V2K Question

[RandoTy]

New to the forum, and have another possibly dumb question:

I've been seeing here that suitable donors are getting hard to find.

One person posted this bike from Wallmart as a possible candidate, but others pointed out the components are probably garbage, and you would end up having to replace most of them anyway. Not a bad thing per se, as I know you can swap out a better donor without too much trouble down the road. I might go with this and change the seatpost, and gradually upgrade components.

The other option is the V2K frame. I have an old hardtail Specialized mountain bike that was my old commuter. It's got 26 Schwalbe Marathon plus wheels, decent gearing, etc., so I could take the guts from that bike to possibly build up the V2K. However, I no longer have the rockshcok. I put on a rigid Surly fork.

I don't think it needs to be a suspension fork, or does it?

Thanks,

Ty

 

[Andrew 1973]

suspension fork

The latest iteration of the Sofrider does away with its front suspension and if you look at some of Doug's creations, you can see that a rigid fork can work well.

 

[Charles.Plager]

Hi,
Andrew's absolutely right

Hi,

Andrew's absolutely right here. The Vendetta has no suspension at all.

That being said, you'll now be riding in a position where it is much harder to lift yourself off the bike to handle bumps, so suspension is not a bad thing on a recumbent.

You could go with the Walmart bike and build it up using your components as well. With Walmart, you can do ship-to-store for free and if you take a look at the frame and decide you don't want it, you can return it.

Let us know what you decide (and take pictures!)

Cheers,
Charles

 

[Doug Burton]

Some one else on the forum...

... has converted that Walmart bike and it came out pretty well.

If the bike you are considering using the components from has a 1 1/8 inch threadless headset, the fork from it probably won't fit the Walmart head tube (those bikes usually use 1 inch steerers on the fork.

The V2K uses a 1 1/8 inch steerer. If you want to use a 1 inch fork on the V2K frame, use headset reducer cups in the frame.

You have plenty of options.