Pantah

Oh and @Chuckk, I just now realized that the saddle you have on your Klein is identical to the one I initially had on mine when I first took the pictures. What a neat coincidence.

jamesdak 

Well.....I'm going there. So like mentioned above. I joined the Klein family just this year and it was instant love of the Quantum II. Bike is plenty fast and on par with the rest of my rides while not being too harsh on the rough roads. Because of this positive experience I decided it was time to give a high end Cannondale a try too. There was a beautiful CAAD8 available locally for a good price and I wound up picking it up. Now every indication is that this Cannondale should be really fast too. It's my lightest bike and has all the go fast parts on it. Yet as I tried to get a ride in on it where I average 19 mph like all my other bikes I just couldn't do it. I felt like I was working harder and my HR was always higher than on any other bike while riding the same route at a faster pace. I finally pulled it off Thursday but just barely and man did it kill my quads. So....as much as I want to like the Cannondale so far all it's done is made me appreciate the Klein even more, LOL!

Sonofamechanic 

W



One more Moonrise Quantum Pro Klein in the world! (Dave Wilkins’ paint work)

Pantah

Sonofamechanic That looks fantastic! Moonrise linear fade has long been my favorite Klein paint scheme but is so incredibly difficult to find these days, especially on a frame in my size.

Sonofamechanic 

Moonrise is my favorite too, but an even rarer bird: a Quantum in gator fade. I see quite a few moonrise and even a few team dolomites in Quantum (road) frames, but so far only one gator fade in a road frame

Chuckk

I'm working on this '89 Quantum I picked up last weekend from the friend of the original owner. It had been parked for about 20 years.
Not quite as pretty as those.
Still have my '98 Quantum Race.

Sonofamechanic 

. I get too wrapped up in the paint—the real beauty of the Klein is in the ride. Your Quantum looks great!

Pantah

After roughly 2500 miles, I ran into a bit of a hiccup during a ride yesterday when the fork steerer became a 2 piece unit on the fly. Bit of a butt pucker moment but both the bike and I survived unscathed.
The Klein is down but not out! It will live again soon. When it's back up and running, I'll post a photo of the final product. I won't get into the details here since the whole debacle warranted its own thread, which you can check out here: Threaded fork steerer failure.

I'm also seriously considering one of two possible additions to the Klein stable to compliment this bike. Both Quantum II's, both from 1995 far as I can tell, one in what I believe to be the Coral Reef liner fade and the other in my longtime favorite Moonrise linear fade. If I take one home, I'll post a photo here as they're both stunning bikes.

himespau 

Glad to hear you're safe.

MeadMan2

I have a water bottle signed by Rishi Grewal when he was here in Minneapolis for a mountain bike race in a city park in1984. I have a white Quantum that I bought from my sister-in-law. I expected a harsh ride but not that bad. It has become my number two ride after my Merckx. It has a105 group in what I call champagne which I think is rather elegant with the pearl white paint. The paint is amazing. After cleaning it up I could only find a few tiny marks and no scratches in the paint.

Pantah

I've finally acquired my longtime favorite Klein paint scheme, one I've been searching for for years now, and that's moonrise linear fade! It's tough finding vintage bikes, especially aluminum frames, in 61cm but one finally appeared. It's a Quantum II from the mid-90's. Sorry, no photos yet, it's an ebay purchase to be honest so it'll be here in a week or so. Very original component wise, almost a complete Shimano 6400 groupset. Front derailleur was replaced with a 6500 for some reason but that aside, the rest is original. I will be making some changes, such as converting it from a double to triple, different stem and handlebars and swapping the seat, but that's it. Everything else will remain the same. Might swap in a set of red Rolf Vector Comps at some point but not for now.

Sonofamechanic 

Pantah, Congratulations!!! You’ve been looking for a moonrise for a while now.

masi61

Pantah - I definitely look forward to seeing some picks of your re-build and of the paint job. I’m interested especially in how you make the triple crank conversion and which tools you use and which specific bottom bracket axle and which crankset you decide to go with.

WaveyGravey

I have a 1986 or so Quantum. Bike is pretty original. Would like to look into the possibility of some updates and mods.

