Is Klein a good bike brand?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by avilabrands, Aug 26, 2011.

  1. Salespunk

    Salespunk New Member

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    You can buy new bumpers for the forks. I forget the name of the company, but they are still producing them.

    The reply with all the detail on Klein brought back some memories. I used to lust after those bikes bad!
     
  2. bing!

    bing! Active Member

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  3. avilabrands

    avilabrands Member

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  4. Rossage

    Rossage Active Member

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    many of the Kleins I've worked on had dented top tubes or down tubes due to the extremely thin tubing used
     
  5. EL Jim

    EL Jim New Member

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    Now there is some trivia........
     
  6. ahimanic

    ahimanic Victim of Karate Monkey

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    It's a work of art!

    I can't attest for the later years after Trek bought Klein and winded it down, but the original Kleins were of great quality and durabililty... with the best looking paint job bar none! The fade paint jobs were incomparable and a work of art. The welds were invisible, internal cable routings, and the original sealed bearing square-taper bottom bracket is still buttery smooth to this day! Try THAT with ISIS or outboard bearings :lol:

    Luckily I've never gotten rid of mine. Sat in the garage for a loooong time and now it's living it's second life as a single speed.

    What? All this talk about Kleins and no picture??


    [​IMG]
     
  7. bing!

    bing! Active Member

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    That is a very pretty Klein. Congrats on taking care of it.

    Too many have a low opinion of old mtb's. I have to admit I was one of them. But I have seen the light. If you are the type that needs to have one of each type of mtb, one of those bikes should be a vintage mtb :)
     
  8. 2wheel_lee

    2wheel_lee Active Member

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    What do you expect from a guy who drives a SAAB?
     
  9. Fullerton Mike

    Fullerton Mike I LOVE BIKES!

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    Lee when I first started ridding Jonathan Oliver had one of the sickest kleins ever. It had xt thumb shifters and a rock shock! I think he paid 2000 for it. I bet you he still has it and rode it once. He was pissed of at Ted and myself because we shelled him on our ride. Too funny. But back to his question. They made real good bikes
     
  10. 2wheel_lee

    2wheel_lee Active Member

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    Mike the joke I was replying to adding to AD NO's post is that he subtly referenced Jerry Seinfeld's Klein hanging in the closet that you never saw him riding. As you know, Specialized later "sponsored" the show and replaced the Klein with a Specialized. There were even many scenes where the Seinfeld cast was shown standing in front of a Specialized dealer (the neon sign was obviously placed in a highly visible spot in the scene).

    But yes...I agree. The pre-Trek Kleins were and still are lust worthy.
     
  11. strobe

    strobe resident noob

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    I thought the Klein's were basically Kramer's bikes and they only switched to a Cannondale for a short time inside the appartment... I never noticed a Speshy. Might have just assumed it was still a Klein.
     
  12. ahimanic

    ahimanic Victim of Karate Monkey

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    Oh man, all this talk about Kleins now I'm inspired to go find me a Mission Control or an original matching rigid fork...something has got to replace that 1" steertube Bomber I have on there when it goes out.

    BTW, the Mag 21 was the first fork that went on that bike!

    The bike is still equipped with the original Pulstar straight-pull hubs laced with Campagnolo rims, as seen in the picture above. Try to find that combination, ha!

    I bought that frame at Supergo in Fountain Valley...remember that great bike shop?! Of course, that was before I discovered Fullerton Bikes ;)
     
  13. jcw

    jcw New Member

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    I'm going to add that I own (2) Kleins from the good old days.
    A 1990 Rascal (older than the one pictured above) and an original issue 1994 Pulse.
    I ride them both all of the time.
    My Pulse has been up dated somewhat, and is my main bike.
    For an old guy, that does XC, they still work just fine.
    For you young whipper snappers that wanna huck everything, you'll probably want to ride something else.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  14. Monster Mash

    Monster Mash New Member

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    My future SS....

