Kona lava dome 1997, can I run it 9 speed?

I recently acquired a Kona lava dome race light, think its 1997 and this years model was 7 speed. Would I be able to run 9 speed on it?

Any insight welcomed,

Ziya

Use a rule(r) and measure the rear spacing.

http://sheldonbrown.com/frame-spacing.html

A bigger concern is the freehub though. It could be that you have a 8 speed hub that was spaced down to fit a 7 speed cassette, in which case the 9 speed cassette will fit just fine. But if the hub happens to be made for 7 speed cassettes, then you won't be able to get a 9 speed cassette on there.

As always, Sheldon Brown has found a work-around though - you can use use nine of the cogs from a 10 speed cassette, together with the 10 speed spacers. That'll give you 9 speed on a 7 speed hub with 10 speed spacing. But that also means that you'll have to use 10 speed shifters, which is problematic on a mountain bike - the new 10 speed stuff from Sram and Shimano are not exactly cheap, and they only work properly with 10 speed rear mechs. So you need a 10 speed cassette, rear mech and shifter. All of them will be significantly more expensive than 9 speed equivalents. Or you can find a old friction shifter for flat bars. Plus all 10 speed cassettes that I know of use alloy carriers for the largest 3 or 4 cogs, so you can't simply remove the largest cog. You probably don't want to remove the smallest one either, since that cog has the splines on the outside to prevent lock-ring loosening... So you are down to removing one from the middle somewhere, which gives you a jump in gear ratio.

tl;dr: if you have 7 speed rear hub, you are probably better off buying a new rear wheel, especially, given the age of the bike, if the wheel is well used. Or just keep using the 7 speed stuff, I have everything between 8 and 11 speed, and honestly the performance difference is not that big.

The frames spaced 135mm, sorry shanghaied i should of specified it is just the frame I have. I am yet to buy wheels, may have a slx triple chainset from a friend and was looking to build with 9 speed sram or shimano. Specifically i was wondering will the frame alow me to run 9 speed as i dont want to go ahead buying groupset until im pretty sure itl be okay

Yes.

Insert dancing ladies gif

yes, you can put a 9 speed hub/freewheel on it. I have a 1993 Lava dome and a 1994 Explosif and have fairly modern 9 speed setups on both.