Father Christmas was kind to Connor Fearon with the delivery of his new Kona Operator! Talk about a good looking bike, all the descriptors you want to use go for it; ‘Blacks on blacks on blacks’ or ‘all black errrything’ or ‘Blackbird’ or ‘the Black knight’ or… well you get the point!
Check the style! Are we talking about the bike or Connor? Or both?
We caught up with Connor as he had just gotten delivery of his new bike which he gave us the run down on before we headed out to Kangarilla, one of the better riding spots in his hometown of Adelaide.
So what you see here is Connor’s personal World Cup rig but the good news is what you see here has the exact same angles, geometry and sizing as the public can buy from their local bike shop.The difference is that Connor’s bike is set up with sponsor/personal preference parts unlike the ‘stock’ build from your local bike shop.Regardless of whether it is a ‘stock’ build or a custom jobby pedals is always personal reference. On this day Connor was riding flats but openly admits he can see many of the benefits of clips…Something that you might want but you won’t be able to get, just yet anyway, is these prototype Maxxis tyres, ‘Spec C’ apparently… You know as much as we do!The only difference with this frame is a slightly different weave of carbon being tested by the guys at HQ, other than that as we have already said angles, geometry, size, etc are all identical to what you can buy.Carbon frame, carbon crank, titanium spring all exotic materials but who would have thought just a few years ago these parts would be as common as they are today, available for everyone?!
After discussing his bike Connor put it to use and showed us he is more than comfortable on it already which should be no surprise! You can catch Connor at the National rounds this year before he heads overseas to race the World Cups.
With this matching kit maybe we should start calling him Darth?Looking comfortable with two wheels on the ground, going past in a blur…!Weeeee!!Blackbird cleared for take off!Can corner.Higher!And more sideways…!
We also heard about a new enduro style bike he was waiting on….
