After a five-year hiatus, Kona's Satori is back. It still has 29" wheels, 130mm of travel, and 68-degree headtube, but nearly everything has been changed, including the design of the frame itself. The Satori was originally slated to be released a year earlier than it was and with 27.5" wheels. However, Kona's engineers decided that 29" wheels would better serve the riders' needs so they went back and did some re-designing, re-configuring, and came up with the 2019 Satori. At first look, it's obvious that some of the angles are pretty different than a lot of other bikes currently out there. According to Kona, this "XC-trail" bike with its short chain-stays, steep seat-tube angle, and 68 degree head-tube was made for the rider who wants to put in miles on a variety of terrain but still have a bike that can handle some abuse and be nimble both uphill and down.

The Satori takes some design cues from Kona's Hei Hei line and some others from the much loved first generation Process. The bike has the same single-pivot "Fuse" suspension platform as the Hei Hei, but with some pretty unorthodox angles. According to Paddy White, Kona's Product Manager, "This bike came from us trying to address a few categories at once. It's a capable, versatile, monster truck of an XC bike that has quickly become an in-house favorite." The team at Kona didn't necessarily want a full-on XC bike but they didn't want the bike to also carry over into the duties of the Process line. It was intended to fill the gap between the two.There's a durable parts build and external cable routing that keeps the bike simple and maintenance as easy as possible. A water bottle can be mounted to the downtube, something no modern bike should be without, sitting cleanly on top of the cable guides. There's a RockShox Reverb seatpost, and although I can't support the decision to use the plunger style remote, according to the team at Kona, it was a significant cost savings to spec that over the Reverb 1x remote. It's also something that is easily upgraded by the end consumer and one of the few things I would change if it were my bike.

Kona took the platform from the Hei Hei and then combined it with the reach numbers of the G1 Process. They kept the 68-degree headtube angle from the original Satori- an outlier in and of itself and then cranked up the seat tube angle to a far forward 78.4 degrees (sizes S and M...L and XL are 78.3). So while the bike is longer and lower, it's not slacker than the OG.The seat tube angle is four degrees forward from the original Satori. The idea is that this will keep the rider more on top of the bottom bracket, effectively helping the long bike feel a good bit shorter when climbing. Combined with the 68-degree head-tube and short rear, tight turns and navigating through technical spots while heading both uphill and down should be easier to maneuver past.

At $3,499, the Satori comes right out of the box with a well rounded and capable parts spec. The 35mm diameter bar and stem combo is in line with the build, however, at 760mm the bars are a bit narrow. I would have been happy to see the bike with 780's or wider, as the Satori is built to handle some abuse and the wider bars would complement that well. For testing, I was riding a size medium. I set the rear shock around 28-30% sag, although I did experiment with it having a little more or little less; air pressures in the shock hovered around 135-140psi. I ran 63psi and 3 tokens in the RockShox Revelation fork. All of the riding with this bike took place in and around Brevard, NC. I spent time in both Pisgah National Forest- climbing fire roads and descending technical, blown out singletrack and DuPont State Forest, which has a more mellow, but still aggressive mix of sandy trails and exposed rock. Conditions were a full spectrum with everything from rain that had us wondering when we were going to float away to dry, dusty, and loose...along with all of the good stuff in between.

I'm a big fan of mid-travel 29" trail bikes and I would probably choose one over just about anything else for the riding around me. While some people are more focused on riding whatever long travel bike is going to help them best cut corners and produce the top Strava time on the local descents, I find that a well rounded, mid-travel 29er that likes to go up and down is my "go-to" most days. Especially for any longer rides on varied terrain. To get to most of the good stuff, you've gotta get up to get down, after all.Pedaling the Satori, my body position was more forward and on top of the bottom bracket than usual due to the steep seat tube, but that's not necessarily bad, it's just quite different from many other bikes in this category. The aggressive stance is most apparent on flatter trail sections and much less so while climbing. On steeper terrain, that position became an advantage by putting me in a good spot to get more power down to the pedals; it creates a seated position that mimics the feeling of standing up and forward, out of the saddle.The Satori does a good job of holding itself up and has a lot of anti-squat. I found that some of my favorite trails to ride the Satori on were those with undulating terrain. Short, punchy climbs and quick descents, such as the ones DuPont State Forest has to offer were a blast on the bike. Tight uphill turns were incredibly easy to negotiate, and the Satori's angles - steeper than most other mid-travel bikes I've been on lately, made technical ascents that can at times be tricky quite simple to clean. This was especially noticeable at lower speeds.