Kona Rove: Drivetrain Upgrade

Here’s the detailed Kona Rove Drivetrain upgrade. A great bike for the money, which needed a bit of tinkering to make it more user friendly!

Chaitra from the CyclingMonks team has a Kona Rove which she has used on a number of bicycle tours and adventures. She really likes the bike and intends using it for many more years.

The Rove is a gravel bike, but it was one of the earlier gravels. As such, it used completely road gearing. A Shimano Claris drivetrain, as begets an entry-level model. The gearing was a compact 50-34 chainring and an 11-32 cassette.

Kona Rove Drivetrain Upgrade

When climbing long or steep hills, she would run out of gears. Especially when touring with luggage. So before venturing out on her Cycling in Meghalaya odyssey, she decided to upgrade the drivetrain for something more climbing/ touring friendly.

Enter the Indian Bicycle Market…

Getting parts is a challenge in India. More so, if you are looking for specific left field items. There are a lot of sellers and stores in the country, but not a lot of them are knowledgeable. The extent of assistance most stores provide is trying to sell you whatever they have in stock. Irrespective of whether you need or want those parts.

David Kumar to the Rescue!

Which is why we reached out to David Kumar from Bike Bros, Shimla.

David is a Mountain Bike Racer of extraordinary capability, a skilled wrencher who builds his bikes from the frame up and most importantly, an amazing human.

The easiest way to upgrade the drivetrain would have been to swap out everything and replace it. But that would also have been the most expensive option.

David studied the current specs of the bike and suggested and shipped the most cost-efficient items to us. Stuff that would meet the goal of upgrading the drivetrain and making it more climbing friendly.

The biggest challenge we faced was the inter-compatibility of various Shimano parts. Which as anyone who has tried to change something on their bike has experienced. David made this whole puzzle a piece of cake!

Below are the parts which we changed:

1. Rear Derailleur: From Shimano Claris to Shimano GRX
2. Cassette: From 8-speed 11-32 to Shimano Deore 10-speed 11-42
3. Chain: From 8-speed to 10-speed
4. Crankset & Bottom Bracket: From Square Taper to Hollow BB. The gearing remained unchanged, along with the crank arm length at 170 mm.
5. Shifters Front & Rear: From 2×8 Shimano Claris to 2×10 Shimano Tiagra

Along the way we also changed the bartape and shifted to single-sided touring cleats by Shimano. Thanks to Pushkar Kashalikar and Sumit Patil for helping with the installation…

The result of all this work was that Chaitra went and took her PB on the first long climb segment she attacked on her regular riding route! Mission Accomplished…