1990 Klein Attitude
My first high end bike
was a 1990
Attitude.
It was, and still is,
the finest bike I have ever ridden. If I was given the choice
of
one bike and one bike only, to ride for the rest of my life, this would
be it. I don't have any pictures of this bike by itself, so
there's just a few racing pictures.
The picture above is from the Neillsville Buzzard Buster race on September 23, 1990. I damaged some parts the day of the race and couldn't ride. A guy saw me sitting around outside of the race and said, "Hey, you're one of the fast guys, why aren't you racing?" I told him my problem and he said, "Take my bike." It was an expensive bike, an American Comp-Lite, and I said, "But you don't know if you'll ever see me again." He said, "Don't you worry about it. Take it and race." Which I did. Bless that man's heart. The bike hadn't been maintained from the previous week's very muddy race and I got a serious case of chain suck. It was bad enough that it knocked me out of contention, I had been in the top 3. It turns out the chain had been damaged and a few minutes later it broke. I had nine miles left and I always finish a race, no matter what. So I pushed. Nine miles I pushed. I finished last. Dead last, but I finished. They held up the awards ceremony for me and cheered me as I crossed the line! This picture is the type of picture a hunter takes after the end of a good day, but I didn't bag a deer, I bagged two very expensive bikes. As I was pushing along, one of the race officials came by with a four-wheeler and offered me a ride back. I thanked him but declined and kept walking. I told them, "It's been a pretty bad day for me, so I'm going to make the best of it and have the dignity to finish on my own." They drove beside me for a while to keep me company and he said, "Hey, you aren't muddy enough!" I looked over yonder and there was a big mud puddle. I did the right thing. It's a good memory.
The thumbnail below on the left was from my very first race, only a few days after getting my bike and was in Quadna, MN. I was quite excited to race and did well enough in sport class that I started racing expert class in my second race. The next thumbnail is from Spirit Mountain near Duluth, MN (that's the St. Louis River, Duluth Harbor, and Lake Superior in the background). Next one is from the Apostle Islands Rock Hop in Wisconsin and the last one is at the Giants Ridge Race, labor day of 1990. This was my best race ever. Everything went right and I rode very, very well that day. I have good memories from racing there. Racing was very different then. At that time, if you had 300 people show up for a race, that was huge. Today, the mens sport class has way more than that alone. These pictures show me and my Klein in happier days. I mention happier days as a few days after theNeillsville race, well look below...
The picture above is from the Neillsville Buzzard Buster race on September 23, 1990. I damaged some parts the day of the race and couldn't ride. A guy saw me sitting around outside of the race and said, "Hey, you're one of the fast guys, why aren't you racing?" I told him my problem and he said, "Take my bike." It was an expensive bike, an American Comp-Lite, and I said, "But you don't know if you'll ever see me again." He said, "Don't you worry about it. Take it and race." Which I did. Bless that man's heart. The bike hadn't been maintained from the previous week's very muddy race and I got a serious case of chain suck. It was bad enough that it knocked me out of contention, I had been in the top 3. It turns out the chain had been damaged and a few minutes later it broke. I had nine miles left and I always finish a race, no matter what. So I pushed. Nine miles I pushed. I finished last. Dead last, but I finished. They held up the awards ceremony for me and cheered me as I crossed the line! This picture is the type of picture a hunter takes after the end of a good day, but I didn't bag a deer, I bagged two very expensive bikes. As I was pushing along, one of the race officials came by with a four-wheeler and offered me a ride back. I thanked him but declined and kept walking. I told them, "It's been a pretty bad day for me, so I'm going to make the best of it and have the dignity to finish on my own." They drove beside me for a while to keep me company and he said, "Hey, you aren't muddy enough!" I looked over yonder and there was a big mud puddle. I did the right thing. It's a good memory.
The thumbnail below on the left was from my very first race, only a few days after getting my bike and was in Quadna, MN. I was quite excited to race and did well enough in sport class that I started racing expert class in my second race. The next thumbnail is from Spirit Mountain near Duluth, MN (that's the St. Louis River, Duluth Harbor, and Lake Superior in the background). Next one is from the Apostle Islands Rock Hop in Wisconsin and the last one is at the Giants Ridge Race, labor day of 1990. This was my best race ever. Everything went right and I rode very, very well that day. I have good memories from racing there. Racing was very different then. At that time, if you had 300 people show up for a race, that was huge. Today, the mens sport class has way more than that alone. These pictures show me and my Klein in happier days. I mention happier days as a few days after theNeillsville race, well look below...
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A terrible fate befell my trusty steed. Words cannot describe this feeling..
I still have the broken frame and my 3 year old nephew once asked me, "Do you cry?" I said that I didn't. He asked, "Why not?" "There is nothing in this world crying over" was my response. Yet, when I see the frame I realize that there is one thing to cry about. My current day-to-day bike is a custom painted Klein Attitude , I'm very fond of the bike and the paint is one-of-a-kind. My bike mechanic, Patrick, asked, "What would you do if the Moosepoop frame cracked, jump off a cliff?" Nope, I'd just sit down and cry.
