Born from the ethereal minds of Kona’s product group, the new 2012 Satori is a 130mm travel, aggressively oriented, all-mountain 29-inch wheel mountain bike designed to blaze through technical, rough terrain while still excelling at being light, nimble and quick of climb. We chose the name wisely. In the Zen Buddhist tradition, satori refers to a flash of sudden awareness, or individual enlightenment, and is considered a “first step” or embarkation toward nirvana. On a more specific (and somewhat weirder) tangent, satori has been described as being similar to awakening one day with an additional pair of arms. Bonus! In the case of Kona’s all-new 2012 Satori, we’ve substituted those new arms with a pair of 29-inch wheels. We think you’ll like them.

Inspired by a solid 8-year history manufacturing 29er bikes, Kona’s product group set out to create a nimble bike that provides plush suspension in a simple, light, stiff and aesthetically pleasing package. The bike features all the benefits of Kona’s long-standing commitment to 4-Bar suspension, the most notable of which being shock tune-ability. But instead of using a Walking Beam linkage configuration, the Satori uses a Swing Link design that allows increased standover for a more aggressively oriented 29er bike. Another key feature of the bike are its short chainstays, one of the main design elements contributing to its quickness and agility when it comes to more technical terrain.