cachehiker

I have practically all of the parts and experience necessary to rebuild a frame from the ground up. There is a lightly used 100mm Duke Race fork collecting dust in my basement along with lots of LX and XT parts along with some mid to high end seatposts, saddles, brakes, handbuilt Sun 0º XC's on XT hubs, etc.

I keep seeing excellent closeout deals and ebay auctions for K2 Attacks. We're talking less than $500 for a brand new complete bike or as little as $100 for a lightly used frame. The frame also features a somewhat slacker, aggressive XC geometry that I'd prefer to have alongside my more nimble GT Zaskar.

Assuming I pick up a Fox frame shock, install the Duke Race, and use wheels and parts similar to the ones mentioned above, how heavy do you think the resulting bike would be? Has anybody weighed a small Attack frame? Is it anywhere close to six pounds? Or is it more like eight?

Fable

Email the Ebay seller and ask. If it's on a discount bike part website email or call for frame weight. Weigh all of your parts and add. This will give you a ROUGH idea without actually building it. You could probably contact K2 for the weight of the frame as well. While your LX and XT parts are fine and dandy I've no idea which ones they are. I am willing to bet there is a weight difference from year to year. You don't mention a some other parts other than they are mid to high end. Weights vary, even on the high end stuff. Not a lot but some.Personally I'd not use the Duke. Spring for a Fox front if your going to be buying a Fox rear. Good luck and have fun.

cachehiker

The responses on the mtbr forums stated that the Attack was a 6 lb. and something frame with a decent Fox shock. That said, it shouldn't be too hard to achieve a 26-27 lb. aggressive xc bike. Going for full XTR and the like, which I have no intention of doing since the frame does not justify it, would supposedly have one threatening 25 lbs.

Does this sound right? I can come up with about 3 lbs. of weight savings considering only the crank, fork, wheels, and tires. Simply having an air shock in place of the coil sprung and a good bar, stem, seatpost, saddle, bb, cassette, derailleurs, brakes, etc. should amount to at least another 2-3 lbs.

bmalmquist

I have a raw frame (no shock) in my shop that I can weigh tomorrow if you like . . .

However, the reason I have a raw frame in my shop is because it has a broken rear triangle. I've had three come back in 2007. Not to scare you off from it, it's a decent frame for cheap. Just don't plan on getting your wheels more than a couple of inches off the ground.

I sell plenty of them, so the percentage of warranty issues is not that great, but the K2 Attack frame leads my shop in number of problems of all the bikes we sell. Granted the guys that broke their frames were 180-200 pounds and not highly experienced riders . . . just a warning to ya . . .

cachehiker

I've heard the frames aren't the burliest but I figure there a lot of novice riders on them and with the 70º head tube, they're probably rumbling over a lot of larger obstacles in addition to not landing very many drops very softly. I'm only 150 lbs. and have never managed to destroy a frame or a well built wheel. I guess all the nimble 80mm travel hardtails have taught me to pick my lines well. The biggest drops I will likely take are probably about 18". My bad habit is destroying pedals, large chainrings, and rear derailleurs.

In any case, if a $150 frame gets beaten into submission after a year or two that's life. I may stumble across a late model Giant NRS frame with V-brake bosses and the steeper 80mm geometry first and put the 100mm fork on it. That would be my first choice. I would like to spend more but my fixxer-upper house won't let me spend more than about $500 slapping together a slightly more aggressive FS rig this year.