1991 Klein Attitude
This is the 1991 model
that replaced
the 1990
model. I was
supposed to upgrade to an Adroit (similar to an Attitude but with with
boron reinforced stays and fork) but Klein was so far behind schedule
with producing these that they had no idea when it would come they
would produce them. So when
they said they had a 91 model ready to ship, in my preferred
backfire-color, I took it. I had
this bike for some years and untold good times on untold rides far and
wide.
All these pictures were taken in 1992 when I was on a four-month trip in the western states of the U.S. I would ride 4-8 hours everyday. When in the desert, I'd get up and ride at sunrise and quit by 10 a.m., goof off for the day, and take a ride when it was cooler in the evening. I would sleep under the stars and night and when the sun rose, do it all over again. In the mountains, I would start riding at mid-morning and ride all day. I was extremely strong and fit and if there is anything I miss about getting older, it's that I can't ride in the way that I could in these pictures. Maybe when I'm 82 years old I'll talk about the stuff that I did...back in the day. But that's ok, that's what nostalgia is for and maybe that's why I love these vintage bikes.
The big picture was taken 14,264 up on the top of Mt. Evans, Colorado. It was a 7500 foot, 28 mile climb (and 28 mile descent) and it was worth it to see to the end of the world. The two thumbnails on the left were taken on the Slickrock Trail in Moab, Utah. The next picture was overlooking Santa Fe, about 12,000 feet up, hence wearing a windbreaker. I like that picture because the bike's colors absolutely glow and that's how I remember the way it looked. The one after that well, it was in Colorado, you can figure out specifically where. This was an absolutely miserable day for doing the 32-mile Monarch Crest Trail. I wasn't feeling so strong and hitchhiked up the pass (with my bike!) and once there, could really bomb down the hills. However, anytime I had an uphill, even the slightest one, I was exhausted. Turns out I was coming down with a stomach ailment for a couple of days. A day later when I was sick as a dog, I felt a lot better about not doing so well on the trail. However, feeling better about the trail didn't negate how bad I felt at that particular moment
In 1995 there was a problem with the headset when changing the fork that couldn't be fixed. Klein replaced the 1991 model with the Moosepoop bike. The last four picture are all that is remaining from the 1991 bike. Look closely at the stem, it's a custom painted one. So the fork and stem remind me of many fine years of riding and no matter what, I would never, ever sell it.
All these pictures were taken in 1992 when I was on a four-month trip in the western states of the U.S. I would ride 4-8 hours everyday. When in the desert, I'd get up and ride at sunrise and quit by 10 a.m., goof off for the day, and take a ride when it was cooler in the evening. I would sleep under the stars and night and when the sun rose, do it all over again. In the mountains, I would start riding at mid-morning and ride all day. I was extremely strong and fit and if there is anything I miss about getting older, it's that I can't ride in the way that I could in these pictures. Maybe when I'm 82 years old I'll talk about the stuff that I did...back in the day. But that's ok, that's what nostalgia is for and maybe that's why I love these vintage bikes.
The big picture was taken 14,264 up on the top of Mt. Evans, Colorado. It was a 7500 foot, 28 mile climb (and 28 mile descent) and it was worth it to see to the end of the world. The two thumbnails on the left were taken on the Slickrock Trail in Moab, Utah. The next picture was overlooking Santa Fe, about 12,000 feet up, hence wearing a windbreaker. I like that picture because the bike's colors absolutely glow and that's how I remember the way it looked. The one after that well, it was in Colorado, you can figure out specifically where. This was an absolutely miserable day for doing the 32-mile Monarch Crest Trail. I wasn't feeling so strong and hitchhiked up the pass (with my bike!) and once there, could really bomb down the hills. However, anytime I had an uphill, even the slightest one, I was exhausted. Turns out I was coming down with a stomach ailment for a couple of days. A day later when I was sick as a dog, I felt a lot better about not doing so well on the trail. However, feeling better about the trail didn't negate how bad I felt at that particular moment
In 1995 there was a problem with the headset when changing the fork that couldn't be fixed. Klein replaced the 1991 model with the Moosepoop bike. The last four picture are all that is remaining from the 1991 bike. Look closely at the stem, it's a custom painted one. So the fork and stem remind me of many fine years of riding and no matter what, I would never, ever sell it.
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TheRedMantra (his internet name) has webpage with lots of Klein pictures. He even mentions Mr. Moose on his main page. You can take a look at his Klein Picture Page here.
A Klein lover, Martin, whom lately I've not been able to track down had a webpage dedicated to Kleins that dealt with the different models and their history. It has a number of pictures as to how Kleins changed over the years including prototype pictures from the factory. I've included his webpage here as I think it surely has some things worth seeing. The page has been posted verbatim with the exception of a link back to my vintage bike page. Martin's page wasn't 100% completed and some of the links are dead-ends but it really worth a look at this. So here's to Martin and his Classic Kleins page.
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