- Bit of an unusual feature for me today,
I've actually had a phone
call from a friend of mine
called Sandy, and he owns this bike shop.
It's called the Trailhead Bicycle Company,
it's here in Shrewsbury in Shropshire, UK.
In fact, this is where Neil's
from, it's his home town,
in fact, one of his home bike shops.
Now, Sandy messaged me
because he's got a collection
of bikes that he's been
restoring for a collector,
and the bikes in question
are made by Klein,
some of the nicest bikes ever.
And he was quite excited about this.
So let's go and see him.
(resonant bang)
Whoa, now that's a bike shop.
Proper Aladdin's cave
of stuff tucked away.
There's jerseys and all, that's
a Gwin jersey back there.
Dude, how you doing?
- How's it going, man?
- Yeah, really good to see you.
- Yeah, did you make it up okay?
- Yeah, yeah, skip to
the chase, all right?
Where are these bikes?
- Have I got something to show you.
- I want to see these bikes.
- Have a look at this.
Are you ready?
- Nice Peaty jersey, Ratboy.
Mate, the place is loaded.
- I'm going to let you go in first, dude.
- Okay, let's do it. You ready for this?
(music)
(laughs)
- [Sandy] How cool is that?
- Oh my God.
(upbeat music)
Look at the fade.
Oh my God, where do you start?
- Well, I mean, everything
down to the new all-stop tires.
Check the hubs out, Doddy.
- Okay, so Bullseyes?
- Yeah.
- Bullseye, smoked lights,
Grafton brakes, pedals, in fact, as well.
- Grafton pedals.
A lot of the bikes have got
really cool wheels on them.
So, we've got Nukeproof on this one.
- [Doddy] Original hubs
for Nukeproof, yeah?
- [Sandy] Yeah.
- Bombshells, here.
- And then we've got some Xtr hubs,
more Bullseyes over there.
- Right, we're going to need
to get to the beginning of this
because I've never seen
anything like this.
This is unreal.
(upbeat music)
Now before we get started
on this retro feast,
I guess you'd say, just
want to tell you a bit
about my experience with Klein growing up.
They were definitely one of
the most sought-after brands
because they made some of the lightest
and most advanced bikes in the early '90s.
The brand actually dates
back to sort of mid-'80s,
I think '86 was roughly when
their first models came out.
They were made by Gary Klein.
Now, I can't emphasize this enough,
at the time they were
so ahead of their time.
They had oversized aluminum tubing,
which was a way of make
aluminum bikes light
while making the wall thickness very thin
and having those huge tubing
sizes you see on the bikes.
They also had a number of very
different features on them.
Press-fit bottom brackets,
from the beginning.
So the bearings press
directly into the frame,
the sort of technology that
we're seeing today on bikes.
They also have the one-piece
mission control bar and stand
with this unique interface,
with a 1.25 headset that
had press-fit bearings
straight into the frame,
and a very unique system of
it all pre-loading together.
The effect is a very clean-looking frame,
and then of course out back
you've got the seatstays
which are regular round in profile,
but through to square chainstays.
So, super tight down there
for maximum power transfer.
And then of course you've got all this
internal cable routing,
which I know these days
people aren't overly keen
on internal cable routing,
but you can't deny how amazing it looks.
And then of course there's the paint job.
The one I actually fell
in love with was one of
the original ones which I think
was magenta, green and white
or pink, green and white.
This one came a bit later.
In fact, the first I saw in
these sort of linear-fade
color waves was actually the Adroit
in that Gator fade right behind me there.
I've got to say, they're some
of the most beautiful bikes
even by today's standards, of all time.
Let's find out a bit more
about where they came from.
(upbeat music)
So, you told me there was
a couple of Kleins to see.
I wasn't really prepared for all of these!
Whose are they?
How's it possible?
- Well it all started, Doddy,
with one of our regular customers,
came in for a wheel-build,
was quite an exotic.
