REVIEW: The Kona Honzo ESD - The Slackest Hardtail I've Ridden To Date - Hardtail Party 

Casually rides down a double black while chatting to a audience

Thanks Kona, really stoked to see Hardtail Party's opinion on this bike.

Do you need help deciding which bike to purchase next? I offer a one-on-one bike consultation service through patreon. It's how I put food on the table for my family, and how I'm able to provide custom bike advice for my vieewrs. Become a patron today for access: sign up for the monthly bike consultation tier, and cancel at any time. Most people sign up for a month or two, and we work together to discuss their needs, riding style, etc. to narrow down the list of all the great hardtails out there. When they get the info they need and they no longer have any questions, they cancel. Become a patron today: patreon.com/hardtailparty. If my videos have saved you time or money, consider supporting this channel for as little as $5/month. Support individual content creators over garbage tv or sponsored content disguised as reviews. A few more things... 1) Don't have time to watch the whole review? Skip to the summary at 20:34. 2) This is a fantastic bike, one of my all-time favorites for steep terrain. It needs steep terrain. If you don't have trails that are so steep that they're hard to hike/walk down, you don't need something this slack. 3) Yes, slack bikes can climb extremely well. 4) When I say the fork is "diving", I don't mean it's diving under braking, or it's not supportive. The Z1 is a fantastic fork and it felt great. What I am feeling is after multiple successive hits of 12-24" ledges, I feel the front end changing geo over and over, and it's a bit like a bucking bronco. A shorter travel fork does this less. 5) This trail is steeper than it looks on video. 6) I love how quiet this bike is. 7) In the beginning, shimano cassettes creaked, and a little disc/washer would quiet it down. But that was months ago. This is an SLX cassette on an SLX hub. If it requires a disc to quiet it down, that's bad. And if it DOES require that, it should come with them, I shouldn't have to add it as an aftermarket. 8) I still don't know why this came with 175mm cranks with a -63mm drop. 9) I LOVE the external cable routing. Listen to how silent this is. 10) I love the sliding dropouts. 11) This bike could absolutely be my only bike. It's super fun to goof around on in the parking lot. 12) The price is spot on with this bike. Aside from the crank length, there's nothing else that really needs to be changed. It's specc'ed extremely well. 13) Feel free to share this video with friends who would enjoy it. 14) These review videos are a ton of fun to make, but they're extremely time consuming. I don't have a bike sponsor (so I can remain neutral in these reviews), which means I rely on my patrons to support this channel. If you learned something from this review, and you benefited from it, consider becoming a patron today at patreon.com/hardtailparty

“That’s why I mountain bike”, best line I’ve heard in a while.

I’m super glad that Kona hooked it up by sending it to you! You deserve a connection to all of the brands because you’re filling a huge hole in the MTB segment in my opinion. It feels like all publications have “moved on” with full suspension and outside of known bike parks and gnarlier trails hard tails are just as important as the full squish bikes. I just don’t get it, but you know it’s great that there’s this gap in segment, because it gives you an in as a hard tail enthusiast to fill the gap and reignite the hard tail excitement. Keep up the solid work mate. The footage and your editing are top notch. I’m waiting for the eventual invite from Seth from Berm Creek to shred his backyard trail, that would be a super solid collab. Shred on!

Duuuuuuude! It's finally happened. You've ridden the Honzo ESD! YEAH BABY!

I’ve had this bike for 3 years now and still love it. Run overforked with a 160mm Lyrik Ultimate, being a bigger heavier rider (6’4” 240lbs) it gives me the mid travel support I like, the longer fork and putting a taller bar on it shortens the reach up and raises the bottom bracket slightly (because it needs it where I ride). Being from British Columbia it loves the slow to mid speed steep trails and can handle everything I throw at it, the only issue I have with it with the rear wheel tucked up underneath it makes it jump a little odd compared to my full suspension but that’s easily adjusted too, just need to remind myself of that

Steve's evolution: Full suspension -> aggressive hardtail -> singlespeed aggressive hardtail -> dirt jumper -> fixie -> unicycle.

Very excited for this review. Thanks Kona for sending this out for a review!

I have a 62° head angle and 77° seat tube angle on my Hello Dave. She climbs super well considering that everybody told me it was going to be awful, but I can't see myself going back to anything over 64° now! Waiting for this review for a while, great video, thanks 👍

Wolf tooth components makes an extended lower headset cup. Adds 10mm. Used one on my chromag.

Loved how you're talking normal while shredding! Respect!

