Mountain Biking - K2 bikes

Are these any good? I found a lot of K2 FS on ebay for cheap. Here are 3:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=98083&item=7163376808&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVWbikes

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=98083&item=7162679915&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=98083&item=7162670292&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

dont bid on the second one, it has listings for parts not in the picture... hmmm kinda smells like a scam.

nvr heard of them, but wait for some more experienced riders to see this thread. im sure theyll have good advice

youve never heard of k2? well heres the scoop, they are good entry level bikes with good components for reasonable prices. the thing i want to know is this. what kind of bike are you looking for? what type of riding do you want to do? the reason i ask is because these bikes are not free ride bikes, but your title says freerider.

The bike I would choose out of the 3 would be the llithium but like dirtjump said it has parts listed not on the bike. The fork for instance says its a marz but in the pic its a manitou. If the frame is in good shape that alone is worth the current asking price.

Just checked out K2's site and it looks more like an 05 then an 04. 04 the lithium 3 was blue. check it out
05
http://www.k2bikes.com/products/bikedetails.asp?ID=11
04
http://www.k2bikes.com/04products/full/lithium3.asp

K2 makes entry to mid level bikes. They used to make higher end bikes but withdrew from that market. Of the bike listed, the only true freeride bike is the Disco Monkey. It is based on the older EVO frame design which uses a monopivot swingarm. This frame design served well from the mid to late 1990s and is still considered by some to be a reliable design but without some sort of platform valving or lockout does suffer from bobbing. Also, unless you upgrade the brake mounts to a floating caliper, you'll get some amount of brake jack. The Attack is an entry-level XC rig but can handle some light freeride activity. The Lithium is more of what many would call an all-mountain design and performs pretty well for both XC and some amount of light freeride. It uses a 4-bar rear suspension but it's not quite as good as say a Specialized FSR.

nvr heard of them,
Ever hear of the letter E? It's a vowel that belongs in words like never so you don't look like an ignorant 12 year old AOL'er.

K2 makes decent mid range bikes

youve never heard of k2? well heres the scoop, they are good entry level bikes with good components for reasonable prices. the thing i want to know is this. what kind of bike are you looking for? what type of riding do you want to do? the reason i ask is because these bikes are not free ride bikes, but your title says freerider.


Yes I mainly do freeriding/trailriding, but I cant decide if I want a FS or hardtail. Im on a tight budget and I was considering a hardtail cause their a little cheaper.(I really like the specialized hardrock or p.3.) but i found these K2 FS bikes on ebay for a good price. But if their not good freeride bikes I will look on to somthing new.

why buy K2.... GET AMERICAN MADE.... CANNONDALE IS THE WAY TO GO.. I STAND CANNONDALE TILL THE END!

why buy K2.... GET AMERICAN MADE.... CANNONDALE IS THE WAY TO GO.. I STAND CANNONDALE TILL THE END!

While K2 bikes used to be made in America, they no longer are. I think the Disco Monkey listed above was made in America however. I know my K2 OzM was. At anyrate, it's a non-issue. Where it's made has little bearing on quality and Cannondale is not without its production sins either despite having been made in America.

Yes I mainly do freeriding/trailriding, but I cant decide if I want a FS or hardtail. Im on a tight budget and I was considering a hardtail cause their a little cheaper.(I really like the specialized hardrock or p.3.) but i found these K2 FS bikes on ebay for a good price. But if their not good freeride bikes I will look on to somthing new.
get a hardtail, you can get a good hardtail and not clean out the bank.

get a hardtail, you can get a good hardtail and not clean out the bank.


Do you have any good hardtails in mind? I really like specialized bikes the most, but would take just about anything.

Do you have any good hardtails in mind? I really like specialized bikes the most, but would take just about anything.

You sound like you're on a budget... but then again aren't we all? ;) Care to share what pricerange you'd be looking at? For freeride hardtails, my top brands would be Specialized and Kona. There are others of course but those are good solid brands to look at.

You sound like you're on a budget... but then again aren't we all? ;) Care to share what pricerange you'd be looking at? For freeride hardtails, my top brands would be Specialized and Kona. There are others of course but those are good solid brands to look at.


Yah im on a budget because Im getting ready to buy my first car(actually its a truck), so Ill have to make monthly payments. Im looking in the 300 to 500 price range, I want to keep it as low as i can, but I know if you get to low you might as well go to walmart. Thanks for the help!

Yah im on a budget because Im getting ready to buy my first car(actually its a truck), so Ill have to make monthly payments. Im looking in the 300 to 500 price range, I want to keep it as low as i can, but I know if you get to low you might as well go to walmart. Thanks for the help!

Have you looked in the The "around" $500 MTB thread. (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=56148)?

