Simply Amazing ! Learning to love Kleins . I dwelt in ignorance of them B4.

Welcome back Keith!

Gary Klein, if you read some about the bikes and construction, really tried to use Aluminum to great benefit...he took the material a lot farther than simply welding tubes together. He called it "gradient aluminum"...the tubes were tapered in both diameter and thickness to put material in the most advantageous location possible. My aluminum Klein is still very stiff but I can tell you 100% that the ride is far and away better from a harshness standpoint than my CAAD9 was. In terms of ride comfort I'd put the aluminum Klein squarely between something like a CAAD9 and a well designed butted steel frame.

Then you throw in the visual beauty of his finishing, the debossed paint, the welds...the frames really are a work of art, much like many of our steel frames, just in a different material.

The Al one just for fun :):

http://keithhatfull.smugmug.com/Othe...eindone1-M.jpg

I've definitely searched on that spelling. Sometimes, really good stuff shows up, but it's mainly lower end Tourer's, Sports models and the like. Mind you, I had a Sports 10 that was a fast bike, but it was heavy.

Just be careful with "fugU" on eBay, that might not be so wise :)

Good to have you back in the fold, Keith. Glad everything is looking up for your family. A man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man. ;)

Beautiful Kleins, btw.

We all look forward to hearing about your rides on it.

Nice to hear everything is good in your neck of the woods! The facilitators thread has gotten a bit cluttered but, in a way, it is a good thing because I haven't been tempted to buy stuff I don't need ;)

Welcome back!

Another beautiful Klein that I'll hope to see on the road.

Forgive my ignorance, but is that an aluminum frame? Imagine what that would look like, if someone went 'Full Khatfull" on that!
Polished aluminum and invisible cables, what could be better?

The white/silver is Al, the purple is carbon.

You know, I've thought of that...but maybe do it with a crappy old Cannondale, stripping Klein paint would be an abomination! :)

Keith,

Best wishes from the UK. Sorry to hear about your troubles, glad things are on the turn. Nice Kleins!

I have been tempted to polish my alloy frame but I'm still looking for a caad. If I do stumble on a caad with poor paint it will likely end up bare aluminum with carbon components.

those kleins are pretty hot. Vintage C-dale paint is pretty nice too IMHO.

I agree, CDale did a nice job too...they just didn't take it to the level Klein did.

We had our garage door replaced today. While I was taking bikes off the ceiling hooks to get them away from danger I pulled the Q Elite (Plum Crazy color) down. The installer said, "That's the sickest paint I've ever seen!"

:)

Good to see your Kleins up on the forum. I'm a huge fan of these bikes and always thought of them of as the Tommasinis of aluminum bikes with their amazing rides and paint jobs.

This reminds me. I had a Fuji Superlite from one year after this bike when they made the bike as light as possible. It was the worst riding bike I've ever owned. Had no issue getting it to 14 lbs, though. It was great for crits, which was what I did at the time, but if the crit took place on crappy roads, I would take a my aluminum Bianchi because I couldn't trust the Fuji to hold a consistent line on bad roads. The Team was a much better bike.