KM build kits

[dave66]

well 'the fund' is up and running and hopefully by late summer it will be big enough to cover my 29er SS purchase.
The Rig is at the top of my list only because of the 'bang for the buck' reason. I'd really prefer the KM but was wondering if anyone hass heard fo shops out there offering a KM build kit which would offer a better value than parting it up myself. any online build i have went thru get up 0ver 11-1200 US pretty quick which is too rich for my blood [ok - i mean too rich for my wife's blood]

any help would be greatly appreciated

[Tman]

A good scrounger should be able to build this bike for less than a grand. You undoubably have extra parts?
I built my KM for around $800 pulling in markers from my bike shop days, most parts however were, scrap, shit, discards! I traded an airplane voucher from the local newspaper to a pro racer for a set of Pauls Love Levers an d modified my Avid disks to work wit the old canti levers.
Look around you, look at the stuff you have as spares. You can build a fun simple bike with minimal outlay.

[Cloxxki]

Far fetched, but Christmas is all about dreams, right?

Buy the Rig in XL (for max fork steerer length, just in case) somewhere for a nice deal, say $900 in the box, for you to build up, or whichever reason a shops needs to give you a deal. Never build it up, though.

Sell the frame on eBay, it WILL sell for at least $300 if you promote it well online. People WILL want it, sub-2kg, EBB, sexy color, $300 is a steal.
You're now without a frame, but you have all else.

Buy the KM frame/fork set and 2 Tuggnuts at some cheap place for say $400 total. You're still on just one grand spent.

If your KM is a black one, that will make it easier to sell the fork than when you got the brown one. You sell it for $50 to a Rig frame owner, you know at least one by now.

You've now spent $950 on :
KM ($370 incl fork)
Reba fork (worth ~$300-400)
Bontrager SS wheels, with nice and light disc rims ($200?)
Avid Mech brakes ($120)
Bontrager/Truvativ Cranks+BB ($100/150)
Bontrager hardware, the 27.2 seatpost fits the KM perfectly.
Jones tires ($80 set?)
etc, etc

If you spend $50 on a lighter bar ($30 176gWeyless carbon riser) and $20 on a light housebrand stem, you've got yourself one sexy KM!

Other idea : There's bound to be shop mechanics dieing to get a Rig, but building it up all bling. They can't easily get it as a frame only, and most shops aren't even Fisher dealers. Most every shop can get a KM, though, and employees get those at a nice Employee Purchase from their shop. Offer to trade the Rig frame for a KM frameset plus tuggnuts. That way you get $400 worth for your Rig frame alone, and get to keep the rigid fork. Let the shop mechanic just buy himself the Reba top model fork.

If you like the KM fork, you can sell the Rig's Reba for around $250-300 easily. It's a stiff and light fork, who wouldn't want it? You cost for a completely Built Km with discs and nice wheels goes down to $700-750.

Dream!

[Tman]

Very good tips! I agree on keeping the rigid fork. Been riding rigid again for many years. Got tired of keeping up with the fork trends and just said the hell with it. Rode today with several full sus rigs and my KM would let me ride as fast as I needed.

[gwadzilla]

Piece by Piece your bicycle would cost far more than it is worth....

could you imagine building up a car piece by piece from TRAX AUTO?

definitey chase the deal....

not sure where to find it
but it is most certainly out there

that RIG to KM conversion sounded cool....
but why not stick with The Rig?

I have two Karate Monkeys....one rigid single and one geared with front fork

I love the f--k out of them.....but they are a tad heavy

www.gwadzilla.blogspot.com

[benwitt11]

the conversion from fisher to km is a good one. i would be tempted to keep the fisher though. like another responce above, you can always find spare parts around somewhere. buy the fisher, build the monkey, then slowly build the fisher back up. hell, if you're sold on a monkey, what's the harm in having two 29 single speeds? the fisher and km are so different from each other, (weight, geometry, components...) that you can't really compare them together, it's like apples to oranges. i've been riding a geared km and a geared fisher for some time now, and soon i'll have a km and fisher single speeds. the fishers are much lighter and have a much "racier" feel to them. but the monkeys are like the trusty old mustang convertable, they might not have the performance of the newer, more expencive stuff, but they're a hell of a lot of fun to drive!

get both, ride both, be happy.