It's another Klein debate...!

[dbmtb]

I started MTBing in 91 and Fats and Kleins only ever conjured up one word in my narrow northern mind - and that was "poncey".

Sorry folks..... Never been tempted by either of them.

lol

I take it you were/are a Pace & Orange man

Except I owned neither BITD.

Never owned a Pace until I got and RC303 in 2007 after I moved to a more MTB-friendly part of Denmark. I had to leave the UK to be able to afford a Pace - and could no longer justify such a high-end MTB when I was mostly racing on tarmac.
Orange - the short top tube didn't suit my long torso/stumpy legs anatomy so I got the Dave Yates instead.

To be fair to Klein and FC, it was the "bike jewellry for people who don't ride much" associations with their products that turned me off, rather than the products themselves. The whole Cooks,Grafton,SRP,Paul thing went over my head too, for the same reason.

Paradoxically, Pace ended up in that box too (as can be seen by the shiny London RC200s that occasionally come up for sale on ebay with a plethora of dodgy "commuter" kit on them.) so it's not as if I'm unaware of the contradiction.

 

[utahdog2003]

Re: .

If we take our advertising seriously :roll: then perhaps we should heed the words of the suits at Klein... and stick at step 2 (if you know what's good for you!)....

Mr K

Poke fun all you want...
...but BITD that concept was pretty accurate for many many people!

Say what you want...
...but the myriad of adds for Klein that boasted wildly were based on reality, which is why they were so successful.

Hate all you want...
...but if Kleins really were style with no substance, then they'd be Kirks, or Funks, or McMahons, or Alpinestars, or the myriad of other brands that were at least as flashy but truly lacked all substance.

 

[GearlessinSeattle]

The majority of people that hate on Kleins are the same people that never owned them or did and had a bad experience with them. Kleins BITD were special not because of the price but what they represented- the future. (Even if the future only lasted 4 years for Klein) Yes they were stiff, yes they may crack at some point and yes they cost a lot, but if you think what was available on the market in 1990 when Klein first introduced the Attitude you may understand that it was ahead of its time. It was special.
I have posted two replies about this very same topic in 2 different threads and it all comes back to want. I WANT ONE! I WANTED ONE! Yes, BITD I wanted an Attitude very badly. Living in Sun Valley Idaho in 1990 I remember selling 2 Attitudes to Clint Eastwood. One for him and one for quests that came to visit. You think old Clint was out tearing up the local trails. You did have a lot of very wealthy people buying them just to ride a paved trail but you also had people, many of them friends of mine, who bought them and would ride them every day on some of the best single track in the world. In the 3 years that I lived in SV, I only saw 1 Klein come back that failed and that was from someone hitting a tree so hard that it cracked the headtube.
Since that time I have come full circle. Yes I still own a Klein but would I ever buy an aluminum framed MTB bike that was not fully suspended now? Heck no! Things change. People change. Markets change.
Some people may not understand the aura about Kleins but then I don’t understand those people.

 

[thesneaker]

Some people may not understand the aura about Kleins but then I don’t understand those people.

quote of the year, awesome

 

[GearlessinSeattle]

Thank You.

 

[utahdog2003]

Some people may not understand the aura about Kleins but then I don’t understand those people.

quote of the year, awesome

Yup..there it is. Took me 4 posts and 90000 keystrokes to say that and I still failed!

 

[ededwards]

Interesting that this topic has reached well into page 3 without resorting to a slanging match, great to see that we are such a restrained lot.

In 1990 I got myself a pillar box red Pinnacle at less than trade price (long and pretty boring story). Fitted with RC30s (what was I thinking?), Syncros and XC Pro throughout it was really light and looked like nothing else. I had precious little reference points but seem to remember it riding well. I rode it on the second Polaris (two day offroad orienteering event with big rucksack full of kit. What was I thinking?) and it was fine even with unpadded lycra shorts (what was I thinking?). Great bike but, in pleasing symmetry, planning to take a bike with me overseas I sold it to buy back the Stumpjumper I sold to buy the Pinnacle. And then, muppet like, abandoned the Stumpjumper.

Boring personal story over, I HAD to have a Klein in the early 90s because of the green/white/magenta Attitude I saw in London. The almost liquid finish! The welds or lack of! The fat tubes! The forks! The sloping top tube! The Mission Control! OMG!

The green/white/magenta Attitude was and is the coolest looking bike in the history of ever. Fact. But I don't really want one. Not sure what that all means, probably that I am a sucker for aspirational marketing and that my memory of a sweet ride was in reality me convincing myself that I hadn't wasted a chunk of cash on a dog.

Just off to have some ciabatta, organic goats cheese, sun dried tomato and perhaps a little dill, washed down by a drop of Chateauneuf de Pape. While I'm at it I'll consider whether the Jones Spaceframe is the modern day equivalent.

Aspirationally

Ed

 

[Neil G]

The majority of people that hate on Kleins are the same people that never owned them or did and had a bad experience with them. Kleins BITD were special not because of the price but what they represented- the future. (Even if the future only lasted 4 years for Klein) Yes they were stiff, yes they may crack at some point and yes they cost a lot, but if you think what was available on the market in 1990 when Klein first introduced the Attitude you may understand that it was ahead of its time. It was special.
I have posted two replies about this very same topic in 2 different threads and it all comes back to want. I WANT ONE! I WANTED ONE! Yes, BITD I wanted an Attitude very badly. Living in Sun Valley Idaho in 1990 I remember selling 2 Attitudes to Clint Eastwood. One for him and one for quests that came to visit. You think old Clint was out tearing up the local trails. You did have a lot of very wealthy people buying them just to ride a paved trail but you also had people, many of them friends of mine, who bought them and would ride them every day on some of the best single track in the world. In the 3 years that I lived in SV, I only saw 1 Klein come back that failed and that was from someone hitting a tree so hard that it cracked the headtube.
Since that time I have come full circle. Yes I still own a Klein but would I ever buy an aluminum framed MTB bike that was not fully suspended now? Heck no! Things change. People change. Markets change.
Some people may not understand the aura about Kleins but then I don’t understand those people.

Totally understand that and agree, wether Kleins were technically bad or not didn't matter, they were so different to what was around at the time which made them so special

 

[thesneaker]

i fell in love with the Team USA the 1st time i saw 1 in 1990, 18 years later i finally got, was it worth the wait? hell yeah!

 

[Wold Ranger]

Coke Cans

The best quote I ever heard was from a rival US builder of the time, who said "you Brits have a saying, fools and money are oft parted, Gary bought into this philosophy big style! He even conned Messrs Trek to buy out what was in fact pretty much a worthless operation too!"