victorm

Welcome to the beginning of my journey restoring this bike from it’s low point in life. From humble pink beginnings to a red spray can shoddy cover up job this ones going to take a bit of time patience and yes money.

victorm

Came as frame fork stem titec bar front derailleur and thats it. Seller through in a 1” threaded rock shox judy some Dx thumbies and brake levers as well as a Dx rear derailleur

victorm

Those of you that have seen my Ritchey Ultra and specialized Stumpjumper know what this bike is in for. It is going straight to powder coat to het stripped and coated black. From then on we’ll just so where we get. I will need advice probably every bit of the way so hopefully you will all help guide me along the way.

victorm

Mot sure how but it’s broke must’ve been a heck of a knock. Anyone know where i can get dimensional drawings? I believe our shop can replace the broke tab

repechage

Gary Klein was audacious if nothing else, filing and getting royalties on a patent that had plenty of prior art.
Finally the patent was broken, sure took a while.

retrodude

Very nice! This is kinda spooky though, I'm sure I saw this listed on Vancouver Craigslist. Please confirm if this is where you sourced this. I had considered it for my sons build. I was in the midst of building up a 95' C'dale M400 with a 1" steerer and came across it as it has a 1" Syncors stem (the seller wouldn't split them up, lucky you). I consider a pre-sold-to-Trek Klein a grail bike so I will be following your build closely. I asked my son about buying this but we were already deep into to project and he told me to pass. He said "I want Syncors everything!" I warned him of the scarcity and high pricing. We ended up with a nice 1" Control Tech stem and nice modern Syncros seatpost for a modest price.
Here's a look at my son's build, was 27lbs, now 22lbs, more of an upgrade restoration with no effort toward keeping to stock parts. I believe I've seen you Ritchey build which was very impressive.

Looking forward to this one!!

Here's before and after of my latest built for my 19 year old

Clang

^ That's gonna be the nicest M400 I see in a while. Nice build!

victorm

Nice Cannondale for sure, thanks for the kind words and yes it did come from Vancouver. Seen it listed on Pinkbike and decided to pull the trigger. I don’t know what I was expecting but this will take alot of work. That is what ties to me my builds. Just buying a bike doesn’t do it for me it’s the hours of work and searching for components and all else that goes with seems to scratch that itch for me. True value to me is the work I put into it not what I can sell it for if that makes sense.

ridelikeaturtle

That Cannondale turned out SHARP, the fatter tyres are exactly how I've set up my 26" mtbs for urban work. Nice job! Hold onto that rear rack, you might find it useful.

I personally wouldn't worry about that anti-chainsuck device - just remove it and forget it, set the bike up right and you'll never need it. Can't wait to see how you build it up!

victorm

On the way to powder coat for quote. $200cad plus tax. Oof! No sanding n swearing probably spend$150 on spray.bike so i think it’s probably fair trade.

cheffyjay

following with interest. I have two of these. I had one blasted and i gave it a light sand and clearcoated it. that clearcoat has not held up that great but it has been 20 years or so. you going to leave the bottom bracket in? blasting messed up my internal cable guides and i routed new ones. not too horrible.

victorm

Bottom bracket and cable noodles need to come out. I merely took the frame to the powder coater to discuss those very details. I have new noodles and decals ordered from Kleinspainted already as i knew this was going to be a necessary step to get where i want it to be

cheffyjay

do you have the coveted BB tool?

victorm

No tool but I read the Klein manual and it had a pretty good explanation on how it works so I’m going to try and rig something up, we’ll see.

victorm

thook

this is like watching a striptease...haha. sub'd

victorm

Well i put some paint stripper on this frame and let it sit for a few days and it really didn’t do much. I started scraping with a plastic scraper and made some small progress.It was when I switched to a metal one that things started coming off. I would guess that the average coating is 1/8” to 3/16” thick on this frame and is probably some sort of plastidip type product rather than paint. Why do I do this to myself lol

Sir_Name 

I don’t envy you, but I applaud you. Keep going and make a sweet Klein!

retrodude

What a lot of work! Been there though, I stripped my own Cannondale M800 rebuilt and went with naked polished look c/w repro decals. Getting all the paint off was very time consuming. I read back through the thread to note you're going with black power coat. There' a pretty great youtube video (The Ultimate Vintage Mountain Bike Collection Retro MTB Tech) which as a bunch of amazing Klein's fully restored, might provide some inspiration. Black will look amazing but were it mine I'd be temped to go more colorful. A multi colored fade would be sweet but a bet super pricey. Any considerations on the components so far?

I assume you are keeping the Syncros stem, I found some great repo decals for mine on the bay. Coming along nicely!

victorm

Really don’t know what to do. I have XT front and rear derailleurs for it. I also have DX thumbies and brake levers. I have a TM18 rear rim with Black LX hub and LX crankset with black cranks and silver chainrings, a real mish mash.

thook

are you afraid it will explode combining tier groups? it probably would if you threw something from tourney in there

victorm

Not afraid for the bike but personally my OCD may not be able to handle it lol

thook

i can see it now. one day you'll be out on the trail and you'll just crack under the pressure. you'll give up cycling entirely and just take up crochet while watching the home shopping network....lol

scrapyardcat

I feel this with ever fiber of my being. 50% of the thrill is searching scrap yards for cool frames or parts, the other 50% is turning the wrenches and finally riding, then its on to the next project/obsessive compulsion lmao

victorm

Probably not within 1000ths of inches to spec but this will suffice for the type of riding I’ll be doing with the bike. Also stoked for saving this piece 🕺🏼