Good evening wonderful Bike forums peeps! I love this place because I can always count on you guys and ladies for help. ..So heres the deal... I just bought a used KHS FXT Trail mountain bike year 2000.. It took me a good minute to locate the exact model online. On the bike it says a3500 and on the lower end of the bike it appears to have Japanese writing on it as seen in the pictures I inserted. So does anyone know what this means? Is the bike from Japan or something? why does the bike have a3500 on it and what does that mean? Before I picked up the bike the owner said it was a Kha bicycle but that just confused me more. Any help or insight into this matter would help me greatly.

How did you come to that conclusion, does the bike have FXT Trail written on it?

I see similarities and differences: 2000 KHS FXT Trail

* It doesn't look like a very good way to attach a rack.

thx for replying! I came to that conclusion by just comparing the bike online. Its very similar to the 2000 khs fxt trail. On the bike it just says its a khs a3500 and on the bottom has some type of writing either in Chinese or Japanese. this is where i get confused and dont know what to make of it. The bluebook bike looks like my bike. But if it was a fxt trail then wouldnt it state that on the bike, then I wouldnt have to go on a wild goose hunt. Thanks again. still trying to figure it out. Wish someone could read Japanese or Chinese, whichever it is.

I don't know what the a3500 is about. My guess is that the chinese characters are a previous idea of cool and are stickered chainstay protectors. To the best of my ability your bike is from 2001. BikePedia; Image Viewer . Note that that model year came in yellow.

The rack being mounted so it can be compressed by the suspension frightens me. I don't want to be elitist or mean but that bike is just one step above a department store bike. Making suspension that does't suck takes some money, and all suspension that doesn't suck requires semi frequent service, and I'd bet that the suspension on that bike is essentially unserviceable and probably totally worn out. You Would have been better off buying a hardtail or rigid bike. Go ride your bike and enjoy it for what it is, but don't try to upgrade it if you find the performance lacking and don't spend much money to fix anything.