2000 Klein Mantra Carbon - 96er

the0r1st":1lbl5jgu said:

By having the seat back it allows me to put my body weight further back on steep inclines to prevent stink bugging.

Is you review all the mtbr.com posts regarding Klein Mantras this is a common issue.

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Yep, had my Mantra since the late '90s and found keeping my bottom on the seat stops the rear shock 'un-loading' when weight is shifted forward whilst going dh with the front brake on.. more to do with the long swing of the URT (+ placement of pivot/shock/rider) than the angle of the forks... but, lifting the front end thus pushing the rider back on the frame would do the same. ;-)

May be my fitting Mav DUC32's to my Comp (for my daughter) will have the same effect:


I'll let you know when I've finished...

Uhm, aren't those bottom brackets a bit high?

I mean, you gain the better slacker angles and the advantages of a a big front wheel that conquers obstacles easier, but theoretically you lose in terms of maneuverability because of the too high BB's. Modern era bikes are as low and as slack as possibly and it's a good thing that aggressive gravity geometry transferred to all around rides, because bikes are meant to be fun and not only ridden upwards.

Just my two pennies. Not trying to be patronizing with anybody around here, actually I feel these builds refreshingly open-minded, as I have written before.

Cheers,
Mx

Maxipedia":8gvuxoa8 said:

Uhm, aren't those bottom brackets a bit high?
..snip..
Modern era bikes are as low and as slack as possibly and it's a good thing that aggressive gravity geometry transferred to all around rides, because bikes are meant to be fun and not only ridden upwards.

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Agreed, Mine will have the front end dropped to the 4inch travel setting and as Meg's legs aren't as long as mine ( and she weighs just over half of me ) I'll sort out a short ( eye 2 eye ) shock with a soft spring to bring the BB down... I had thought of fitting some rigid forks to keep the weight down, as was intended by GK, but gave in to my daughter wanting forks like mine.

Meg is only going to be gentle trail riding, nothing too serious - or I'll put the frame back on my study wall... :shock:

some pretty cool stuff going on here, if I hadn't moved my klein mantra along I would have totally given this a shot.

maneuverability

Can't say that I lost any maneuverability, but plan on changing back to 26" midway through the summer to really see what I lost.

After I made the change in all the excitement I may have forgotten how the 26" felt and its been a few years now.

Question

I have a question and need a little advice. I have two options for forks 1) 2001 MARZOCCHI SUPER T 26" and 2) original 1998 Answer Manitou SX 26". Which one should I use?

Re: Question

the0r1st":1120lppn said:

I have a question and need a little advice. I have two options for forks 1) 2001 MARZOCCHI SUPER T 26" and 2) original 1998 Answer Manitou SX 26". Which one should I use?

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I've never got on with Manitou forks, and as you can tell I'm not a stickler for originality.. ;-)

The Super T is a much plusher fork, but it will also plant a lot of weight on your front end and it's a triple clamp, so this translates very likely into stress that a Mantra frame can't be prepared to handle. Even if it's a "Trek era" bike and in some people's minds it should be burned on a stake (it may hurt the memory of Dolomite and other excessively painted bikes), you wouldn't wanna break what is basically a nice frame.

The Manitou isn't much of a fork by today's terms, but I reckon it could work on pavement and for lightish off-road use.

I think a modern fork should do the job without adding weight penalty and without harming the frame. How about a Reba Dual Air in its 120 mm version, or an older 32 TALAS (even though it is overcomplicated on the inside), even a Recon with U-Turn and aluminium stanchions? A Minute?

With smiles,
Mx

Maxipedia":1kuv2tv8 said:

.... it's a triple clamp, so this translates very likely into stress that a Mantra frame can't be prepared to handle.

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Klein did sell a Mantra with triple clamp Manitou (Xvert?) forks - think it was called the Race 'LT', even had a Hayes front disk.. not sure of the year, but it's in one of the scanned Klein docs. ;-)

I've looked around and it looks like some people have put triple crowns on their Klein like DaveP_retro. I think I'll give it a try. Looked on Bikepedia and doesn't look like any of the Mantras came that way, but you never know. :twisted: