modified the stays heavily, with all of our work really done from the seat tube back.”

Whip past the break for frame details…

2012 Kona King Zing carbon fiber road bike made in Italy by Dedacciai

Kona started the process by laying out the numbers they wanted. The Deda frame they used had the geometry they desired, so their energy could be focused on making the bike feel they way they wanted through the stays. Their product manager Pat White fine tuned the ride to match what he’d been looking for out of their past bikes.

Both seat- and chain stays have a sort of flattened, twisting and pinched shape, making it look simultaneously aero and curvy. The front end has a tapered head tube with inset headset and full carbon monocoque fork, also from Dedacciai. Kona says the result is a bike that smooths out harsh roads and track well while still being able to go fast.

The King Zing is the top model and retails for $3,099 with a mostly Ultrega drivetrain and Mavic Ksyrium Equipe wheelset.

2012 Kona Zing Supreme carbon fiber road bike made in Italy by Dedacciai

The Zing Supreme uses the same frame and fork but steps down to a Shimano 105 (Ultegra Rear Der.) group with Mavic Aksium wheels. Retail is $2,299.

Frame weights are about 1200g for a 53, 1260g for a 56, 1300g for a 59. Fork is 400g. Dewey says that had it a bit lighter but reinforced the rear end a bit more for production.

2012 Kona Zing Deluxe alloy road bike with Dedacciai carbon fork

The Zing Deluxe (above, 105 and Shimano wheels, $1,499) carries over the geometry from some of their prior road bikes but get a little new tube shaping using Kona Race Light 7005 Superplastic-formed tubes.

2012 Kona Zing alloy road bike with Dedacciai carbon fork

The base Zing uses Kona Race Light 7005 butted tubing, but both bikes get a Dedacciai carbon fork. This one retails for $1,049 with a Sora/Tiagra mix and Shimano wheels.

Related: Check our visit to their press launch for 2012 mountain bikes here.

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Uri
Uri
12 years ago

Funny, I’d expect Deda finishing kit.

Darwin
Darwin
12 years ago

It is extremely likely this bike is made in China. I would bet on it. Companies in Italy can say something is made there if minimal finishing work or even painting is apples to it. None of the “made in Italy” carbn frames are actually made there. It’s a scam.

Turbofrog
Turbofrog
12 years ago

I’m so bored of people decrying Asian-made bike frames. Let’s say it out loud now: “I don’t know anything about the quality of the specific factories making these bikes, so I’m basing my beliefs on slightly racist stereotypes.”

There’s stuff that comes out of Taiwan that has astonishing quality and attention to detail, especially when price is taken into account. There’s also stuff that comes out of Italy that has seriously shoddy workmanship, especially when price is taken into account.

(And before I get any hatemail, one of my bikes is a late-60s Legnano Gran Premio with Campy Record parts. Google it.)

fox69r
fox69r
12 years ago

I think what Darwin referring to as a scam is that bike companies based outside Asia can buy frames that are made in the Far East, ship it to their destination eg, Italy. The bike company then have it painted and decaled with their logos and then called it made in Italy. I believe this is totally misleading to the general public as most take for granted by reading “made in” sticker usually found on the seat tube and believe what it says. Savvy cyclist can do research on the internet and buy frames/bikes from Asia and save a lot of money.

Saddlelight
12 years ago

Thank you Turbofrog! If everything is made in China or Taiwan, and I’ve ridden and currently own some great carbon products, then what’s the tainted beef? We all know that “Made in Italy” just means quality controlled by Italian companies (they have a pretty great track record if you ask me). Good for Kona stepping out and offering solid products at competitive prices… we will all benefit from this.
I do have to say it looks a lot like an early ’00’s tarmac minus the zertz though.

Rod
Rod
12 years ago

It’s easy for anyone fooled by shiny-bit-marketing-hype to believe those of us who prefer to keep some sort of manufacturing job at home are racist. The truth: Taiwan has an advantage on bicycle manufacture. On this I this there’s little debate. My problem specifically is that the bikes still cost the same for the US consumer. Example: Cannondale Scalpel costs $X made in PA. Cannondale moves to Taiwan, still costs $X. 200+ lost jobs.

Let’s see how bored you get when YOUR job gets exported.

BTW, What Darwin said is true. I live in Italy.

