BCBR Bike Check: Cory’s Kona HEI HEI CR

A fresh-out-of-the-box bike check is always nice, but it was a special treat to check out Cory Wallace’s 10th-Generation Kona Hei Hei CR just moments after crossing the finish line of Stage 5 of the BC Bike Race, showing off all his personal race quirks and well-loved components.

The first half of Cory’s race season had a dropbar focus, but this bike is due to see lots of mileage in the latter half of the year: racing the Breck Epic in Colorado, 24 Hour MTB World Championships, and then an “off-season” of bikepacking across the Himalayas in Nepal. Truly a do-it-all bike for this versatile rider!

Plug Pro-tip

The most high-level part of Cory’s race set-up? The preloaded reamers and tire-plugs strategically and discreetly taped to his front cables. Definitely not his first rodeo, with a hack like that!

TR35 Berd Race wheels

After trying several NOBL wheel configurations across all of his bike, Cory found he favoured the TR35 rim platorm and really couldn’t do without Berd spokes for long efforts and stage races. We built his the lightest TR35 XC race wheelset possible for 2025, using DT Swiss DT180EXP hubs and Berd spokes. The total wheelset weight? Just 1285g.