Kona Wozo | Garry Davoren’s Fat Shredder
February 13th, 2017
By Andrew Dodd in Bikes,Features
Kona Wozo – not your typical fat bike
Fat bikes aren’t the sort of MTB’s that usually make us turn a head, but when we saw Kona R+D rider Garry Davoren at shredding a lightweight prototype in Serfaus Fiss Ladis bike park last year, it genuinely caught our eye. The unnamed bike he was riding was light, had aggressive geometry and he was throwing it around like a trail bike.
A year on and Kona have the bike in their line up – this is the Kona Wozo…
As it stands, Garry Davoren’s Kona Wozo is essentially and aggro trail bike that can be ridden on terrain normal mountain bikes just can’t reach. But it also makes a fine back packing bike – check it out at the bottom of the page…
Designed for shredding
Based on a combination of the original Kona Wo fat bike and the popular Kona Honzo trail hard tail, the Kona Wozo was born from Garry Davoren’s idea of what a proper adventure bike could be.
Garry doesn’t mess about on his Kona Wozo – and this wall carve wasn’t exactly slow! Photo | @clearskiesaheadphoto
Garry worked extensively with the design team at Kona Bikes to develop this combination of a full-on, balls-out trail bike and an adventure-capable, all-terrain bike. The idea came from the riding that Garry does in the West of Ireland – remote adventure bike packing and severe technical cliff edge riding.
Check out this clip to get an idea of what Garry gets up to…
Frame design
Made from 7005 Aluminium, the frame really does look more like the Honzo at a glance – with a compact back end and long front triangle. Chain stays measure 420mm, which keeps the bike agile and emphasises the traction on offer by the massive tyres.
Clearance is no problem though – even with a 4in tyre.
Head angle is 69degrees, which may sound steep considering how slack many full suspension trail bikes are going, but it compliments the huge tyres and enables responsive handling.
The front end is plenty long enough too – a size large has a reach of 480mm and a top tube of 655mm. Wheelbase on a large is 1211mm.
Garry Davoren’s custom build
The first thing you notice on the Kona Wozo is the enormous wheels.
Garry’s set up is running Reynolds Dean 80mm carbon rims, laced on to Hope Fatsno hubs with Sapim spokes.
Tyres are Maxxis Minion FBR – 4.8in up front and 4in out back. Garry has a close working relationship with Maxxis, and new fat bike rubber in constantly being tested and improved with his real world ideas.
Keeping the Maxxis rubber plugged is Orange Seal tyre sealant.
Garry’s Kona Wozo is running a set of inverted Fat Lab forks – expect a detailed look at these soon!
Up front on Garry’s Kona Wozo is a Fatlab 120mm inverted dual-air fork. It’s tuned by Garry for the Wozo, and is subject to ongoing development as part of Garry’s role as a FatLab Test Pilot.
Garry’s personal Kona Wozo runs on a SRAM Eagle 1x12set up – giving him enough gearing to match the insane traction available from the 4in Maxxis tyres. There’s also a Hope bottom bracket plugged in with Hope cranks – for maximum durability out in the wilderness.
Gary runs Hope Tech3 E4 brakes with floating rotors, and completes his Hope set up with a stem and headset.
For contact points it’s a Renthal Carbon FatBar Lite with Ergon grips, and an Ergon saddle perched on a Crank Brothers Highline dropper post. Garry chooses the Crank Brothers Mallet E pedal – giving him plenty of perch for tricky terrain, but a lightweight platform,
When venturing out on big missions, Gary runs Topeak bike-packing gear on his Wozo – which is both tough and very light weight. It’s a great compliment to this awesome looking bit of kit.
We liked the look of Garry’s Wozo so much that we’ve been in contact with him about planning a trip to Ireland to ride with Gary and his Disruptive Adventure crew this summer. We cannot wait!
Check out this great video of Garry out on a microadventure with his friend William O’Connor…
