# Vintage Klein



## Guest (May 30, 2005)

Here's an original Mountain Klein, bare aluminum finish with clearcoat and Manitou fork. The photo is dated June 1992, but the bike is older than that. This photo was taken after the original paint was removed and the clearcoat applied.


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## Fillet-brazed (Jan 13, 2004)

ronbo613 said:


> Here's an original Mountain Klein, bare aluminum finish with clearcoat and Manitou fork. The photo is dated June 1992, but the bike is older than that. This photo was taken after the original paint was removed and the clearcoat applied.


The Klein sticker and stem look a few years newer than the Mountain Klein era. Is it yours? It looks like a 1990+/- Pinnacle to me but Im not sure. If it came with that stem it wouldnt be a Mountain Klein I dont think...


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## Guest (May 31, 2005)

It's my friend's bike. I'm 99.9% sure it's a Mt. Klein. He got the stickers from the factory when he refinished it. He lives in Washington state, I remember calling the Klein factory and talking to Gary about it. He's still got it, I'm sure. The handlebar/stem may have been upgrades.


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## RobynC (Feb 14, 2004)

You can tell it's a newer Pinnacle, probably from around 1989-1990. The Mountain Klein and early Pinnacle used chainstay brakes.


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## Michael Staab (Jan 13, 2004)

Hi,

seems to be a Pinnacle. The Mountain Klein had fully square chainstays, not the square to round shape shown in the pic. See attached picture of an 1985 (!) Mountain Klein. It has the "Schauff" Sticker on the downtube because "Velo Schauff" was the german distributor back then.

Greetings,

Michael


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## Guest (May 31, 2005)

Yup, Michael is a huge Klein fan  and 100% right. For sure a Pinnacle as indicated by the square-to-round chain stays. However, the late (1989) Mountain Kleins also had seat stay mounted cantilever brakes...

Carsten


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## Michael Staab (Jan 13, 2004)

Yeah, that's right. I'm known as one of the biggest Klein Fans around . Just kidding. But in fact, I do like the early Kleins, but the early 90s Kleins with their fancy paintshemes (the dentist`s bikes...) never appealled to me.

Greetings,

Michael
Would love to own that 1985 Mountain Klein.


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## Guest (May 31, 2005)

You guys know your Kleins! I had a Klein Quantum road frame, my friend had the Klein MTB. You can see the differences in the photo of that 1985 bike. Was 1985 the first year for the Klein mountain bikes?


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## DowntownSF (Jun 13, 2005)

*I just bought the exact same frame*

I just bought that exact frame with a manitou answer 3 fork and also a Custom paint job a couple weeks ago. Mine has a 1inch headset and from what I've read only the Rascals have had the 1inch. I know it's early 90's it doesn't have the U-brake on the chain stay. There's also a cable guide for the rear brake that's part of the frame next to the seat post, like in the picture, which points to a change to cantilevers. When did Klein start using Mission Control?


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## Shayne (Jan 14, 2004)

*Lots of 1" Kleins*

Mountain Klein, Top Gun, Pinnacle, Rascal, Fervor were all 1" headtube bikes
Mission control started in 1990 I believe.


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## Guest (Jun 13, 2005)

DowntownSF said:


> I just bought that exact frame with a manitou answer 3 fork and also a Custom paint job a couple weeks ago. Mine has a 1inch headset and from what I've read only the Rascals have had the 1inch. I know it's early 90's it doesn't have the U-brake on the chain stay. There's also a cable guide for the rear brake that's part of the frame next to the seat post, like in the picture, which points to a change to cantilevers. When did Klein start using Mission Control?


the 1" Mission Control was introduced on the Top Gun in 1989. the Top Gun was only offered in 1989 and became the Rascal in 1990.

the welded-on tube style rear cable guide indicates that it is an XS (18") frame!

Carsten


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## DowntownSF (Jun 13, 2005)

*are you sure*

In history on Klein's site,https://www.kleinbikes.com/us/about_klein/history.html, it says that in 1990 the Klein Rascal's main difference was the 1inch headtube instead of the oversized headset of the other models. And since before 1990 klein used bottom bracket U-brakes







having a cable guide like for this 1990 attitude







would be unlikely


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## Shayne (Jan 14, 2004)

*I Duess I Don't Understand What Your Question Is*

As Carsten (the king of Klein knowledge) pointed out Mission Control started in '89 (guess I was off by a year) and the only thing the seattube cable guide helps to identify is the frame size.


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## Fillet-brazed (Jan 13, 2004)

ALL the Kleins had 1" headtubes until the Attitude came out in 1990.


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## Guest (Jun 13, 2005)

DowntownSF said:


> In history on Klein's site,https://www.kleinbikes.com/us/about_klein/history.html, it says that in 1990 the Klein Rascal's main difference was the 1inch headtube instead of the oversized headset of the other models. And since before 1990 klein used bottom bracket U-brakes
> 
> 
> 
> ...


on the Klein history site the Rascal is compared to the 1990 Attitude. Rascal and Attitude were the same frames except for the head tube which was oversized on the Attitude and 1" on the Rascal. As Shayne stated, Pinnacle, Rascal, Fervor, Mountain Klein all had 1" head tubes.

I may be wrong with the cable guide. They were always used on XS frames because the seat stays were too short to accomodate the bridge style guide. but i think i have also seen larger early frames with the tube guide.

finally, not all pre-1990 Kleins had rollercams. i had a 1989 Mountain Klein with cantilever brakes and the Top Gun in the 1989 catalog (see above) also has them. and quite a few other 1989 frames i know. not sure on the 1988 and earlier frames though...

post a photo of your ?Pinnacle? and it will become a bit more clear 

hey Shayne, i am not king of anything, just have studied the catalogs to death and have seen many Kleins in person and on photos. and i love details 

Carsten


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## sargon97 (Feb 28, 2004)

I had a 1989 Pinnacle and it came with cantis. I remember cause my dad got an 88 with U brakes. I wanted cantis so I had to hold off on buying for a few months.

My friend got a Pinnacle, 90 I think, Same frame as mine but it came with mission control.

All 1".

I wish I still had that old Klein...


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## balcs (Apr 6, 2005)

*saw an ugly green NOS (?) Rascal on ebay --*

There's a Rascal on Ebay currently with one of the godawful early '90's paint jobs...bright green splatter. eBay item 7162988568. Looks like a 1994 19" frame, also looks NOS from the photos. I'd buy it to replace the broken Rascal that I was using as a singlespeed (horizontal dropouts, remember, makes a REALLY light SS), but I already unloaded the 1" fork that I'd need. If anyone buys it, I have the 1" Mission Control quill stem/bar and will give it away for the price of shipping. I broke 3 of these stems on my Pinnacle, one in the middle of a race, ouch, so I'm too scared to use it myself and I'd feel guilty taking money for one.


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## tobygoo (Mar 14, 2006)

Hi balcs - I sent you an email regarding the MC stem/bar - I'm interested if you still have it - thanks


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## mmaharam (Mar 1, 2008)

*Klein Pinnacle*

I bought that same bike, an early Pinnacle, from Gary Klein over the phone in 1987...he shipped it to me unpainted and disassembled. It was a great bike which I later set up as a cyclocross and used in Manhattan until it was stolen last week. 21 years is a good run.


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