Oh dear - head above parapet - my view of Kleins…...

[madjh]

It is not only the paint job. The cable routing was way ahead of his time, smooth welds, that beautiful stem and fork ... they really looks quite nice and stands over the rest.
I have test and own lot of retro parts and many of the best looking parts perform poor ... like kooka brakes levers, or beautiful avid trialign etc but looks amazing good.

 

[rwm1962]

I'm not really qualified to comment but never seen a well used one & just did a google image search on Klein Attitude & all images in a long scroll were of pristine bikes. Seems odd. I've seen collections on youtube & it's almost cotton glove stuff you'd be tiptoeing around. I wouldn't be comfortable with one in my workshop or riding one unless it was rough when I got it! Unlikely, but if I inherited one it would be sold in a flash. I'd rather have a scruffy Orange & some cash in my pocket.

 

[mk one]

I suppose people collect bikes for different reasons, some for the desirability factor, the unobtainablity back in the day, the ride or the practicality etc etc.

Kleins for me were top end race bikes, very good at their job. True, some dont like the ride of a fully rigid bike, aluminium is very rigid, great for acceleration and precision, not on par with some other frames if you compare it regards comfort, there are comfy riding alu bikes though. Also innovative, the workmanship and paint, for which they are known by most, is just outstanding, the early 90's bikes are just sublime and were very expensive in the day. I have spoken before about how i feel the price of some older bikes is way below what it should be, especially considering the design, materials and ride, so for me based on the above the Kleins are worth the thousands of pounds price tag, its just other bikes are underpriced.

 

[2manyoranges]

mk 1 - now that's an interesting take. I am more with rwm'62 - I see mountain bikes as useable items - they were designed to be slogged up hills and throw down the other side...and that's what I like doing on them. But I can see where you are coming from ... for me they are just possibly too finessed and too fragile to be used.

 

[Peachy!]

I rode a Klein once... It was Hotwheels' newly acquired one at MM19, just a few hundred yards down the field to the bar tent whilst Martin rode my mint Claud Butler Oracle.
By the time we got down there my arse was in agony! I've never been so happy to ride a bottom of the range boat anchor back up a hill!

Mind you, the Klein was beautiful and turned every head.

 

[BlackCat]

I’m in no way a Klein fanboy, though I do have an MC1 Attitude. I have a variety of high end US steel too.

A better contemporary comparison for a Klein would be a Cannondale rather than a Bonty or Team Marin etc. Both were light, stiff, racy, innovative etc.

Klein traded at a premium then, as now, not because of objective performance but because of perceived quality, rarity - and yes, appearance - because nothing looked like a Klein in the early ‘90s.

Was it “better” than a similarly equipped ‘Dale or US steel? Dunno - depends on your personal definition of better. Was it faster? Again, depends on who’s riding it and how. What a Klein unequivocally was was more desirable than most contemporary peers for many - it’s what economists might call a Veblen good. It was desirable because it was unobtainable. The pricing itself made Kleins objects of lust. Nothing much seems to have changed over the last few decades.

Was it “worth” the money or the perceived status? I suppose it depends on how much money you have - or what kind of status you ascribe value to.

 

[BoyBurning]

There was only one person I knew as a kid who owned a Klein, and he won every race he entered on it. Quite tellingly for me, apart from the fame set, everything else was pretty boggo stuff - SS7 & 987 brakes, XT groupset etc. The bike stood out to me as a. it looked fookin incredible, b. it was MBA in my midst, c. it made my GT Avalanche look and feel like a sack of potatoes. My mate who rode it could have had any bike he wanted, and chose the Attitude. That was telling. He chose to ride a rigid aluminium frame even though he could have had his choice of any suspension fork, any frame material, and even RTS / AMP / etc if he wanted. He chose and won on a fully rigid Attitude, and to this day misses it. That he could have won races on a bloody post bike as he was so good is utterly irrelevant of course!

 

[sinnerman]

Never forget picking up Daves Attitude at the Malverns, was totally blown away by the weight comparison of the TBG explosif i was riding, it looked awesum and weighed nothing by comparison. Having done a lap on it, it was harsh by comparison, but my permanent JOKER style grin more than made up for it.

If i could find an original in my size, undamaged and unfaded, it would be with me now, the prices they are fetching are ridiculous, but as with all things, its only worth what the market demands.

 

[2manyoranges]

I suppose I have to shift my perceptions. I bought a Klein frame in 1991, to ride. I thought I was buying the 'ultimate bike'. Perhaps my mistake. In reality it was totally unsuited to all day, long distance hacks on the flint-strewn South Downs. It went. I learned. My shift in perception should perhaps be to treat these like a Porsche 917. Something great at the task set for it but generally unsuited for actually riding the kinds of thing I like to ride. People buy and sell 917s. And since there's a market....

But still….(nagging thought)...the ti Stanton 29er I just built up also was Not Cheap. Made in the same numbers as the Kleins. Also featherweight. Equally beautifully engineered. Immensely capable for twitchy singletrack, huge air, and all day slog-a-thons and Alpine hike-a-bike. I'll stick with that....

 

[sinnerman]

Age I'm sure plays a huge part, at that point in the late 80s, would i have ever thought of the harshness of the ride. NO WAY.

As with the Porsche 911 aircooled, did i drive it every chance i got. OF COURSE.

fast forward to today, Would i find the Klein harsh and uncomfortable, OF COURSE.

Would i dive the aircooled 911 every day, NO WAY.

As an old man, my love for these things hasn't altered, but how i use them and covet them would.

Just call it old age.