Thats not a small question you asked.
Klein WAS the premiere designer & builder of aluminum alloy frames, moreso than any other company. The work they put into those bikes back then is unthinkable in today's market. Gary Klein started & ran the company in the engineering dept of MIT, & even Easton had quite a lot of catching up to do years later, when they built their 7000-series Program and Varilite tubesets, which do air-harden, that everyone from Manitou & Yeti to Balance & GT used and which would famously crack due to too-thin Headtubes and seat tubes. Kleins, however, used the more ductile, relatively heavier, heat-treated 6061, and plenty of it, brazed it, oversized everything, hand-drawn butting & formed square-to-round stays, re-engineered the frame, fork, headset, stem, & bar from the ground up as a unified structure... the list of contributions Klein made to the now-standard mountain bike is long. ...and man were they freakin fast. Stiff as hell, low/forward positioning, quick handling, total race rockets. Original Kleins are going on 20 years old now, breakages are exceedingly rare, and they are among the most desirable & valuable bikes in the world.
And that presence is why Trek bought the brand in 95. I was a designer at Trek at the time, and we were really optimistic that Trek would provide them with the financial backing to continue innovating, as well as buy us the opportunity to work with & learn from Gary & his team. Management quickly developed other plans. Gary was out. Trek used up the remaining materials stock, watering down each model by trickle-up, & then simply rebadged Fishers, devaluing the whole brand until it was dead. Still fine bikes, but if you want a Fisher, you might as well just buy a Fisher. As of a few years ago, they'd pulled the brand from U.S. Distribution, & half-heartedly strung along sales in europe.
The Klein story is one of the bike industries bigger head-smacking legends of how big clueless companies buying little ones for some credibility can go so horribly wrong. So much that this point, there is a petition in the industry and branching out, to bring Gary Klein back into building bikes again, to which he recently agreed if there is sufficient interest. Many of the old Klein crew have stepped forward in support. Very exciting.
Quick note. You'll see on eBay and craigslist, that while sellers are aware that pre-trek Kleins are worth many times what Trek kleins are, invariably they'll state that whatever year theirs is, was the last year before the buyout. Up through 94 is Klein, 95 & up is Trek, don't let anybody BS you.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Klein-Adroi...untain_Bikes&hash=item3cbab47e4b#ht_500wt_922
...and it's not even in great shape.
Have a look:
http://www.oldklein.com/klein.htm
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