Literally sitting at a traffic light when a brightly colored bike caught my eye among the odds-n-ends in front of a second-hand store.
I stopped to take a look, because KLEINs are rare, and at a junk shop on this side of town? Internal cable routing, square chain stays; yup definitely the real thing. I’m almost embarrassed by how much they were asking for it, but it was too hard to walk away from.
It matches with the catalog for a 1989 KLEIN Pinnacle XCD in Bright Flare, which is a fluorescent orange-red that’s even brighter than it looks in pictures.
Cosmetically, it’s about 8.5/10, lots of scuffs but no major damage. Mechanical condition is about 8/10, but mostly due to the rusty chain and cable housing ends are starting to come apart. (Looks like c.Y2K compressionless housing, though) Kinda what you’d expect from a well-ridden but 30 year old bike.
I didn’t want another MTB, but I always wanted a KLEIN, and this one was too good to pass up.
18” frame seems a good fit, but a little short on reach, despite the 150mm (!) stem. Might be a good candidate for a 1x “Klunker” build, with some moto bars and some skinwall BMX tires