Steve M
Steve M
12 years ago

I have purchased Deda carbon frame build kits “made in Italy”. Inside the tubes and the seat and chainstays were Asian QC stickers. I think what riles “us” up it the deceptive marketing that is rampant in the industry.

ShopMechanic
ShopMechanic
12 years ago

@Steve: I’ve also seen the Chinese QC stickers inside “Italian Made” frames.

Rod, you make a some great points and I couldn’t agree with you more. I can’t help but wonder if the high price is intended to cover warranty claims for cracked frames. The failure rate of high-end carbon frames that I see in my shop is astonishing. The cost of all those free replacement frames have to add up.

Steve M
Steve M
12 years ago

Been around long enough to see the bike industry go from steel (where the big deal was a Columbus SP downtube on a SL frame kit) to aluminum, then metal matrix’s, titanium, then carbon. Manufacturers hype the material then the others run like lemmings to keep up with the perceived “next big thing”. What’s after carbon? Magnesium? Berylium? or does it just cycle back around to some super steel?

Gillis
Gillis
12 years ago

@Steve M: whatever the next big material is you won’t see it here first. Look at aerospace and F1.

All you are going to see for a while is the continued refinement of carbon. 10 years ago we had carbon road frames. Now we have carbon Boeing’s and downhill frames.

A friend of mine who does R&D for Boeing told me that they have a library’s worth of data on metals and alloys, and when they started the 787 only a handful on carbon. Now that its flying they have amassed so much that they won’t see the real benefits of the material until the 2nd or 3rd gen of that plane.

That data will trickle down to bikes and eventually you’ll start seeing some real trick carbon.

Nate
Nate
12 years ago

In the U.S., in order to say “Made In America”, 51% of the parts must be made there. It’s the law, look it up. In Italy, “Made In Italy” is a joke. Sure, there are companies like Tommasini that make everything in-house, but if a frame made in, say, China, was sent to Italy for painting, it can be labeled “Made In Italy”. This is not an indictment on the quality of Asia vs Europe; it just shows how one can get by the Italy loophole.

Robin
Robin
12 years ago

Who cares? It’s about how the bike works under you isn’t it? There’s plenty of crap that’s made almost entirely in Italy or in the US.

Stupid Question
Stupid Question
12 years ago

Would anyone be debating the whole “Made In” thing right now if Merckx had won everything on a bike made in China? What if the roles were reversed and 50 years ago bikes made in Asia were what everyone was winning on….would people be blasting bikes “Made in Italy” right now?
Wake up folks. The world moves pretty fast these days, and it’s not that far out of the realm of possibility that bicycle manufacturing could end up moving to yet another country all together very soon….and you all just might be yearning for the “good old days” when quality production was done in China.

missing the point?
missing the point?
12 years ago

The concerns I have with Chinese made goods are not quality related. My biggest concerns are human rights, the environment, and the loss of american manufacturing jobs, in that order.

Mackeroo
Mackeroo
12 years ago

This is a great discussion!
I recently went to Eurobike and was amazed by the number of ‘off-the-shelf’ frames on the Tawain booths that then appeared on the glitzy Euro/US booth next to it, and then the next one next to that! Kona had more than one frame in that catergory. Marketing sells. Fact.
I guess there is still some romance in buying something made in Italy, or USA, or UK, but truth be told I think the quality and technology is in the Far East now – and labour costs are still a no-brainer.
Also, how far do we have to take the concept of ‘made in country X’? Surely materials and components for any manufactured product are sourced from around the world nowadays? The fact that the carbon components for a frame come from the Far East and the paint is from Italy is just assembly of constituent parts, isn’t it?
@Gillis – your points about Boeing are interesting as I have a friend who works for Airbus who told me a similar story about carbon fibre in the new A400M – they had to break a lot of new ground with it.

marconroy
marconroy
10 years ago

I think everyone of the above comments seem to have lost the plot.. the debate as to wheather these frames are made in italy or china is getting away from the issue.. the bike itself! i bought one of these beauties last month.. still in the box as i dont intend using it in winter.. i also own an older model zing supreme which i later discovered has pretty much the same spec as the top of the range king zing featured here! in fact kona have rowed back on the spec quite a lot as earlier king zing models, they came dressed in dura ace from head to toe and without sounding to snobish i think a 105 front mech on this model is just a cutback to far!!! all in all thou if you compare this bike to simular priced machines you will find the kona hard to beat especially if like me you manage to locate a half priced bargain!

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