First post with pictures! There are some good looking Kleins out there (that Blastberry Q Pro especially ... sexy).
I never thought of my Kleins as very retro until this last week when I was fitting some new headset parts to my Carbon Mantra and realized it's almost a decade old. Here's the fleet...
My first Klein. Medium '97 Comp with full M950 XTR. 28 hole King/517 wheels/red alloy nips/15-17-15 spokes (note the broken rear spoke ... broke it on way the to that particular serene spot), AD12 rear shock, Psylo up front.
My second ... Large '01 Mantra Carbon. Full M950/M951 (eight speed), Hayes Mag brakes, Gore Ride On Lite cabling, Stratos Helix Pro shock, AM Classic wheels, Specialized Thermoplastic bars, Klein Death Grip 2.35s, Klein Incisor grips. It's a "do everything" bike in the proper sense. Oh, the King headset is now a custom internal setup.
Then I got my Dad a Mantra after he had hip surgery and could no longer run. Medium '99 Mantra Pro (remember lusting after this when I worked at a bike shop). Hodgepodge of components (now mostly M950/M951). Now has a Fox Vanilla 125r up front (thinking about re-working the FS Ti fork for 90mm of travel or so and putting it back on). Ran a Helix Pro for a while, but now has a Cane Creek AD12. Now has the King/517 wheels from my '97 comp on it too wrapped with Death Grip 2.35 tires. Probably weighs right around 25 pounds.
Built my Mom this bike. Medium '97 Mantra Pro (relatively limited quantity). This is the lightest Klein Mantra frame of all time. Lighter than the carbon medium frames from '99-'01. I built it with a Rohloff speedhub laced to Valliant Rims by Dave of Dave's Speed Dream wheels. Sid fork, cane creek brakes (no noodle), Renen Rollenlager chain tensioner, Spot Brand single speed ring on M951 cranks, Cloud Nine rear shock, Death Grip 2.1 tires. 25 lb 3 oz (and they say you can't build a light Rohloff bike).
Then I finally got a Roadie a few years ago (after reconditioning my dad's old Grand Prix and falling in love with road biking). 56cm '02 Q Pro Carbon (a Chehalis Q Pro Carbon ... '03 moved to Waterloo ... '04 used a cheaper rear end and heavier fork). Surprisingly this frame had a horribly faced/threaded bottom bracket that took a LOT of work to get square. I ended up having to take the shell width down to 65.5 mm and run a 1.5 mm spacer on one side and 1.0 mm spacer on the other. The threads are still garbage, but careful tightening with RC680 Loctite have made it all work and it's all square, smooth, and quiet now. Rival Gruppo, Thomson post/stem, Dave's Wheels "Super Aero" (tune rear hub, am classic front, IRD rims), full Gore Ride On cabling. 16 lb 14 oz with old PD-M747 pedals. Road pedals, SRAM Red, ditching the buzzkill inserts, and trimming the extra seatpost length would put this bike right down at 15 pounds ... with clinchers! The Q Pro was truly an amazing frame for its time.
Also have a 2006 Reve with a Arctic Silver re-spray (same as the '06 Q Pro XX), but it's neither built up nor retro (yet), so no pics yet.
Here's the team I was on for a 12 hour race a few years ago. Three out of four Kleins, not bad. I'm the young guy by the way.
I have frame/fork weights for virtually all Mantra years/sizes as well as some weight comparisons of the 02/03 Q Pro vs 04/06 Q Pro. They got fatter when they moved to Wisconsin by almost half a pound. Bottom bracket shell had less machining, seatstays got heavier/cheaper, chainstays are different also. Welds are more porous on later frames also. I can post details on this stuff if anyone is interested.
I've also come up with some solutions for Airheadset problems. Notably, my Q Pro runs a Chris King bearing setup (with the Aeros fork) and my Carbon Mantra as well as my dad's Mantra Pro run an internal CK bearing setup also.
Klein MC3.1 Headset Conversion
http://www.themacaddress.com/?p=99708193
Klein Q Pro Headset Conversion
http://homepage.mac.com/dgiessel/.Pictu ... index.html
Cheers!
-David