That's a fairly tight budget for a freeride bike... even a hardtail. I suppose it all depends on how aggressive you get. You can pick up something like a HardRock for in that pricerange but it's not really a pure freeride bike. It can handle some stuff though. A P.2 is about double your pricerange though at $950. Something like a Kona Shred (~$650) might be worth a look. I know they call it a DJ bike but it's probably pretty close to what you want. Another suggestion would be the Giant STP3 (~$400) or STP2 (~$600). I haven't looked at them closely but have heard some good things about them.

I dirt jump a lot and freeride so I want a lighter bike. I found these:

http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=9344

http://www2.trekbikes.com/Bikes/Mountain/Bruiser/Bruiser_1/index.php

http://www.konaworld.com/shopping_cart/FrontEnd/Products/product_detail.aspx?productid=103&parentid=182

http://www.gtbicycles.com/mountain/catalog/detail.php?id=841&country=usa&brand=moun

http://www.santacruzmtb.com/bicycles/chameleon.php

I know a few are a little bit over the price range but its all I could come up with

http://www.giant-bicycle.com/us/030.000.000/030.000.000.asp?model=11034

http://www.mtbr.com/reviews/Freeride_Hardtail/product_124733.shtml

Here is some info on the STP3.

Or this?
http://sunandski.com/site/itemdetails.cfm?ID=745&Catalog=39&sort=Price

[]why buy K2.... GET AMERICAN MADE.... CANNONDALE IS THE WAY TO GO.. I STAND CANNONDALE TILL THE END![/B]Gee it's awful convienient that you have a Crack-n-fail for sale now isn't it?. This has to be one of the most blatent "moron joining to sell crap" posts I've ever seen.
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I dirt jump a lot and freeride so I want a lighter bike. I found these:

http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=9344

Like I said, the HardRock can probably handle light freeride. I wouldn't expect it to handle too much abuse though.



http://www2.trekbikes.com/Bikes/Mountain/Bruiser/Bruiser_1/index.php

The Trek is kind of a wildcard in my book. I haven't heard too much about them good or bad. Perhaps someone can chime in with more input. In general, Trek hasn't had a stellar reputation with producing aggro-type designs.



http://www.konaworld.com/shopping_cart/FrontEnd/Products/product_detail.aspx?productid=103&parentid=182

Yep. That's the one I mentioned in a previous post. It's a pretty good bike for what you're looking to do.



http://www.gtbicycles.com/mountain/catalog/detail.php?id=841&country=usa&brand=moun

This is another wildcard... probably even moreso than the Trek. I'm still a little leary of GT's latest offerings since they were acquired by Pacific. I can tell you right now that I personally would have issues with the twist-shifters on that bike. Add to the fact that it the fork's brand seems dodgy and the whole thing seems pricey for what you get, I'd probably not rank it a very high candidate.



http://www.santacruzmtb.com/bicycles/chameleon.php

That bike's a hottie! :D



I know a few are a little bit over the price range but its all I could come up with

Keep in mind that you're just looking at MSRP. You might be able to find them cheaper if you hunt around.

I have a '99 Flyin' Monkey, which is basically the same bike as the 3rd one you listed. I love that bike, but since mine's a '99 model, it doesn't accept the ISO standard disc brakes..... THAT SUX !!!! Trust Me.... It has hydraulic Magura "rim" brakes, which work great for rim brakes, but they're NOT disc brakes. (Huge difference)

I had a friend offer me $400 for it, but I can't let it go for that. It's too nice a bike. Too many memories too!

I might go $500 on that Disco Monkey (they were released Black w/ White lettering) but no more....

I have a '99 Flyin' Monkey, which is basically the same bike as the 3rd one you listed. I love that bike, but since mine's a '99 model, it doesn't accept the ISO standard disc brakes..... THAT SUX !!!!

You should be able to use a Hammerhead adapter. What does your swingarm dropouts look like? Or you could go all out and do the Brake Therapy conversion to a floating caliper.

Okay... I just checked my old K2 catalog and yes the dropout can accept a Hammerhead. Here's a picture of the Hammerhead adapter on the rear carbon swingarm of a K2 Oz. The swingarm designs between the Oz and the Evo frames are similar and Rapid Descent Innovations makes the adapter for both the aluminum Evo swingarms and the Oz carbon swingarms.

http://www.proflex.demon.co.uk/products/hammer1.jpg


This guy did something interesting with his K2 Oz frame. First he replaced the carbon swingarm with an aluminum one from an Evo frame and then he fabricated his own floating caliper system. It looks nice although I'm not crazy about the bling-bling colours.

http://idriders.com/proflex/galleries/Simon/PHTO266.jpg

Yeah, I already know, but I'm not really into Afro-Engineering....
No offense to any of our Black, African American buddies out there in CyberLand....

I just opted for a new bike last year. Thanks for the reply though in any event.