I think it might have even
been these Bullseye wheels here
we see on this Adroit.
And straightaway I was like, okay, so,
Campy rims, Bullseye hubs,
what's going on here?
And then he booked a bike in,
so we were all excited
what it was going to be,
and I'm pretty sure it
was this green Gator fade.
- [Doddy] Beautiful.
- I just got so speechless.
And it spiraled from there.
I've never actually seen them
all like this in one room.
We normally get one each week.
- I've seen plenty of
Kleins over the years,
I've seen an Adroit in the Gator fade,
and I've mostly seen the Attitude
in the classic pink, white and green.
But I've never seen anything like this.
And the condition of
them, I can't believe it.
- Well, there's so much new
old stock components on there,
like you pointed out earlier,
the pedals on this one, Doddy.
- Box-fresh, 747s, yeah?
- [Sandy] I mean, they're
not even that old, are they?
- [Doddy] No, but rare
still, in their condition.
- But this, without a
doubt, is my favorite.
- It's strange that you say
that because I'm used to seeing
these linear fades and
all these luminous colors.
This isn't a color I associate
with Klein that much.
- No, it's got a few special
bits on it though, Doddy.
And we'll start with the
actual frame and fork.
This bike belonged to
the late William Nealy,
a famous American cartoonist and author.
- I've got one of his books.
- Yeah?
- Yeah, yeah, I've got his
classic mountain bike book,
it's full of crashes, it's
lot of dark humor in there,
to be fair.
Great book.
He did a kayaking book,
I think Myron Ashton's
got one on his desk at work, in fact.
- And he was a friend of Gary Klein's,
so the frame was sent
from Klein over to Andrew,
and he did this cool
illustration on the front.
It then went back for clear coating,
and then the bike was finished.
My friend and collector,
the phone rung one day
and he got the opportunity to get it
and he went for it obviously.
- It is absolutely stunning.
It's funny, because at
a glance I would look
straight past it and look
at all the other ones,
as you would.
But the more you look at
it, the nicer it gets.
The Campaganolo down the
back here, the Grafton,
the black and gold thing is just
a bit of a work of art, isn't it?
- [Sandy] The highlight for me
is the Paul's Components
derailleurs, a few of us
have been lucky enough to
see a rear mech from Paul's.
- [Doddy] Yeah, I've never seen a front!
That's a hen's tooth, isn't it?
- [Sandy] Unreal.
- Okay, so give me a bit of a
rundown on some of these bikes
there must be some favorite
points on some of these.
I've never seen a Klein
in a single color before.
- [Sandy] No.
- [Doddy] And it's not
this black one, of course.
- What's super cool about
this one is it's original,
Deore XT, even the seatpost.
It's the single color, as you mentioned.
So, this is how it would have been
when you literally bought it.
- [Sandy] So that's almost
like box-fresh style bike,
really.
- And that's really
important to this collector,
because he wanted an
example of how they were.
The rest of them are tricked
out to hell, which we like.
- Yeah.
- Other bits, the Cook
Brothers Racing cranks on here,
I lusted over those, dude, when I was
a young lad.
- Didn't we all?
- Yep.
- Beautiful.
- And they're brand new.
- [Doddy] It's got the anti
chain soak plate as well,
on the back there, just noticed that.
- [Sandy] Cool.
- That was something I could
have done with, to be fair,
on a lot of bikes I had in the '90s
with bad chain lines and stuff.
- And what about these, Doddy?
- [Doddy] Ah, one-finger Grafton levers?
- [Sandy] Yeah!
- [Doddy] Oh my God.
- And you can adjust the leverage on them.
- You can change the position of that.
Original Odi mushroom grips as well.
- [Sandy] Yep, Ringle chill pills on
nearly all of the bikes, yep.
- And original Nukeproof
hubs, by the looks of it.
- [Sandy] Yep, front and rear on this one.
- [Doddy] Classic.
