Out of the box, I was a little disappointed with my new bike. It was a little heavy and sluggish and the brakes didn't work that great. A new hardtail race bike wasn't in the cards due to the availabilty of bikes, and of funds when I needed to be actually trying to order it, so the idea was to turn this into something I could actually race.
So mostly that meant replacing the heaviest parts. Firstly the cranks. Kona specced a ridiculously heavy set of cranks and chainrings, and spending about $200 for some truvativ stylo carbon cranks dropped 190g from the bike. Carbon bars, carbon cages, a few titanium bolts, and xc tires got me through the friday night season with reasonably ok results but I was still not thrilled with riding a 27.5lb bike up the race course at marshall.
I wanted nicer wheels and a lighter cassette, but most of the racing was done by the time anything I ordered actually showed up. That didn't stop me from spending money though and I had some DT Swiss carbon wheels along with an XO1 cassette and 2 piece rotors in time for the butte 100, taking a full pound off the bike. 26.5 is now not so bad for a 120mm bike (with pedals and cages).
Along the way I also did that brake upgrade, going to RSC levers and then carbon blades to keep my fingers warmer in the cold
This was well worth it, the bearings and "swinglink" actuating the MC gives them much better power and feel.
I'd say overall lighter cranks and better brakes would have been the main things this bike should have had in the first place. The fancy cassette and wheels and carbon bars are all things you don't find on a new bike until you spend twice as much.
Combined with an ever increasing rear shock pressure (I'm up to 215 from an initial 185) the bike is starting to feel a lot better on the way up. It also just got a fox transfer SL post, saving another 250ish grams which when I go back to XC tires should drop the bike to just under 26lbs (with pedals and bottle cages on it, most listed weights exclude all that). However, I've still never broken 23min on the ravine trail climb on this, while my best time on the hardtail is 21min flat.
So pretty overboard. I've probably spent as much on the upgrades as I did on the whole bike. And I still want a new hardtail. Hopefully I can get just a frame from orbea and then use these fancy wheels and piece together the rest of it before race season starts.
