1991 Klein Attitude

Canuckbiker

BoTM Winner
Brodie Fan
Another bucket list acquisition checked off the list. When I snagged a ratty 91’ Pinnacle frame from the swap meet for cheap over two years ago I was stoked (for good reason), I’ve always loved Klein bicycles. That frame was recently replaced with an exact same frame but with near perfect green paint. While I’ve always loved my Pinnacle (as a Klein lover), I’ve also been on the lookout for and Attitude or an Adroit with an early one preferred as are many Klein fans I figure.

A Couple weeks ago one of my collecting buddies advised me a certain Attitude would be coming up for sale, located on Vancouver Island. It took some back and forth but as of two days ago after a selling price was agreed upon I got my hands on it. I only needed the fuselage so that was agreed upon.

Thanks @Jim26 !

Here’s photos of it in Jim’s garage:

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Many collectors value having the original bike shop sticker on their frames, in this case it had to go (for my build preference), I did save the sticker to stick on my work bench though, the frame was sold from a Seattle bike shop originally and Jim purchased it from Kelowna apparently.



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Paint condition is really good, minimal fading, the bike has been well used though and it bares a few battle scars. There are a few bad paint scratches which go down to bare metal, the worst on the top of the drive side chainstay. Typically I tend to want my builds to be as close to new as possible, that will be the case here but I won’t be considering a repaint or new decals this time. The original paint & decals are in such good shape, I’ll do touch ups the best I can and enjoy the patina 😊

It must have been used as a commuter as unfortunately someone wrapped HI VIS tape around the bottom of each fork blade and on the seatstays just below the canty mounts, as mentioned fading is minimal but some fading has occurred and the spots where the tape was are slightly darker, no biggie, at least the tape was put on fairly uniform.

Pictures after purchase and first cleanup:

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I have been doing a lot of research in the last few days and have determined this frame/fork is a 91’. The matching frame/fork serial numbers are A3D8 & AO3D8 (3D8, hex = 984). I found a great thread on another forum regarding Klein serial numbers which advised that the earliest Attitudes had an ATXXX serial number followed later by BATXXX in 1990 and also that box crown forks where replaced with the next gen Uni-Klein during 1991.

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While I love the rounded Uni-Klein fork crowns I have always wanted a box crown version, super sexy!

Okay, build plan:

I realize XTR M900 is too new for a 1991 build but only by one year, to me an Attitude is as deserving as any frame to be dressed with the best. Since my outgoing Pinnacle already has full M900 it will be an easy swap over.

Well.. except for one thing… Changing the bottom bracket spindle. The Attitude came with a M730 crank friendly 125mm spindle and to use my M900 crank changing over to a proper length spindle was necessary.

While I have dealt with replacing the bearings in my Merlin and have swapped the bearings and spindle in my outgoing Pinnacle, I was not expecting the pain and suffering that was required to remove the spindle from the Attitude! This bike was well used, I assume in wet conditions, it was stuck good.

Here are pics from some of the process:

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In the end, it took a few hours, the cartridge bearings were bonded more to the spindle than the BB shell and while trying to extract the spindle the bearings wanted to move inward into the BB shell, unfortunately Klein did not machine a bearing shoulder into the BB shell to prevent this, I was not able to save the spindle eventually decided to cut it with a grinder to make it easier to tap out the remaining bearing, eventually the BB shell was clean!

Once the crazy bottom bracket work was done I broke out the rubbing and the polishing compound, as with my previously Klein MC1 Controltech bar extenders will be deployed due to a previous owner cutting the bars so short.

Here’s a few pics after all the efforts so far, can’t wait to get it build up and out for a ride!

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