Gary Klein

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This article is about the bicycle designer. For other people of the same name, see Gary Klein (disambiguation).

Inventor Gary Klein can be considered an innovator of the oversized tube aluminum bicycle, which is now a fixture in the cycling market.^[1] He first developed the concept in 1973 as part of the Independent Activities Period aluminum bicycle project at MIT, where he was an engineering student and bicycle racer, then took the concept commercial after graduation.

Their 1993 road racing aluminium frame "Quantum Pro" was the first high reputation mass production frame to bear an integrated headset fork with threadless aluminium steering shaft for aheadset type stem^{[citation needed]}. Besides the frame beared brake and shifting cables inside the tubes making the design very clean, elegant with mud resistant function. Each of these feaures became trends in bicycle frame manufacturing. Although French bike manufacturer Vitus has marketed integrated fork designs on their adhesive lugged frames in the early '90s and Bianchi before them, they were lesser known items. Gary Klein frames were the official supplier of German cycling Team Gerolsteiner before 2003. They also made personal sponsorship in the professional road cycling eg. some riders of Team ONCE normally riding LOOK frames at the mid '90s period.

Although the frame "Quantum Pro" is more than a decade old design its weight and stiffness proudly bears the comparsion to contemporary high-end aluminium frames.

Klein's company, Klein Bikes, was purchased by Trek in 1995; production was moved from Washington state to Trek's Wisconsin manufacturing facility in 2002^[2]. The mainstay of the Klein mountain bike product line continued to be the hardtail Attitude model. Attempts were made to design and market a full suspension bicycle, with efforts culminating in the Palomino model. The Palomino, based on a Maverick rear suspension design, was discontinued after the 2005 model year, apparently because of a patent controversy. There is widespread speculation over whether Trek plans to continue supporting Klein, or whether the company has plans to discontinue it altogether. In recent years Gary Klein's role in the design of Klein Bikes appears to be minimal.

[edit] References

^ books.google.com Van der Plas, Rob: "Bicycle Technology: Understanding, Selecting and Maintaining the Modern Bicycle and Its Components", Page 51. MBI, 1991.
^ http://www.totalbike.com/news/article/517/