79pmooney

I wonder if this is indeed a Klein built bike intended either as one of bikes Klein would build for Cannondale (like Giant does now for the rest of the world) or to interest Cannondale in paying for the rights to the patents. Perhaps Cannondale, after taking a few spins on that bike, decided to just make the bikes and turn their back on Klein.

That bike sure looks like a Klein of the time. I never owned one but I regularly stopped in at Open Air Cycling in Boston when I was back east to see my folks. They carried Kleins from the late '70s until they closed. I regularly saw the newest Kleins for years before I ever saw or heard of a Cannondale.

Fun bit: I took a spin on a Klein in 1976, Gary Klein showed up at an NEBC Thursday night club race and encouraged us all to do so. I knew immediately that bike was going to change the cycling world. When Cannondale claimed their bike was something new 5-6 years later, I just shook my head. "Yes, but it wasn't your idea."

Edit: as I recall, not all Kleins had matching paint on their forks. PRobably to emphasis the frame was of a different material. (Proceeding the carbon forks on aluminum and steel bikes by a decade or so.) That fork doesn't strike my memory as being either "wrong" or a replacement.

Ben