Grad

Hey everyone,
I have been looking into getting into riding for well over a year now and this thing kind of fell into my lap. Got it for $150 and it came with some pedals and a computer. Previous owner bought it brand new, rode it for about a month, and then hung it up in his garage for the past 20 years. He thinks it is a 1994 or 1995, but the strange thing is that it has RX100 components throughout, and when I look at the specs for the Quantum II it was supposed to have a different groupset. He says he bought it brand new for around $1800 and hasn't really changed it much, so I thought I would ask your opinion. He was an older guy and wanted it to go to a good home, didn't care much about the $$. Anyway, I am about to drop it off at my LBS for a tune up (still has the original tires!) although it actually rides and shifts pretty darn well! I know this bike is pretty hardcore and might not be the best for a beginner rider, but I also kind of like having a unique ride that you don't see too often.

Thoughts?

SJX426 

Welcome to C&V! I am sure you will get lots of thought from this crowd!

Here are mine:
1. Good buy!
2. Picture should always be of the drive side
3, Think about rotating that front skewer to be parallel with the fork leg, at least.
4. What kind of tune up do you expect? Makes me nervous. If it has been sitting or hanging for 20 years, ALL the greased bearings should be inspected and likely cleaned and lubed with fresh grease.
5. Check the brake pads. You might be able to refresh them simply with sand paper.
6. Rotate those handle bars! At the least, the drop flats should be parallel to the ground and better yet, pointed midpoint of the radial portion of the rear wheel.
7. Looks like the pump is about to fall off!
8. Make sure it fits you.
9. Clean and wax the frame.
10 Ride the heck out of it!

Grad

Oops! Ok, here is one from the drive side

70sSanO

That is a fine looking bike. I did a real quick check (you can google vintage Klein catalogs) and I think it is a 1995. RX100 was spec'd on the Quantum not the Quantum II, but that is of no consequence.

I think it is a great bike for a beginner. The head angle/wheelbase is pretty racy, but I ride a Cannondale Criterium and it is not skiddish, so I doubt your Klein will be.

There are a couple of things I would do. I would see what the maximum size tires would fit. Probably 25mm, but you might (doubt it) get away with 28mm.

You may need to make a few tweaks to the setup to fit you. Depending on your height/inseam, the handlebars may be a bit low, but you can swap out the stem and there are a number of options.

As already mentioned, get it greased and tuned up, set it up for you and just ride it.

Great find... especially for $150.

John

Sir_Name 

Quite the buy. Congrats. Use caution if your shop recommends replacing much.

Bianchigirll 

I agree good deal and nice looking bike.

DiabloScott

I think it's a 1994 - I'm positive it's not older than that.

1994 Quantum II (and other models) came with options for Veloce, RX100, Ultegra, or DA.

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** My History of Klein Road Bikes **
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It appears the previous owner replaced the pedals on your bike with surfboards.

Grad

Thanks everyone, I dropped it at my LBS today and they are going to do a thorough tune up and replace the tires. They said everything looks good on it though with no shifting issues. I thought it might be a 1995 since it came in that bright red color that year.

Chombi

It's a great deal, but as with pretty much all C&V AL bikes, the prices on these are quite depressed because of the bad rap that Al bikes had been getting for supposedly really harsh ride and fatigue cracking, which IMO is totally overblown.
Heck, I've been seeing used Klein Quantum framesets languishing on dealer's used racks next to unwanted steel gas pipe examples, selling for almost dirt cheap prices.
Eventually values for Klein bikes like this will eventually go up again when people realize again how special these bikes were in their time and still are.....

DiabloScott

The 1994 catalogue says they offered RX100 as one option on the Quantum II, and the stock color was Puget Morning (green)
The 1995 catalogue says they only offered Ultegra on the Quantum II, and the stock color was Race Red.
So a bit of a conundrum.
1993 had a different font, and in 1996 the Quantum II was replaced with the Quantum Race... so it's 94 or 95 for sure.

You can also check the serial number - examples:

55E 01 94 003 This is a 55cm frame of a 1994 model Quantum Z.

57 011 95 240 This is a 57cm frame of a 1995 model Quantum Pro

This doesn't work for all years because Klein didn't have a consistent serial number system, but it works well for your bike.