    [​IMG]
     
  15. ManInAShed

    ManInAShed New Member

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    Nice Rascal. That paint was pretty fierce when it came out. But woa woa woaaaaa... your pulse has the Zip-Grip threaded collet seat collar! Pretty rare bird, that. Very neat.
     
  16. Salespunk

    Salespunk New Member

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    More trivia for you. Klein started to get a lot of press from the bike hanging there (a precursor of product placement). Somebody at Klein found out that Kramer was a rider and gave him a bike. It was rumored that the Klein was stolen from the set and also rumored that Jerry was pissed that he did not get a bike and pulled it. Either way, the bike was replaced with a Cannondale for one episode. Klein quickly remedied the situation and gave Jerry and the rest of the cast a bike and they got their place back for the rest of the series. BTW if you look closely at the original Rascal hanging in the apartment, the fork was mounted backwards!

    BTW the coolest part of Klein's fade paint job was that if you looked at the bike head on it was one single color. Viewed directly from the rear it was the other color!
     
  17. Varaxis

    Varaxis Trail Ninja

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    I heard from someone with a Klein Attitude about it and he thoroughly impressed me with practically everything that was said here. I was a skeptic, thinking it was nothing special, but Manintheshed really seemed to give good insight which the Klein owner basically repeated in verbatim. The way the tubing was formed was something I've never seen before, like how the chainstays go from square to round and not simply be formed by pinching/ovalizing round tubes like many other designs.

    He also mentioned the fluorescent green paint from the front, dark green from the top, and blue from the back type of fade paint job. He mentioned that he kept the frame in his spare bedroom so the paint wouldn't fade from UV rays, which he said the fluorescent in the paint would be particularly sensitive to.
     
  18. Beowulf Shaeffer

    Beowulf Shaeffer Titanium reinforced!

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    I've owned 7 Kleins over the years: 3 Attitudes, 2 Pinnacles, 1 Rascal, 1 Palomino (current ride). The oldest of the bunch are 2 1990 Pinnacles, 1 1992 Attitude, 1 1992 Rascal. These were incredibly strong frames despite the ultra-light weight. I still own the oldest Pinnacle frame, The Mule (pictured below, and in my avatar), and am getting ready to build it up for yet another life. That frame has suffered mightily, including outlasting an Answer AccuTrax fork (cracked at the crown), crashing broadside into a car at 35mph and bending backwards a Spinner fork and bending a Deore XT axle, but not doing any damage whatsoever to the frame!!! I've had the bottom bracket bearings replaced twice, still have one of the oldest Chris King NoThreadSets in town, and have the original 1990 Deore XT seatpost I bought for it. I have no doubt whatsoever that the frame is still strong.

    In a cross-over to the 'RIP for Long Lost Bike Shops' thread, I bought my first 3 Kleins at Valley Bicycles in Chatsworth, a shop that just recently closed and was replaced by a Cycle World spin-off from their Northridge store. The first Attitude I bought, the 1992, was purchased unpainted through the Chatsworth store, and I drove it to Curtlo Cycles on Sand Canyon in Santa Clarita for a custom paint job.

    Though the most recent of my Kleins, a 2001 Attitude and a 2003 Palomino, are Trek builds and noticeably less stout than their ancestors, they are still wonderful machines.

    The Mule, in a mid-life build:
    265315.jpg
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 3, 2011
  19. ManInAShed

    ManInAShed New Member

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    This was my Attitude, which I enjoyed greatly

    Beachy.jpg

    til I got greedy and bet the farm. Sold it to fund a mint '93 Adroit, which then the seller decided not to sell. Oof.
     
  20. jeffj

    jeffj Bloated Mountain B'hiker

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    One of the solutions for the 1" steerer is to find an old 1" Judy fork with the pinch bolt crown. The fork itself can be junk, you just want the steerer. Then find a SID from around ten years ago that is still in great shape. Cut (with a Dremel tool) the SID from it's crown carefully. The SID forks from that era were the same size stanchion, and the spread was the same too. So then, slide the SID Stanchions (and the rest of the fork too) into the 1" steerer Judy pinch bolt crown and you have a 1" steerer SID.
     

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