"There's a party in the mountains and your invited" such a great slogan! 👍😀🚴‍♀️

Picking up my ESD today, in large part because of this video. Excellent content!

10:04, 'Thats so much steeper than it looks'. To me it looked like almost vertical

I have a 2014 Honzo with several upgrades. I have loved the bike but I am ready for something new. I was looking at full suspension like a stumpjumper but I think you just turned me right back around to the Honzo. Deep down, I will always be a hardtail guy! Awesome review.

Great review! I think it’s great that you’re not afraid to talk about the bikes shortcomings. I watch a lot of reviews and sometimes I feel like the reviewer might as well be a companies spokesperson. Hard to trust reviews like that. I’m so glad your followers got Kona to step up and send this bike out to you. I’ve been so on the fence about this frame since I find get one to even sit over. But where you gave this bike high scores is what is important to me for my next Hardtail so I’ll be ordering a frame the next time I’m in the shop. I love that you are going to experiment with the bike. I will be following closely.

I want to tell you how much I appreciate your channel. A few months ago I switched my interest to a quality hard tail. I started with a cross country bike and evolved to the Kona Honzo ESD. Subsequently, I just placed my deposit on a Honzo ESD @ Glacier Cycles in Whitefish, Montana. Your passion, compassion and attention to detail as it relates to a review makes your channel unique. Let Kona know I purchased the bike because of your review. It simply reaffirmed what I assumed, in extraordinary detail. Lastly, my deposit was associated with the last open spot on a large, so I heard. Thank you for the invitation to the party in the mountains !

Omg that climb just killed me just watching in the video. You did amazeballs 👊

This is great, dyude. Shared it on our JRA Cycles shop FB page. We just got these in and we're psyched!

I would like to see a video from you geared towards us full suspension riders looking at getting back into hardtails. Whether you should be looking at same geo, tire sizes, etc. as the full squish bikes you’re comfortable with or not because of x, y, or z.

I love you explain examples of what you mean when you say things like “steeper trails”.

I've built my Honzo up rather nicely but this monster is ridiculous!! Thanks for the review, as if I needed another reason to get this bike!

Just contacted my local shop! Can't wait to shred this thing around Tahoe. I'll make sure to tell them Hardtail Party sent me.

I used to own a 2005 Norco Rampage in large with a Marzocchi 66VF2 at 170mm - about a 66-67 degree head angle, 425ish chainstays... It was an absolute beast back then and was way too much bike for me, but I loved riding it no matter what or where - from XC to commuting to light freeride and downhill... Its one of 2 frames I regret selling, the other being a 2003 Iron Horse G-Spot in medium but realistically both were too small for me. The Rampage was as close to the perfect bike for me as I've ridden and whilst I do remember struggling on the climbs to get used to the slack head angle and all the travel I would own it again in a heartbeat. I love the idea of slack hardtails and trail bikes in general - I run an 05 Mongoose Teocali with a 150mm Z150 - but that Rampage will forever be the favourite...

Had a really fun time at Windrock on my ESD. This thing can take some gnarly stuff

“Where’s my bonus line?” #nope “Hang on I gotta concentrate this is a big roll” #nope again, minutes later “alright now we’re at the double black” 😂 Your content is the best, have a great weekend

That place is gnar... Youre crushing it. I have ridden a Commencal AMHT 27.5 for 6 years and loved it. Finally looking for something more trail oriented at 54 years old in Florida and the Carolinas.

Gotta say you're the real deal dude! Those lines were super hardcore for a hardtail!!! Nice work.

Agree with what you say about fork travel on a hardtail. I’ve tried pretty much everything from 180-100mm and 130mm feels like the sweet spot. I’m considering trying a taller crown race on my Pace to raise the front slightly without increasing fork travel.

Another great review, I was waiting for this one to drop. I think I’d like this bike from what you have said. I’m keen to ride one should it make it’s way to Australia.

I feel like this is the spiritual HT brother to my Marin Alpine Trail. Short chainstay, slack front end, long front center and reach, but really manageable in climbs and trails of all kinds. Maybe one day...