Grad

Thanks! I am excited about the bike and I am chomping at the bit to get it back from the LBS so I can take it for my first ride. It will literally be my first real ride on a road bike, I have only had MTBs up until now.

Thanks Scott, and I appreciate the email as well. Didn't realize you were on here when I found your blog. I will check the serial when I get it back from the LBS. The PO gave me clipless pedals to go with it as well so I am going to buy some shoes when I pick the bike back up.

treebound 

Exceptional find, enjoy it and ride it lots.

Lascauxcaveman 

Killer deal, I almost pulled the trigger on one recently at a much higher price, but used the 2-hour drive to pick it up as an excuse to stay home instead. There's nothing wrong with the RX100 group; it works.

You're going to find the Quantum is much faster than your mountain bike, or any mountain bike, for that matter. I hope it fits you.

mtnbke

+1000

There was pushback when Klein/Cannondale changed the paradigm. One day steel bikes were winning the Giro, Tour, and Vuelta and the next day every shop that didn't carry Cannonale and Klein was selling bikes that had a HUGE performance disadvantage, at least until the other makers caught up with Aluminum. Every distributor, shop employee, steel fanboy, and cyclist that had steel in the garage had something to lose in the paradigm change. You can find thousands of people that will talk about aluminum riding harshly, and very few have ever truly owned the Cannondale or Klein bikes they claim to have. Its a prejudice that is supported by the "steel is real" cult. The reality is that if you take someone that has a high zoot steel bike they love and built the exact same build (swap the wheels just to be fair) with same components, fit, fork, seat post, saddle, etc. they would be very hard pressed to have anything to say about a Klein or Cannondale except how freakin' quickly the thing climbs, how its a rocket bike on sprints, and how it corners predictably like its on rails.

Klein bikes in my mind are priceless. They are like the Stradavarius violin's of cycling. Years from now Klein frames are going to be very very expensive. Many of the valuable classic & vintage bikes that have value aren't really that good of bikes. They just had nameplates and a reputation. Klein bikes are from another planet. You could hop on a Klein and be competitive at ANY level of professional cycling. Those frames were that good.

The Klein catalog allowed for some 68-70cm frames in four models. I keep waiting to find one. I had what I thought was a 66cm Klein Quantum II once, and it turned out to be just like a Cannondale 63cm bike, 66cm to the top of the seat collar and misclassified in terms of size by the seller. The Klein Quantum II I had was beautiful, and I don't mean the paint.

The craftsmanship required and skill level to work aluminum is orders of magnitude higher than what it takes to either weld or braze steel. Steel is a beginners material and anyone could be building or brazing lugged steel bikes in a single day. You can take a frame building class and build your own steel frame in a week. The world is absolutely full of fabricators that can work with steel. Its a beginners medium. People that have survived the steep learning curve of working with Aluminum are very valuable in the industrial world. Cannondale and Klein both struggled to hold onto their skilled builders. Industrial/medical/military contractors were always throwing more money at competent aluminum welders. The first time some frame builder that only works with steel gets offered a job in industry will be a first.

The world class frames that Klein put out aren't going to be cheap forever. The difference is that unlike many other C&V favorites, the Klein's will appreciate because they legitimately are the best bicycles most people will ever ride. Plain and simple.

To the OP - The reason that bike probably hung immediately after the original purchaser bought it is a constantly repeated story. Most Local Bike Shops are predatory, and do a very poor job of bike fit. They want to sell you what they have in stock. Even the supposedly scientific Fit Kit was required by shops to normalize the fit numbers to provide a "range" of fitting sizes. Shops didn't want the customer to know that in reality the appropriately best fitting bike is within a 1cm range and less than that on the top tube. You could put the same customer on three different brands of, say 56cm bikes, and its possible that two of them wouldn't be a good fit because of the top tube length. The idea that road bikes can be fit by a couple of inches of stand over is idiotic.

How you stand over your bike, next to your bike, hopping on one foot near your bike, or on your head in the other room of your bike doesn't correlate to how you fit ON THE BIKE.

