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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Here's an original Mountain Klein, bare aluminum finish with clearcoat and Manitou fork. The photo is dated June 1992, but the bike is older than that. This photo was taken after the original paint was removed and the clearcoat applied.
 

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ronbo613 said:
Here's an original Mountain Klein, bare aluminum finish with clearcoat and Manitou fork. The photo is dated June 1992, but the bike is older than that. This photo was taken after the original paint was removed and the clearcoat applied.
The Klein sticker and stem look a few years newer than the Mountain Klein era. Is it yours? It looks like a 1990+/- Pinnacle to me but Im not sure. If it came with that stem it wouldnt be a Mountain Klein I dont think...
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
It's my friend's bike. I'm 99.9% sure it's a Mt. Klein. He got the stickers from the factory when he refinished it. He lives in Washington state, I remember calling the Klein factory and talking to Gary about it. He's still got it, I'm sure. The handlebar/stem may have been upgrades.
 
Hi,

seems to be a Pinnacle. The Mountain Klein had fully square chainstays, not the square to round shape shown in the pic. See attached picture of an 1985 (!) Mountain Klein. It has the "Schauff" Sticker on the downtube because "Velo Schauff" was the german distributor back then.

Greetings,

Michael
 

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Discussion starter · #6 ·
Yup, Michael is a huge Klein fan ;) and 100% right. For sure a Pinnacle as indicated by the square-to-round chain stays. However, the late (1989) Mountain Kleins also had seat stay mounted cantilever brakes...

Carsten
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
You guys know your Kleins! I had a Klein Quantum road frame, my friend had the Klein MTB. You can see the differences in the photo of that 1985 bike. Was 1985 the first year for the Klein mountain bikes?
 
I just bought the exact same frame

I just bought that exact frame with a manitou answer 3 fork and also a Custom paint job a couple weeks ago. Mine has a 1inch headset and from what I've read only the Rascals have had the 1inch. I know it's early 90's it doesn't have the U-brake on the chain stay. There's also a cable guide for the rear brake that's part of the frame next to the seat post, like in the picture, which points to a change to cantilevers. When did Klein start using Mission Control?
 
Discussion starter · #11 ·
DowntownSF said:
I just bought that exact frame with a manitou answer 3 fork and also a Custom paint job a couple weeks ago. Mine has a 1inch headset and from what I've read only the Rascals have had the 1inch. I know it's early 90's it doesn't have the U-brake on the chain stay. There's also a cable guide for the rear brake that's part of the frame next to the seat post, like in the picture, which points to a change to cantilevers. When did Klein start using Mission Control?
the 1" Mission Control was introduced on the Top Gun in 1989. the Top Gun was only offered in 1989 and became the Rascal in 1990.

the welded-on tube style rear cable guide indicates that it is an XS (18") frame!

Carsten

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I Duess I Don't Understand What Your Question Is

As Carsten (the king of Klein knowledge) pointed out Mission Control started in '89 (guess I was off by a year) and the only thing the seattube cable guide helps to identify is the frame size.
 
Discussion starter · #15 ·
DowntownSF said:
In history on Klein's site,https://www.kleinbikes.com/us/about_klein/history.html, it says that in 1990 the Klein Rascal's main difference was the 1inch headtube instead of the oversized headset of the other models. And since before 1990 klein used bottom bracket U-brakes
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having a cable guide like for this 1990 attitude
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would be unlikely
on the Klein history site the Rascal is compared to the 1990 Attitude. Rascal and Attitude were the same frames except for the head tube which was oversized on the Attitude and 1" on the Rascal. As Shayne stated, Pinnacle, Rascal, Fervor, Mountain Klein all had 1" head tubes.

I may be wrong with the cable guide. They were always used on XS frames because the seat stays were too short to accomodate the bridge style guide. but i think i have also seen larger early frames with the tube guide.

finally, not all pre-1990 Kleins had rollercams. i had a 1989 Mountain Klein with cantilever brakes and the Top Gun in the 1989 catalog (see above) also has them. and quite a few other 1989 frames i know. not sure on the 1988 and earlier frames though...

post a photo of your ?Pinnacle? and it will become a bit more clear :)

hey Shayne, i am not king of anything, just have studied the catalogs to death and have seen many Kleins in person and on photos. and i love details ;)

Carsten
 
I had a 1989 Pinnacle and it came with cantis. I remember cause my dad got an 88 with U brakes. I wanted cantis so I had to hold off on buying for a few months.

My friend got a Pinnacle, 90 I think, Same frame as mine but it came with mission control.

All 1".

I wish I still had that old Klein...
 
saw an ugly green NOS (?) Rascal on ebay --

There's a Rascal on Ebay currently with one of the godawful early '90's paint jobs...bright green splatter. eBay item 7162988568. Looks like a 1994 19" frame, also looks NOS from the photos. I'd buy it to replace the broken Rascal that I was using as a singlespeed (horizontal dropouts, remember, makes a REALLY light SS), but I already unloaded the 1" fork that I'd need. If anyone buys it, I have the 1" Mission Control quill stem/bar and will give it away for the price of shipping. I broke 3 of these stems on my Pinnacle, one in the middle of a race, ouch, so I'm too scared to use it myself and I'd feel guilty taking money for one.
 
Klein Pinnacle

I bought that same bike, an early Pinnacle, from Gary Klein over the phone in 1987...he shipped it to me unpainted and disassembled. It was a great bike which I later set up as a cyclocross and used in Manhattan until it was stolen last week. 21 years is a good run.
 
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