Something you may want to look at for the shorter travel forks. Look at the RS Pike/Yari 29+ specific forks, the 120 version has a 542mm a to c. It gives you more length to keep the BB higher, but reduces that dive you're wanting to avoid. Also the Yari can be updated to basically a Lyrik with a damper change. ;)

Thank you so much for this review!! I will definitely be tossing you some dough on the patreon, you are doing a huge service to this community!!! And as a result of this community, hard tails will progress even faster. ANYWAYS, may I suggest you also request from Kona (or do a geometry review) the 2021 Kona Honzo Steel Frame? Geo was updated this year to a 66* HT Angle and a 140mm fork. I believe that that combo is much more reasonable for your every day rider that does not have as steep of terrain, and is therefor actually a much more versatile bike than the ESD. It could even be shortened to a 130mm fork but keep the HT angle with an angle set headset. Let me know your thoughts, thanks again!!

So glad you finally got to review this bike Steve!! I’ve watched this several times already. I just emailed Yeti and Nukeproof so I hope it helps get you a couple more rad bikes in!!

I just saw an offer for this bike today and later saw this video even though i was never looking for any of them. Sometimes things line up strangely.

I can't wait to ride one of these or even own a Honzo ESD. that bike is sick and glad to have your approval on it

The first rocky climb is EPIC. Man, you have some serious skills going Up!!!

Glad to see the hardtail party getting bikes that we not only want but NEED and deserve. Hardtails deserve these sort of updates and design considerations just as much as the Full Squish does. My Staton is on backorder due to steel shortages but I cannot wait to get her on the trails in spring or traveling south to ride if I have too for a vacation in a warmer climate!

Just picked up my ESD yesterday. I’ve taken it on two rides so far. Man this thing shreds. It definitely prefers a STEEP trail.

Just bought this bike and took it for my first ride today! So far (one ride) its been awesome! The geometry gave me a huge amount of confidence going down hill and you can put your weight waaaaaaaay back while still keeping tonnes of grip on the front tire. Id say it feels better than my 2015 kona process 134 DL on everything ive ridden so far, though take that with a grain of salt as i have only done a couple hard downhill sections. Also the tires seem to have unlimited grip and were a good choice for the bike. I did notice the dumb hub noise, but its just a very minor annoyance. I havnt done any real technical climbing (just simple blue stuff), but what I have done has been pretty easy. It did cost a small fortune to buy, but that's future me's problem.

Recently discovered this channel and I'm already a massive fan, your passion for mountain biking is apparent in every video and I love it! Recently built up a Chromag Rootdown frame and finally got to take it out the other day, coming from a 67° HTA this thing is definitely slack but I loved it on the descent and the climb was still totally manageable and even enjoyable. Proud to be a part of this hardtail fan club!

Totally agree about the crank length. I love my Honzo but I pedal strike all the time!

I love my small at 5.6 fits like 👍 🧤

thank you! learned and confirmed a lot watching this. I recently built a ‘20 Nukeproof Scout and over forked it a bit with a 150 DVO Sapphire. Didn’t realize that the 1 degree slacker head angle combined with more travel would take so much getting used to. Front wheel kept sliding out on me and I feel the front diving down; you echoed exactly what I felt which was that you can’t be lazy, you need to stay over the front and be aggressive with it. On the other hand, it makes you a better rider. Great stuff!

Loved the review mate, what a great place to demonstrate what the bike can do. Great honesty to both positive, and negative. As always something new to learn, awesome info as a potential candidate for my 1st bike.

Would love to see you review the hello Dave as it's pretty much the most extreme hardtail with a 160mm fork.

What a great frame! I'd love to build that up as a basher.

Just bought my ESD last weekend. Your comments are spot on. At first it felt full on chopper bike, there's so much front wheel out front. Then again, I'm coming off a GT Peace 9r full rigid ss, so anything is going to feel different. I'm with you on getting a 130 travel fork. I'm looking into a different air cartridge for the Bomber that does just that. Also thinking of a slightly larger chainring, since I'm used to mashing the pedals. Overall, like you say it's gonna take some saddle time to get used to it and change my riding style, but I'm pumped so far. I've spent time in the past with the older Fisher X Cal and had a Carl Strong custom built around a long travel fork, this bike brings back some of those memories. Looking forward to your follow up review! Thanks.

You can always just run more air in your fork to stiffen up your 150mm fork to be closer to feeling like a 120-130mm fork.

Sick! I am in love with my 65° HT hardtail. A very small bike for someone my height, but definitely preferable to my longer full suspension bike in a LOT of cases. When it comes to bike geometry/sizing, nothing is necessarily BETTER or WORSE, just different. "Whatever bike I'm riding that day, is my favorite bike."

Very excited for this review!

thanks for the review! i'm a big fan of 11 speed XT, cheap and works great

You should def review the Honzo DL, love to hear your thought on it. Currently into the ESD and the DL. Thank you! Great video!