So, they could even be late
'80s, as early as that.
- Yeah.
- Couldn't put a date
on those, to be honest.
- Oh, could've been up to about '91, '92.
- So I used to have
Campagnolo rims as well,
I had Stheno I think, so what's that?
Mycross and then Ateks on there.
So I think these are
slightly higher quality
than what I used to have,
used to lace up on a regular basis.
- Again, new old stock.
We've built most of the wheels here
in the Trailhead on this.
But this one's actually
in, Doddy, at the minute.
It's got no brake cables, look.
- [Doddy] Was going to
say it needs a chain.
What's that rear derailleur,
is that a Proshift?
- It's a Proshift and they came like that,
with no logo at all on them.
I thought Paul's has got
'Paul' as big as it will go,
and no name or branding on that neck.
- They're all amazing to be honest,
I actually kind of quite speechless.
Just noticing things all
the time, about these.
So, the Grafton pedals, the speed plates,
I think they were called?
- Yeah, I'm not sure if
they were called that?
- I can't remember.
Ground control tires as well!
- And these pedals are
signed by Grafton himself.
And this frame I was talking about earlier
has actually got the
original painter's signature
down by the bottom bracket shell.
- [Doddy] 1993.
- Just shows it's authentic, you know?
- Yeah, yeah work of art.
Okay, so, you've talked a bit
about that and about this one,
there must be a couple of
cool bits on the Attitude
with the Gator fade background?
- [Sandy] For me, it's
the full Xtr groupset,
the original Xtr.
It's got that really
deep rich blue about it.
I lusted over that again as a young man.
Standout points for this
are the Paul's Component brakes as well.
But we're overlooking the
fact it's got probably
one of the most wicked paint jobs ever.
- [Doddy] It has, I noticed
the Suzuki stems there,
the Ringle hubs.
- [Sandy] Ringle hubs, it's got the fade.
Yeah, I think it's just a
really, really nice example
and I'd be happy to
have that in my garage.
- Yeah, for sure.
Now what about this one?
Because I'm kind of tuning
into the darker look now,
actually, it's quite nice, isn't it?
- Yeah, it grows on you.
Straight away, it's got
black Bullseye hubs.
Again, probably something quite rare
because everyone went
for the brighter colors.
But for me it's all about the
rear derailleur on this one.
It's a Paul's Components,
but it's the mark one,
you can tell from the logo
and the etching there.
- So those Paul Components
rear derailleurs,
they were completely re-buildable.
- Yep.
- They did cost a serious
amount of money even back then,
but the fact that you can
completely take them apart,
rebuild them?
- And also, this is a small facility
in Chico in Northern California,
and they are literally making
this from the ground up,
taking on the giants at the
time, Campagnolo and Shimano.
That itself is impressive.
- Something that I mentioned
at the beginning of the video
that still kind of staggers me, really,
was Gary Klein's approach
to making these bikes
and the whole headtube system on these
was leagues ahead of its time.
So, these days we're familiar
with the A head system,
in fact, most people
just call them headsets
but they're actually called A headsets.
It was developed by Dia-Compe,
which you'll now know as Cane Creek.
Effectively you've got a fork steerer tube
and the stem steer clamps onto that.
Before then, we used to have
a stem that had a long quill
on it with an expander wedge,
and that would go inside
your fork steerer.
So you think that's a lot
of metal going on there.
It was so heavy, weren't they?
And for Gary Klein to
come up with this system
that's got a much more
compact version of that,
complete with the press-fit bearings,
just to save a serious amount of weight
out the front of your bike.
- [Sandy] And how many
years would you say that was
before A headsets?
- Five or six perhaps?
I don't know,
someone who's a complete expert
on the old stuff will know.
- [Sandy] And you're taking
the press-fit bottom bracket
internal cable routing.
This bike really was ahead of its time.
