I have a lot of money to spend at REI

[sfa]

There's currently a 20% off your order special going on on reioutlet.com...

Depending on what you're willing to spend or what you were looking for...

This bike goes down to about $1200 for a $2k bike... (I guess it also depends if you have strong feelings shimano vs. sram, but it does have good components)

http://www.rei.com/REI-Outlet/product/780688


But you could also probably find other things that are great deals on reioutlet to use your gift certificate on

I just got that email and saw that bike too, and now I'm hemming and hawing. I know nothing about these bikes, but the discounted price is about what I expected to pay for an entry level bike. I have no strong feeling about components because I'm riding a 20 year old bike with bar end friction shifters, so anything new is going to take some adjustment! So I'm sitting here with the K2 geometry chart (which isn't easy to find on their site), converting everything to centimeters and comparing that to the geometry on the bike I have because the K2 bikes are sold with irritating "small, medium, large" sizes (broken down by gender), so if I'm a woman's medium does that make me a men's small? Why can't they just give number sizing?

Is SRAM versus Shimano kind of like Mac versus PC? I'm a Mac user. Does that help me decide?

Sarah

[HillSlugger]

Is SRAM versus Shimano kind of like Mac versus PC? I'm a Mac user. Does that help me decide?

Sarah

I think SRAM vs Shimano is more like Dell vs Gateway.

[Cataboo]

I just got that email and saw that bike too, and now I'm hemming and hawing. I know nothing about these bikes, but the discounted price is about what I expected to pay for an entry level bike. I have no strong feeling about components because I'm riding a 20 year old bike with bar end friction shifters, so anything new is going to take some adjustment! So I'm sitting here with the K2 geometry chart (which isn't easy to find on their site), converting everything to centimeters and comparing that to the geometry on the bike I have because the K2 bikes are sold with irritating "small, medium, large" sizes (broken down by gender), so if I'm a woman's medium does that make me a men's small? Why can't they just give number sizing?

Is SRAM versus Shimano kind of like Mac versus PC? I'm a Mac user. Does that help me decide?

Sarah

Keep in mind - you can always return it and you can always exchange it if it's the wrong size for the other size.

If you give an idea what height you are and the rest of that, some of us might be able to help you deal with whether to pick a small or a medium.

SRAM vs shimano. I've been really impressed with any SRAM components that I've seen and a lot of the women on here have been really complimentary towards the quality... Shimano's more common, it's a bigger company, so it may be easier to find replacement parts locally if you need it.

But for the price, that bike does have nice components.

[sfa]

I'm about as average as they come. 5'6", 31ish inseam, maybe? My current bike is a 54 and the measurements I have from it seem to match best (barring differences you'd expect between a touring bike and road bike) with the men's medium.

Of course it's way more bike than I ever thought about getting, but man, to only spend $800 of my own money on a bike like this? I'd be bordering on stupid to pass it up.

Sarah

[Cataboo]

I'm about as average as they come. 5'6", 31ish inseam, maybe? My current bike is a 54 and the measurements I have from it seem to match best (barring differences you'd expect between a touring bike and road bike) with the men's medium.

Of course it's way more bike than I ever thought about getting, but man, to only spend $800 of my own money on a bike like this? I'd be bordering on stupid to pass it up.

Sarah

I think like 75% of this forum would tell you to go to your local bike shop and get fitted and buy a bike from them...

I bought my first road bike on sale at the rei superclearance for $500 from $1800... because for that price, I was going to buy it and hope like hell it worked. And that bike is still my favorite bike and for that price, I could afford to upgrade or change the components as I wanted... My bf did spend a fair amount of time on the geometry and was pretty positive that I'd fit it, and yeah I do - I just adjusted the handlebars, the stem, etc. to fit me.

The k2 looks like a bit of a compact geometry, so I think you'd be fine on a medium. I'm looking at it and I'm 5'1, and I'd say my bikes are sort of partly in between the small & medium - the effective top tube is more like the medium, while my seat tube height is towards the small.

It looks like the bike doesn't have much rake on the fork and possibly has a short wheel base - so it will be responsive and turn quickly, it might feel a bit squirrely till you get used to that.


So I guess this is where it depends on what type of rider you want to be - the small is going to be a bike where you can push the seatpost way up and then get all aero in a tucked position... the medium is going to be a bike that you're probably going to be in a more upright position (that's not to say you can't get aero, but it's just a bigger bike... it does have a longer reach, which you can change a bit by moving your seat and changing the stem.) A more upright position is more comfortable and easier on your wrists.

The small has a 75 degree seat angle while the medium has a 74 degree - I prefer the small angles, because I think when they put the bigger angles in a bike it ends up being a bad compromise - despite being shorter my femurs are not necessarily that much shorter than a taller person, so the change in the angle usually makes me feel like I'm sitting directly over the cranks and can't pedal efficiently, then I end up pushing my seat all the way back to compensate.

But if you buy the bike, either have someone that's good with bike fit help you (if the REI guys that you see are helpful, that'd be great. I've run into some at the college park store that seem pretty knowledgable...) or take it in for a fitting. Just expect that maybe in the future you're going to change the handlebars, stem, or cranks to something that fits you better. And definitely you're probably going to be changing the seat because all of us on here end up with seat woes.

[kacie tri-ing]

I am jealous of this decision of yours!

I think I could spend it easily on socks, clothes, and toys! I love REI.....

Thanks for the tip about the outlet sale!