Best MTB review I've ever seen. Very thorough and you demonstrated instate all the points. New subscriber. Just back into MTB with a new C'dale Trail SL3. certainly a different bike for a different purpose but I'd love to see you review one.

Great review and video. Can't quite stretch the funds for a Honzo right now but currently 90% certain on a Blast 2021.

I saw when Kona shared this on their IG. Finally I'm home and can watch it. Nice review!

Your idea on having a short travel fork seems logical but have you ever tried just maxing out the tokens on a 150

Doesn't sound ideal for a single speed with the long cranks and more wandery steering, but I'm sure you'll prove me wrong. Excited for that. Great video, Steve!

Wow looks like my kind of bike! Love the short chainstays and slack head angle. Looks like that bike handled Hiline amazingly. Great review.

Your reviews are awesome buddy, really enjoying the channel, thank you from the UK 👍

Seems like we were all looking forward to this one. Great, informative and honest review, as always. Good to hear your thoughts and insight on fork travel. Currently pricing up a Pipedream Moxie but my feeling was the 160 DVO that can be bought as a frame/fork package was too much and I was more inclined toward a 140 Pike. You've really helped me out.

Nice review! I agree on the front fork sizing! Keep ‘em coming!

Great revue on the Kona. Party hard in the mountains and be safe.

I had a Trek Roscoe 8, sold it last year and bought a Kona Rove ST and never had such a fun bike. I started thinking maybe I should get a full suspension bike. Started looking again and keep coming back to this bike. Even though it is a hardtail but this bike looks like a blast. Plus I "HOPE" the steel frame is forgiving enough for me... I live in Edmonton Alberta so our trails are full of roots and a few rocks. I would like to go to the mountains do do some riding but not sure if I will get out there much. Thank for the review but you are making my thought process harder.... LOL

Solid work Steve. Would love to see this bike built into a SS with travel taken down to 130-140

I'm surprised with the drivetrain - I have the same hub and cassette and both are silent. The hub did make a little noise at first when going really slow (basically just when walking the bike around), but now it doesn't seem to make any sound at all. Glad you liked this bike overall, though, as it looks pretty sweet.

Great review Steve!! Excellent take on riding this bike on blue or XC trails mostly compared to black trails!! Really looking forward to see it under forked and single speed conversion and your take to see if it’s the right frame for the job!! Can’t wait for more videos, one of the best youtubers out there!!!☝️☝️☝️👍👍👍👍💪💪💪

Great review mate , keep up the great work 👍 I bought one about a month ago & absolutely love it 😍! So much fun 🤩 and way more capable than I thought it would be ! I came of a Scott Ransom 920 ( 170mm F&R ) Enduro bike , jumped on the Honzo and instantly loved it more than the Scott ! Not sure what the geometry comparison is but there both Medium With the Honzos reach being a little longer and I actually enjoy the extra room in the cockpit 👍 I agree with 99% of what you say about the bike & understand exactly what your saying about the 150mm shocks changing geometry 📐 when dipping low but I think for jumping it’s bang on especially nosing a landing on bigger jumps 🤔? I guess no bike can be perfect for everything/ everyone & I personally do a very wide range of riding & find it perfect 🤩 for me ! The one thing I did change was the dropper, swapping the 170 for a 210 One Up Components as I love slamming that seat out the way & the BMX feel , also it’s the same as I have on my Scott keeping the 2 bikes as similar as possible 😎 Cheers 🍻

hey Hardtail Party. I've just discovered your channel and I love the optimistic and well researched approach! I've watched a bunch of your videos now including the phases of buying a bike. I have been riding the same Yeti built Schwinn Homegrown hardtail since I bought it new in 1999. It's been a rigid single speed for over a decade. I don't ride much these days because I moved to a region where the trails are super rocky and techy and not flow trails. The fully rigid SS is less fun than trail running so I run a lot more. I'm in the market for a new bike and thinking a lot about frame geo. The new Honzo 29 DL aluminum has sliding dropouts and could be ridden as a SS -and is more slack than my old school cross country race bike like I have now. I'm comparing that vs. the Kona ESD and the RSD Middle Child - both have much more extreme frame GEO. If you could have one bike for single track in East Coast rooty, slippery, and muddy terrain what would you choose?

Awesome! Thanks, for another great review. Im really looking forward to the underforking experiment... Should result in a similar BB height to my current hardtail, but with more stable 'trail' friendly geometry.

