jamesdak 

So the "downsizing" continues just not as effectively as it should. Once again I sold two bike but took one in. Still heading in the right direction I guess.

This time it's a Klein Quantum II which I'm pretty sure is a 1996. Sharp eyes will notice a mod I didn't catch until I started researching this.

Anyway, it's a 55cm frame with a mix of Campagnolo parts. Record 10 Speed Ergo shifters, Chorus crank, Chorus RD, Centaur FD and brakes. Mavic Kyserium SL wheels round things out. Everything seems to work fine although the rear brake lever is not retracting cleaning, it's like there's some drag somewhere so that it returns slowly. I'll need to dig into that.

Otherwise, it sadly had that Wound Up fork on it vs the stock one. Bike weighed 18 lbs 3 ozs as I got it. Cleaned it up, swapped the saddle, pedals and tires and then added two alloy bottle cages. It gained 2 ozs with the changes.

The paint shows some paint chips as to be expected with a bike of this age but overall the paint is beautiful and a little paint polish and wax really brought out the shine. I've noticed one tiny ding on the top tube that's really hard to see.

Have no idea if I'll like this yet and keep it. My roads are quite rough so I'll have to see how this rides on them. It would be cool to find some carbon fiber wheels for this just to get it into the 17 lb range for no real reason, LOL!

Anyway, here's some pics of it. Not sure they do the paint true justice as the sparkle and shine of the fade paint is soooooo cool!


After I cleaned it up and made some minor changes to make it rideable for me.

Another shot of it refitted

Such a nice shine and pretty teal color.

More of the shine

The darker blue of the back end.

I think I have record or chorus silver brakes in my stash. If this rides well I'll probably swap these out.

Internal cable routing

More shine and that's pretty nice work on the frame from aluminum.

This is different, took me a second to realize these dropouts were facing backwards from what I'm used to.

Don't clamp the tube warning.

jamesdak 

These shots are how I brought it home. Seemed to be well taken care of.

KCT1986

Wow, very nice. Even got some modern rideable upgrades.

Interesting that the rear brake tunnel enters on the right side. Never noticed this before. Don't have very much exposure to Kleins .

DiabloScott

Very nice!
Those rear-facing micro-dropouts were only around for about 5 years - you learn to love them.
A Quantum II would have come originally with a steel fork.
With the internal shift cables, Klein didn't put a cable stop there for an adjuster - the new bikes all came with Shimano groups that still had exposed cables in front of the bars so they put the cable adjuster right at the shifter. Hidden cables under bar wrap have no place to put the adjuster. I've never seen one with a cable adjuster jammed into the penetration... how's that work?

mruneedahelmet

That's a looker; for sure some carbon wheels would add some ride comfort. However, the reach and drop on those handlebars look comically painful.

Sir_Name 

Nice score! Too bad about missing the original fork, but you could certainly do worse for a replacement.

I was also curious about the RD barrel adjuster that was slapped on. Guess that’s the modification you mentioned.

jamesdak 

So- a little more time looking at and considering this one.

Those adjusters look to be more "show than go" but not a big deal to me. If the bike is set up well then shouldn't really need those in my experience.

Still need to sort out the seatpost, need a little more setback. I also wanted to use a saddle with oval rails but need longer bolts on this seatpost clamp to use that saddle.

Once the setback is correct on the saddle then the handlebar reach will be spot on. That said, the long and heavy Dynamic stem needs to go and with it will go those funky bars. The older I get the more I like modern compact bars. So if I do wind up keeping this I'll change out the stem and bars. I need to decide soon because I think the cable housing for the rear brakes is causing those brakes to work funky. Two sharp curves coming out from under the bar tape and into the downtube.

Such a beautiful paint job on this so the few chips are bugging me more than usual. Have to research online and see if someone has worked out a good paint match for these colors. Be nice to touch it up properly and blend in the blemishes.

Now.....isn't that seatpost clamp wrong? The catalog has a higher seatpost tube with built in bolt, right?

bargainguy

The original would have been a quill seatpost with no clamp.

What you've got reminds me of this workaround for quill seatposts:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gorilla-Dou.../dp/B015U8F7N6

jamesdak 

Are you sure?? The catalog shows different. It also shows adjusters in the downtube.

Sir_Name 

Ah, seatpost clamp is the mod then?

EddyR

Nice to find a clean frame no less a complete bike that is 25 years old. Like that fade paint color
Ed

jamesdak 

Sooo, tantalizing close to get it under 18 lbs.

Swapped on a Fizik Kurve Chameleon saddle since I decided not to use it on the Pinarello. Then I dug into my parts stash and found some record brakes of the same era. Swapped those on also and shortened the brake housing on the back end of the bike. That freed up some of the slop in the rear brake. Both housings coming out of the bar tape are wrong though, some severe bends still.

