Klein Mantra Comp 1998 x Marzocchi Bomber Build!

Having been away from MTB for many years, we've recently moved to West Cheshire so now surrounded by forest and trail thought it was times to get back into the bikes! Having visited all the local bike shops I decided I didn't want new or could justify the spend as a "new" hobby although I was pretty tempted at the Specialized store in Chester!

Back in the day I had an old aluminium Saracen Kili Flyer and a Specialized Stumpjumper Comp so started looking around online at decent used bikes or project bikes, pretty quickly I picked up these...



Red bike is a 2002 S-Works M5 in near mint condition, and the Blue bike is a 2001 Specialized Stumpjumper Comp M4 picked up for buttons - its pretty tired but should clean up well! (more of those soon).

Then the madness began, my best mate has had a Klein Mantra tucked away for years so I started looking at these and picked up this project bike this week a 1998 Klein Mantra Comp in very worn Blastberry.

Its rough but all there, headset is broken and most parts are very tired, so decided to jump in and strip it down before a final strip at LBS and complete repaint. Here's a few stripdown pics... its not pretty!






















































Lots of ideas (and parts needed) but off to see the paint man next week!

Re: Klein Mantra Comp 1998 Madness!

Some more progress this week, with new vintage front fork arrival...









...and a very quick mock up at the LBS... (whilst dropping off my Stumpjumper M4)







Now debating on exact colour combination and looking for more parts...

Nice project - has there been any progress with it?

Nothing since last week, need to sort final paint colour and parts gathering - mostly XT for now...

If I'm honest the Mantra is the only Klien I'd consider buying/owning
So I jumped straight in to the pics....

Jesus what a dog in need of rescuing

Never seen one wearing Z1's before so interested to see where this goes especially with new paint and groupset on the cards

A few things you might consider:

- Those Mantra frames have a very steep steering angle. Imho a 100mm fork suits them very well. I had a 80mm Judy DH on it before and it did not feel right.

- Use a modern platform dampener. Fox RP23 like I did or something similar. The bike will perform _so_ much better, I could not believe it myself. It improves (decreases or even eliminates if set up correctly) pedal bounce. It will reduce that "jacking the seat up effect" while breaking.

- getting the front derailleur right was a pain. Not sure that problem came from the m950 cranks that I use but I just wasn't able to get the e-type XTR derailleur working. It was constantly rubbing on the teeth. The LX works better but is still rubbing. I am considering switching to 1x11 only because of that issue.

- If you need new bushings, you can get them from igus. Size see here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=353202&p=2635467#p2635467

Oh, and don't think of the mantra as a downhill killer machine. It is not. Its a lightweight cross country bike that will go uphill better than your average hardtail. But it is no match for most 4link rear end sussers going downhill.

A pic of my non final version for inspiration:
(click to enlarge)

Thanks for the pointers - much appreciated.

Ultimately the Marzocchi may end up on one of my other bikes but it will get it built up like this for now. Will look into a better rear spring as the frame heads for paint. Front derailleur seems fine on this one and already aware of the bushing upgrade.

It’s not going to be used as a savage downhill bike, more an interesting build and cross country bit of fun, I can thrash my other bikes instead!