My new old bike.

[Schmeisser]

 Hi evereyone. I recently became owner of a 1999 proflex 5000. The story of how I came to own the bike is interesting. I was down in the basement recently at one of our local bike shops. I saw a dusty looking yelow frame with a carbon fiber rear end sitting up on one of the shelves. I asked the owner of the the bike shop the story behind the frame. In the past the bike shop owner had been a K2 dealer. He had ordered 4 proflex 5000 mountain bikes and they all sold very fast. One of the bikes was a large frame. Within a couple of days the person who purchased the bike brought it back because he thought the bike was a little bit too big. The bike shop owner took all the parts of the bike except for the rear smart shock and put them on another frame for the customer. The frame then sat for about 5 years collecting dust until I spotted it ,made an offer and bought the frame with smart shock. I have since outfitted the frame with sram x/o, x9, and xt drive train, race face carbon bar, race face yellow stem, and race face cranks. Stopping power is provided by disk brakes in the front and xtr v brakes in the back . The bike runs very well and I am very surprised that it sat as long as it did without someone buying it. When I was trying to find something out about my new old bike I stumbled on this site and I am sure glad that I did. Perhaps some of the long time proflex owners can tell me why K2 stop producing the proflex line of mountain bikes? It seem to be too  great a  bike to have died off?. Now that I am learning a little bit more about the proflex in general I have become interested in the carbon fiber verson of the bike. If anyone has a large size frame that is simply collecting dust I would certainly be interested in rescuing it from the shelf. Thanks, Alex R. Schmeisser, Prince George, B.C. Canada. alexandvicki@shaw.ca                                  

[bikendan]

hey, alex, welcome. actually, the yellow 5000 is a 1998 model that also came in a silver color. i have a '98 4000, which is the same frame except mine has a nr-4 instead of the smart shock.
k2 bought proflex in 1996, i think, and decided to change the brand in '98. that's why the '98 bikes have k2 and proflex stickers. in '99 they dropped the proflex name completely. their evo and razorback bikes were a departure from the strut-type of proflex.
a lot of proflex employees went to k2 in washington, in 1998, but most are gone now. proflex was in rhode island.
k2 wanted their bikes to be different from the proflex designs.
as far a carbon frame, 4500/5500/OZ, those are getting rarer and rarer. it was a frame ahead of its time. not many will part with theirs.