Since you are using the mapping plugin, you could specify a create
callback. If you add the following to the existing mappingKeys, it would probably work (I don't know your exact mapping, so you might need to change bits here and there):
'MyExistingObservable': {
create: function(options) {
return new ko.observable(options.data).extend({ numeric: null });
}
}
This result in an extended observable upon mapping from yor data.
Here's a jsFiddle with a working example (vm1) and your current non-working example (vm2) for comparison