Awesome review, very cool bike too. I recently got a meta (65 deg head angle) and I agree with your points on 'slack bike handling'. I was worried about the capabilities when I ordered it. Taking a bit to get used to how it steers, but it still works for everything. And as for climbing, my 'slack bike' is wayyy better at climbing than I thought it was going to be. Can get up anything that an XC bike can, just slower.

excellent video! I've got a Haro Subvert currently, but I'm picking up Kona as a brand and was really curious about this one!!!

One of the things I noticed with this video/bike was the sound on the chunky descents. You can practically hear the grip.

Lovely review and an amazing looking machine ! Would love to see a comparative review with the brand new steel Marin El Roy :)

DUDE 🤯 That was some great riding ! 🤘

You like all bikes like this 😉 And I see many are going the slack way . I have an RSD so can’t get this . YET

Awesome review! Been looking forward to this one.

couldn't you just firm up the fork with some more air and/or adjust the compression to get it act like a smaller travel fork rather than downforking that way maintaining the intended geo? is the fork specced with tokens in it?

Those views are stunning! Wow

Thanks for the review and thoughts. This is a pretty extreme geo! Would you take this over the BFe? Did you know the 650b BFe has a 428mm chainstay? Viewer request: Do you think you could do a tech talk on frame materials, like Reynolds 853, 4130 chromoly, 6160 Aluminum, etc?

Such a great trail choice to highlight how incredible this bike is

Awesome review as always and awesome bike! I can’t wait to see what a shorter travel fork does to it! 👍👍

Love the review, Steve! Any chance the new Honzo ST will get a redemption review?

Yes please! I love this bike.

What a joy to watch!

This makes me thinking about getting one of these instead of a Ragley next year🤔 But still excited what they will come up with😁 Very good review as Always! Thanks a lot to Kona to send you one and thanks a lot to you for your honest opinion! Thanks to you i will also put 170cranks on my current low budget build for more ground clearance🙂 To me this hub also sounds weird af! If my hub would sound like that i would be worried LoL

I totally agree with you, you have to give these modern geometry bikes time to adjust. Im a big guy and like big bikes generally. I got a hello dave a couple of months ago and at first thought id made a mistake because it is huge compared to bikes of old, but after riding it and adjusting to it over a few rides im totally used to it and it feels natural, right. I love it. Another great review

This bike is as mad as a box of frogs. I've been having so much fun on it. What I would do is buy a frame and build it up yourself you will need to bin the chanks and get something else that's not 175mm, swap the fork out for something more fun. It will take as much as a full Sus and you'll have way more fun doing it.

I've been thinking that that bike would be sweet with a 130, so I'm glad to hear that you're trying that. You might want to shorten those cranks all the way to 165 when you do though. That would fix both your issues at once.

Building a "budget" HT Ragley Big Al & bought the Z1 fork in 140mm. I've read several reviews that the fork needs volume spacers & lower pressure to keep it supple without blowing through its travel. If you play around with the fork setup let me know! Love your review & honesty about Shimano! Thanks fyi you're the only channel I let the advertising play though. lol

Thanks for the comment on shimano. I thought it was just me. My SLX does creak on my Marin Alpine Trail 7. My hardtail has the advent X and I don’t have that issue. It’s a little loud on the shift but it’s pretty quiet most of the time. Thanks for the review.

About half way through the video - would you recommend putting in a bunch of tokens/increase pressure to make the fork more resistant to diving through its last 20 mm of travel, making it more like a "130" travel fork? Glad to see you got a full review up so quickly.

Great review (as always ). Have you tried a BTR ranger ? A UK brand so probably hard to find in the USA. It sounds like exactly what you want in that it's a slack 63 degree hardtail but is designed to run a 120/130mm fork.

Looks like my kind of bike. I like the slack HTA and shorter rear. I like the bike to be playful. I guess I'm wierd with how I don't feel as stable on a steeper HTA. Longer chainstay makes a bike feel big to me, like I'm riding a tank. If I could, I would give this bike a try and attempt to buy. Mrs already told me I'm not getting another bike.

Super good video and solid review.

Great review. I have a grande Marin El Roy on order... a little afraid of how massive it is but so curious I couldn't help myself (I am 6'1 with ape arms) but see similarities with this bike which has me stoked. Great job on that Hiline descent too. Thanks for the great review.

Great review! Looks like a sweet hardtail

Looks like a rad bike! I hope you come out with Hardtail Party stem caps so I can put one on my Spot 😁

Awesome review! Now I want one with shorter crankset.. Thanks