First Klein MTB
 

This was sent to me at the Fat Tire Flyer. It is self explanatory.

The photo is a Polaroid.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...346459fbe3.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b024a7409c.jpg

Very cool. I enjoy these more detailed glimpses of history, especially when they are firsthand accounts!

Three water bottle cages. I like it. This bike is ready for bike packing.

https://www.redfin.com/WA/Napavine/2.../home/16759437

or...maybe don't look

That patent did not hold up well. But did get royalties for a while.

Very cool, thanks for posting. I love the fork in the picture! I remember a friend of mine around 1990 had a Cannondale road bike made of aluminum (an aluminum bike!) and the down tube was huge to me then. Large diameter down tube doesn’t stand out so much any more.

I had a GT Tequesta MTB, I think 1989 is when I got it, that had two bottle cages on the down tube as well as the under chainstay brake, which was horrible for getting clogged with mud and debris. When I moved in 2008, everything was out of the house, oh dark 30, the dog and I were getting ready to hit the road with my car jam packed full and I realized the GT frame was still sitting in the attic. Alas, there was no room at all in the car and I had to leave it although I still have the fork.

PS I love those 80’s mtbs. They have a combination look of elegance and I am a badass bike.

Charlie Cunningham beat both Klein and Cannondale by years. (Image from the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame.) He also "invented" the gravel bike.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d67d170ac0.jpg

have to go much earlier than that. Klein had early production bikes in 1975, I test rode one. There was a Bicycling! Article in 1974 about his MIT project track bike. There apparently were other students with the same solutions.
‘the problem was 1973, an image in Competitive Cycling showed an oversized welded aluminum tubed bike and its unique construction was noted and attributed.
Lots of prior art.