- So press-fit has a few different guises,
you hear people moaning,
basically about press-fit
that have the nylon cups that push in.
There's nothing wrong
with those as long as
they're installed completely
straight into the frame,
and maybe if you use a
press-fit retaining compound.
But these actually have the bearings
that push directly into this frame,
and to do that you have to have a frame
with insanely high tolerances to do that.
So that's a really
expensive way of doing it,
but accuracy, incredible, really.
- Yep, and years ahead of its time.
- And again, just seeing
that yoke down here,
there's no bridge, no need for it I guess,
with these square profile
chainstays down there.
Loads of room for tire
clearance, although that said,
we didn't really have big
tires back in the day.
Little 1.9s?
- There wasn't a lot of mud over there.
- I'm absolutely blown away by
some of the details on these.
I think I'm going to
have a look one by one.
- Yeah, let's take a closer look.
(upbeat music)
- Okay, we're going to quickly run through
a few of our favorite
features on each of the bikes,
we'll keep this one snappy.
For me, the fact that this is original,
original spec, all the way through,
it's got original XT Rapid
Fire underbar shifters,
absolutely love it.
And also love the fact that I
haven't seen a Klein like this
and a paint job like
this, piece of artwork,
I think, lovely.
- So for me the favorite
bits on this particular Klein
is the Paul's Component rear derailleur.
If you check out the
original etching on there,
that denotes that it's mark
one of the Pauls's mechs.
It's got Bullseye hubs on
there, super rare, super trick,
and then finished off
with Cook Brothers cranks,
which are also super, super rare,
and in this condition, which
is pretty much brand new.
- How could you not love this one?
Look at the paint job on the
thing, it's absolutely bonkers.
The Campag rims remind me
of working in the bike shop
in North Harrow from when
I was about 15 years old
lacing up wheels out back.
Panaracer Smoke and Darts,
the carbon flight saddle
there, absolutely beautiful.
But just take the pedals out,
so they're Grafton speed plays,
as far as I know you could
set these up as flats,
or you could actually have
a retention system on them.
One of the earliest type of
clip pedals from our bikes.
And speaking of pedals
on the one behind me,
I did actually say earlier on 747s,
I had meant PD737s,
the original XD pedals,
and of course, got to shout out
to that Proshift rear derailleur on there,
absolutely beautiful piece of kit.
In fact, the whole thing is just amazing.
(piano music)
- Well, I've got two
words for you: Gator fade.
Look at the paint job on this,
it's absolutely stunning.
This is the one that always
popped in the magazines,
the one that if you were
lucky enough to see it
on the trail you could spot a mile away.
It's absolute work of art.
It is finished with some
really nice trick bits though
we've got Paul's Component
Campa lever breaks
look how tall they are.
This is almost V-brake
territory, before its time again,
so really cool.
It's got the chill pill
straddle yokes there,
XTR original on here throughout,
Ringle hubs as well.
So, really, really fine
example of a Klein Attitude.
Thumbs up from me.
- Okay, lastly for me
I think is this Adroit.
And weirdly, the thing
which has drawn me to this
I actually would've overlooked
this because of the paint job
is the fact of whose
bicycle this used to be.
William Nealy, that is
the cover of the book.
I basically grew up reading this book,
it's a bit of a Bible for me,
so to actually stand, or
kneel, next to this bike
is actually pretty cool
for me to be honest.
What a collection, I'm
absolutely blown away by this.
Cheers, Sandy, for showing me this stuff.
- I'm glad you got to see it.
But the big question is
if you could make one bike
out of all these bikes, so
choose a frame and fork,
choose your components, how would it go?
- What sort of question is that?
That's ridiculous, I couldn't pick,
I actually couldn't pick.
There's something about Gator
fade, it's always had it.
- This is the frame for me,
this is the frame I'd choose for sure.
- I don't know, honestly
I don't know, man,
how long's a piece of
string, how long we got?
What do you reckon?
- Just take them all.