But I'm thinking new stem and handlebars anyway if I like how this rides. Those changes done well should get me under 18 lbs.

As of right now I've got it down to 18 lbs 2 ozs. The hidden weight weenie in me is sneaking out, LOL!

jamesdak 

Was hoping to finally do a real test ride on this one after work today. But with temps heading north of 90 degrees again I don't want to take the risk of having something go wrong 10 miles or so out from the house. That would be a long walk in these temps. But I also really want to ride this and see how it feels under me. The urge to get it into the 17 lb range is just eating at me yet I don't want to put anything into this bike if the ride quality on our rough chipseal roads sucks. Ah....the dilemma....

Maybe I'll play it safe and just take something else... or....

krakhaus 

That paint job is gorgeous. I had a 96 Attitude with a blue / purple / gold chameleon paint job. It was beautiful, but I like this better. The Ksyrium's look great on it too.

krakhaus 

Careful though, the mods might banish this thread to desolation island.

jamesdak 

Shhhhh......flying under the radar!

jamesdak 

Well I got home and decided to take this out anyway. Garmin showed an average temp of 93 degrees for the ride and of course the usual afternoon winds. My legs were sore all day so I took it easy on the ride or at least felt I was taking it easy. But the speeds were up pretty good. I was at 18.01 miles at the hour mark so I went a little harder the rest of the way to fight the effect of the headwinds to try and maintain that pace. Pulled it off, 26.5 miles at an 18.1 mph avg. Good ride for me.

Now the bike, it felt good under me, very light yet seemed to handle of the rough road sections just fine. I was hoping it would jar the hell out of me so I'd hate it, not the case. What was weird to me was that each time I stood up the bike seemed to dull under me and feel sluggish if that makes sense. Yesterday I had did pretty much the same route on the De Rosa Neo Pro and that bike disappears under you when you stand up on it while also accelerating. The opposite of how the Klein felt today. Both bike coincidently running the same wheels although the Klein has Conti GP 5000's where as the De Rosa is sporting a Conti Force/Attack setup.

The Modolo 8x Tenos handlebars were useless in the drops as set up right now. Way to much drop for me to be comfortable with. Hips felt all crammed up when trying to ride them. So.....hmmmm....what's the lightest 42cm handlebar/stem setup I can swap onto this to lose that last 3 ozs and get it under 18 lbs?

Anyway, first ride under adverse conditions was still quite good, I think this one is a keeper.

retrofit

The following is from the PDF "Klein Technical Manual - This manual covers all Klein models to August 1996" found on Retrobike.co.uk
(see pp 32-33)

retrofit

Incidentally, this tall Quantum II popped up on the local CL today

jamesdak 

^ Hey, the right fork and the uncut seattube, I'm envious!

youcallmetube

Classic Klein road bike, I like it! Their colors always shine.

jamesdak 

Just a little update on this one. I've got some better handlebars for it but haven't swapped them yet.

Today I grabbed this one for my 40 mile morning ride. A fairly leisurely start for the ride but the speeds were up there pretty good again. This bike just seems to reward you each time you drop to a harder gear. I still find the ride comfort quite good on all but the roughest surfaces. Today though I can't say the bike felt sluggish under me when I stood. In fact it was light and responsive. At the 1:30 mark into the ride I was right at a 18.5 mph avg. Legs felt good and I really went after it for the final miles to the house. Finished right at a 19 mph avg for the whole 40 miles so that's a pretty good jump in average speed over those last miles. For the most part I was running that last section in the 20-23.5 mph range. Fast for me, especially with a little wind and really humid conditions for here.

I will say the rear slide out a couple of times on sharp turns with a bit of gravel. This one is running Conti GP 5000 700 x 25's right now. I've noticed the same thing with the Duell running the same tires. Maybe it's just coincidence but these new 5000 series just feel more skittish than the 4000 s II I run on so many of the other bikes. Could be the smaller footprint of these new ones as they are certainly smaller than the old ones.

I may steal the tubular wheelset off one of my other bikes to put on here to see what it can really do. Any, I think I finally connected with this bike today. Gonna wipe off all the sweat and then keep in set aside for my next ride instead of swapping it out for another.

How she's set up for now. I do not live the shape of these bars at all. I can ride them but feel all out of place when in the drops.


This is a pretty bike....for something that's not steel. LOL!

shuru421

But that fork...! Lolll..

masi61

Any easy adjustment for comfort in the drops is to lower the bars so that the drops are closer to parallel to the ground. Then road test the bike and see if the hoods are still in an OK position, That's what I would do. To me, that shape of "ergo" handlebar is actually comfortable so long as the drops are closer to horizontal and not angled up like that.

jamesdak 

Fugly but seems to be working just fine.