That Klein looks really really small. Properly sized and with good fit, you should be able to do at least 50% of your mileage in the drops. Most cyclists ride "too small" frames because they look aggressive, and they think their size is right. Most cyclist are wrong. They are riding on the hoods 99% of the time because they are riding bikes that are multiple sizes too small. In fact top tube size correlation has kind of accommodated this. If you try to put a cyclist on almost any brand of bike that is properly sized, the top tube will inevitably be too long. Manufacturers know that the public sizes to the hoods, not the drops.

I don't know the OP height, flexibility, or pubic bone height, torso length or arm length, but that Klein looks very very small and I'd assume it wouldn't fit 95% of the folks around. Which is exactly why the original purchaser probably didn't ride it. He thought having a sore neck, having sore wrists and elbows was just what road riding meant. The LBS sold a nice bike, but they lost out on the lifetime cycle of customer purchases because they sold him an improperly fitting bike. In my mind, the LBS usually gets what they deserve.

That looks like a Syncros classic seat post, and if so those are very very nice. I have several and I like them better than my Thomson posts. Essentially the same seat post but only with a much more sophisticated and elegant clamp. Makes my Thomson post's clamps look like the stamped garbage they are. I'm getting sad because eBay and collectors are making classic Syncros seat posts very expensive of late. I've been going with my cheapie Thomson craiglist finds instead.

If it fits, ride the snot out of that Klein. If it really is a marginal fit or is too small you can do what I do (all bikes are too small for me, I'm 6'7") and use a quill stem extender. That way you build up the cockpit of the bike to properly fit you and get the handlebars up to a comfortable saddle height, or slightly higher. Only competitive cyclists like the aerodynamic advantages of the negative bar to saddle drop. Even old pros like Andy Hampsten don't look for an aggressive fit like that after their pro days are over. The only ones trying to "look like the pros" are the ones that never were. Get that bike properly fit to you, get yourself comfortable on it, if you can, and ride the snot out of it.

Believe it or not, that's a better bike than 99% of the bikes you'll ever see or pass on the road, and I'm including many high zoot carbon and titanium bikes in that as well. You can make carbon cheaply in Taiwan. You can't EVER recreate the handcrafted highly skilled US made works of art that were coming out of Klein and Cannondale in their heyday. It would just be too expensive, as it was proved.

Attached pic of quill extender if you need one.

Grad

Wow, great write up and thank you! I read a lot about these bikes when I got it yesterday and almost all of it is glowing. The LBS guy had a big smile when I brought it in and had nothing but good things to say about it, even stating that it holds its own against all of the brand new bikes. It is a 55 size frame and I am 5'10". It feels like it fits me really well, the standover and riding position feel aggressive but good. I climbed out up a hill out of the saddle and my legs didn't come close to hitting the bars at all. I guess I won't *really* know until I take it out for a long ride, but I like the bike so much that I am willing to make adjustments and such to make it comfortable for me. I kind of like the idea of pulling up to a group ride on a bike that nobody else is riding.

Sir_Name 

Good to hear/read it fits. That stem looks great on it, btw.

Grad

Also, I tried to PM you back but I need a lot more posts before I can. Thank you though!!

rcschafer

Rode my first Ragbrai last week and although I saw LOTS of bikes I remember seeing what I considered to be an unusual number of Kleins (at one point there was a group of 5-6 of them riding together.) Choosing a Klein to do 460 miles over 7 days certainly implies to me that they're nice comfortable rides! And such cool paint.

Grad

That's good to hear. I know it is considered a race bike but I am hoping I can get comfortable enough on it to do a century one day. I live near the Six Gap in N. Georgia and so the light weight will be nice in the mountains. I need to get some shoes and I am thinking I will just buy them from my LBS. Hopefully in return they will help me adjust the bike to get it to fit me as well as possible.

DiabloScott

Looks like a 53cm to me. Mines a 55cm - check the head tube length. If it fits it fits, but I would guess 53 is small for you.

cycleheimer

Y'all did quite good!

Grad

Can't check till I get it back, but I don't see how a 53 would be so comfortable for me. This is a 56 and looks the same as mine, so are all head tubes the same?

Possibly 1988 Klein Quantum Road Bike Bicycle | eBay

mtnbke

Well if you can find some fitness and form, on a Klein you can ride off the front on the hills and be riding a bike that nobody else is staying with, as well.

