Few bikes epitomized the forward thinking of Klein's innovative alloy bicycle frames better than the early 1990s Attitude - James Huang / Immediate Media
Large-diameter alloy tubes are the norm now but two decades ago, the concept was still going head-to-head with steel - James Huang / Immediate Media
Think integrated headsets, internal cable routing, and one-piece cockpits are modern ideas? Think again - James Huang / Immediate Media
What once was old is new again - internal cable routing was a truly novel feature back in the 1990s and fell out of favor for nearly two decades before coming back into fashion recently - James Huang / Immediate Media
Klein frames successfully managed internal cable routing by feeding full-length liners through the frame at the factory for easier setup and maintenance. Owners just needed to make sure they never pulled them out - James Huang / Immediate Media
The oversized theme carried all the way through to the rear end - James Huang / Immediate Media
Cartridge bearings were pressed and bonded directly into the bottom bracket shell - James Huang / Immediate Media
Modern frames with internal cable routing often use larger removable ports to help feed the cables through. Klein instead used liners to simplify the process - James Huang / Immediate Media
Klein was a true innovator when it came to the use of hydroformed tubing. Such complex shapes were essentially unheard of elsewhere at the time - James Huang / Immediate Media
The chainstays start out square at the bottom bracket shell before going round back at the dropouts. Pressurized fluid was used to push the tube walls outward against a cast - James Huang / Immediate Media
The 'gossamer' paint job on this Klein Attitude was made by heating the paint with an acetylene torch while it was still wet - James Huang / Immediate Media
Rear-entry dropouts were a Klein hallmark. They were supposedly stronger than the more commonly used vertical dropouts - a side effect of Gary Klein's engineering background - James Huang / Immediate Media
Another Klein hallmark was the lack of decals. Logos were done with masking instead - a much more laborious (and expensive) process - James Huang / Immediate Media
Compliance' is a popular buzzword in today's bicycle marketing lexicon but there was no such thing back in Klein's day. It was all about rigidity and precise handling, as evidenced by this ultra-stiff, oversized alloy fork - James Huang / Immediate Media
The fork tips are beautifully sculpted - James Huang / Immediate Media
The original Mission Control cockpit used an oversized quill stem that was welded to an alloy handlebar. Klein claimed it was stiffer and lighter than conventional two-piece setups - James Huang / Immediate Media
The matching paint job on the Mission Control cockpit beautifully complements the rest of the frame - James Huang / Immediate Media
Chainsuck was a common problem with drivetrains in the early 1990s and Klein's solution was this 'Chain Control' device, which pried the chain off before it could get wedged in between the chainring and chainstay - James Huang / Immediate Media
Triple cranksets are tough to fathom for newer riders who are accustomed to 1x drivetrains - James Huang / Immediate Media
Shimano's old Deore XT front derailleur is a beautiful testament to forged and polished aluminum - James Huang / Immediate Media
Shimano popularized the idea of integrated controls with its 'STI' system - James Huang / Immediate Media
More elegant forged and polished metalwork is found out back - James Huang / Immediate Media
Shimano's old Deore XT cantilever brakes weren't light but they were gloriously stiff and solid with silky-smooth pivots that required little maintenance - James Huang / Immediate Media
Syncros may be a house brand for bicycle powerhouse Scott today but it was one of most sought-after labels back in day. This twin-bolt seatpost design put the company on the map - James Huang / Immediate Media
The Specialized Ground Control was the tire to have back in the day - James Huang / Immediate Media
We wouldn't mind at all if this aesthetic came back. Shiny! - James Huang / Immediate Media
Before the popularization of cartridge bearing hubs and their (often hollow) promise of lower maintenance, Shimano was the brand to have with its bulletproof cup-and-cone bearing layouts and clever dustcaps, which featured grease ports for nearly instant overhauls - James Huang / Immediate Media
These pedals may be more than 20 years old but Shimano still uses the same spline pattern today for its axle cartridges - James Huang / Immediate Media
If you think things like hydroformed alloy tubing, press-fit bottom brackets, integrated headsets, internal cable routing, and one-piece cockpits are modern constructs, think again. Gary Klein was doing all of this more than two decades ago, proving yet again that what once was old is new again.
The concept of optimizing structures and assemblies is hardly new; it’s a defining characteristic of engineers, and alloy frame innovator Gary Klein embodied that perfectly. Steel was the standard back in the day but Klein insisted that alloy was a better choice – and by increasing the diameter of the tubes, he could make up for the material’s inherent stiffness and strength disadvantages.
Large-diameter aluminum tubes are the norm now but two decades ago, the concept was still going head-to-head with steel
Tube dimensions like this are commonplace now but that was hardly the case when Klein was in its heyday
By the early 1990s, he had the process dialed in with this 1993 Attitude mountain bike model standing as a shining testament of what could be done. The reliability of the oversized tubes was very good, the smoothly welded joints were beautiful to behold, and as an early pioneer of hydroforming, the square-to-round chainstays also furthered bolstered the rear end while increasing tire and drivetrain clearance, too.
Simply changing the frame material wasn’t enough for Klein, however. He also saw deficiencies in how many of the then-standard ancillary components were built and attached, and many of his solutions were impressively forward thinking.
Cartridge bearings were pressed and bonded directly into the bottom bracket shell
Press-fit bottom brackets are hardly new
Cartridge bearings were pressed and bonded directly into the smooth-bored bottom bracket shell, for example, which saved the weight of separate cups. Up front, the headset bearings were also housed inside the oversized head tube (which, in turn, surrounded a novel oversized steerer).
Klein wasn’t satisfied with typical cockpit arrangements at the time, either. Instead of a separate stem and bar that were clamped together, the groundbreaking Mission Control front end comprised an oversized aluminum stem that was welded directly to the bar, saving weight and improving steering precision over what was otherwise available.
The original mission control cockpit used an oversized quill stem that was welded to an aluminum handlebar. klein claimed it was stiffer and lighter than conventional two-piece setups
The Mission Control cockpit was a beautiful piece of work on its own
All that extra surface area had to be painted, of course, and Klein famously matched the cockpit finishes to the framesets. This particular sample features Klein’s extremely rare ‘gossamer’ paint scheme, which was made by heating the still-wet paint with an acetylene torch.
Externally run cables would naturally detract from that ultra-clean aesthetic so Klein was an early adopter of internal routing, too. It was far from the maintenance nightmare that many modern interpretations are, however, with Teflon liners running the full length of each path. As long as the owner was careful not to remove those liners during a cable replacement, servicing the bike was as easy as could be.
Compliance' is a popular buzzword in today's bicycle marketing lexicon but there was no such thing back in klein's day. it was all about rigidity and precise handling, as evidenced by this ultra-stiff, oversized aluminum fork
Total travel on this massive alloy fork was somewhere on the order of... zero
The end result is undeniably stunning and wouldn’t look out of place even today. Although the ride was unyieldingly rigid, in stark contrast to today’s emphasis on ‘compliance’, Klein certainly achieved his goal of decreasing weight. Total weight for this gorgeous steed as shown here is just 10.57kg (23.30lb) – shockingly feathery for the time and an impressive figure even compared with modern machines.
Special thanks to Vintage MTB Workshop for loaning out such a priceless machine. Also, thanks to the folks at The Pro's Closet, who will soon open up a museum of noteworthy vintage bikes at their headquarters in Boulder, Colorado.
James Huang is BikeRadar's former technical editor. After leaving BikeRadar in 2016, he worked at CyclingTips and Escape Collective. He now runs the Substack cycling publication N-1 Bikes.
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