Some links on bike fit from sensible people:
How to Fit a Bicycle
https://www.rivbike.com/kb_results.asp?cat=23

In a nutshell there is a magic top tube length for a given crank to saddle extension. With long 400mm seat posts you can always make any bike fit in terms of seat tube length, the problem is that then the handlebars are much too low. An aggressive road bike position is for racing, or validating yourself as a racer, but its not really comfortable. Even on a spirited group ride good fit, form, and an efficient rocket bike (Klein or Cannondale) will be enough to allow a relatively upright cyclist with bars at saddle height (or preferably above) to keep pace. Actually, especially in a group ride. In a group, or pace line, you're cheating the wind by using the cyclist in front of you, so why not be comfortable? The one thing I've never understood is why there aren't more people chasing comfortable road bike performance set-ups. Fast efficient bikes with good components and wheels but without an aggressive saddle to bars drop. That's how most of us want to ride, but many try to achieve a "look" more than their comfort. Its their neck, wrists, and elbows.

As for me my bikes look ridiculous no matter what I do. Always frankenbuilding them up.

I like Bebop clip less pedals on the tandem, road bike and mountain bike. Much like Klein v Cannondale, the Bebop pedal got crushed by contentious patent litigation. You used to be able to buy Bebop pedals from EVERYWHERE. Performance, Nashbar, every high end mail order bike concern. Then Speedplay stepped in and sued the crap out of the little mom & pop Bebop. Bebop won the litigation, for the moral victory and got I think a single dollar. Speedplay, in bad faith many suspect, succeeded because their litigation forced all the retailers to remove the Bebop pedal from the distribution channel. To this day I think the Bebop pedal is superior in every way to the Speedplay copies. Plus I don't like litigating bullies.

Many people use Bebop on their cross bikes, but not on their road bikes. I've never understood that. I'm a huge fan of using Sidi mountain bike shoes (good shoes) as your one & only pair of cycling shoes. Be it a road "race" ride, touring, mountain biking or on the tandem I can't think of a reason why the Sidi and Bebop combo isn't best. Now some people think the cleat/tread on the Sidi mountain bike shoe looks silly when you're on a road bike. I think they look silly off the bike when they can't walk. I can walk fine in my Sidi shoes and Bebop cleats.

Sadly, Bebop started doing Titainum axles after the sale. The original engineer owner used to be adamant that his 180g stainless steel Bebops were better than Titanium axles because of how Ti flex affected the bearing races & during rotation. Pedals are dynamic. It would be like Grant dying and Rivendell waking up to the sense of having all aluminum frames. It would go against the spirit of the founding force.

Do me a favor and source one of those quill extenders, off eBay or wherever (a bike Coop). Think of it as a $15 experiment in bike fit. I'm passionate about Bike fit. A good bike shop would have a Look Ergostem to help new customers go through the range of stem options and possibilities. There are no good bike shops that do that. I've never once seen a bike shop take the time to properly use a sizing stem like a Look Ergostem for a customer. Only using sizer cycles for custom Serottas (who then used to normalize the data anyway) and the like. If the original bike shop had taken an Look Ergostem to that Klein and helped fit the original owner, it wouldn't have been minty like it was. He would have ended up on a frame that wasn't too small and had a comfortable saddle to bars relationship. Remember, it isn't how the bike looks, its how it feels. Look is for poseurs. Make yourself comfortable. No one here is a professional domestique.

That being said I'll probably mount my Cinelli titanium grammo on a quill extender some day to build up one of my Cannondales to the right bar height. I love the Grammo because it is beautiful and exotic and light. The steel quill extender is heavy, but its funny and I'll probably do it because I'm enough of a dork that I love the Grammo. Someday I'll have Black Sheep or Paketa build me up some titanium or magnesium quill extensions. The magnesium ones would eliminate road vibration like nothing else. Maybe custom single piece stems, why bother with two piece at that point?

DiabloScott

No, that's a 53 also... seller probably measured to the top of the seat tube.

I don't have perfect eyes, but I've seen a lot of Kleins.

Grad

Oh well, hopefully I will be comfortable on it but we will see. It definitely didn't feel cramped at all, and fortunately I am skinny so I don't take up much room at all.