Pantah

I did a triple conversion on my current Quantum when I got it and I actually didn't need to change anything with the bottom bracket spindle. The spindle it came with when new was quite long and actually has more offset on the non-drive side than the drive side due to the length and need to get a good enough chainline. It has no clearance or chainline issues with a Shimano FC-1057 triple.

Since I don't have the Quantum II here yet, I don't know if it'll be a similar deal or not but I'm hoping the spindle will have enough offset so work with a triple. I'd like to keep the original 6400 crank and tripleize it. I know my dad has a set of tripleizer adapter tabs that bolt onto the backside of the chainring bolts. However, I robbed the spacers off that for another project last year so I'm not sure how I'll make it work, haven't got that far yet. If not, There's a hundred options out there for square taper triples, I'll figure that out later. I already have a triple ST-1055 shifter in good physical shape, just need to take it apart and clean out the gunk to get it working properly. Still need to figure out which derailleurs I want to use. I'm thinking of seeing if it's possible to create a long cage RD-6400 by swapping the cage off a 105, RX100 or RSX of the same era. More on that when I figure it out.

You can do all sorts of upgrades to it though the 126mm width for the rear hub is a bit limiting. That being said, it is possible to play around with spacers and cones on a 130mm hub to make it fit 126mm spacing but is tricky and something I have no experience in.
Aside from that, any shifters will bolt on, as will brakes, derailleurs, handlebars, stems, seatposts and even forks. Most square taper cranksets will work just fine.
A note on shifters, some Kleins of that era came with the center mount style Suntour Symmetric shifters where there's just one mounting boss on the center of the downtube. If yours is like that, it will seriously limit shifter upgrades as that hasn't been used since the mid-80's and I think it was a Suntour only deal. It also means you can't just bolt on downtube cable stops if you want to upgrade to integrated shift levers or bar end shifters.

Pantah

The Quantum II is in the mail. In the meantime, I've been acquiring parts for that as well as the current Quantum awaiting fork repair.

After quite a bit of thinking and looking around, I found an early Bontrager square taper crankset. I recall liking how they looked back in the day and thought it would look good on a Klein. This one has a been of scuffing on the finish but it's not bad. Square taper is in great shape and the chainrings look good. I'm not a fan of the black outer chainring so I'll be swapping that with a spare silver one I have hanging around.

Pantah

The Quantum II has finally arrived! This is only the second time I have ever found a paint job to be even more impressive in reality than in photos. The first was with a classic motorcycle, an early 90's Ducati 900SS. Owned that for 7 years, what a machine.
Back to bicycles, this paint scheme is fantastic and am so glad I took the gamble of buying it off ebay. While the paint itself is in superior condition, especially considering its age, the bike as a whole has issues, some not stated in the ad, but ultimately nothing that would have realistically changed my mind up front or changed the price point. The cost, for those curious, was $1900 all said and done. That's including item cost, shipping and taxes (thanks ebay for charging sales tax, ugh). A lot, I know, but these Kleins with any linear fade in a size over 60cm just simply don't come up for sale. I had just sold my aforementioned Ducati 900SS so I had quite the chunk of extra change in the bank account, figured it was now or never.

Issues with the bike: There's two weird slightly lighter colored splotches on the top tube near the head tube that weren't really visible in the photos and not mentioned in the ad. It's likely sun fading though it's a mighty goofy pattern for that. It's minor and I'm already used to it.
Rear shifter doesn't shift but that is extremely common with the first generation STI shifters. The factory grease gums up and the pawls stop springing back into place. I half expected that to be the case and sure enough, it is. Easy enough to remedy. I've rebuilt a few of these shifters before so I'll have it working in no time. The front shifter is working but feels gummy so it'll be rebuilt too. despite the fact I won't be using it since I'm converting to a triple and will be using a 1055 STI that I already have.
Front derailleur is a later 6500. Don't know why, again doesn't matter since I need to change it out anyways for the triple crank.
Cable housings were cut waaaay to long. Tires are ancient and one of the tubes has a leaky valve stem. All consumables that I'm replacing anyways with my preferred brand/size/length/color etc.

That's it. It's got a bit of dust from sitting. My guess is it hasn't been ridden in a long time, probably over a decade. Likely got parked after the rear shifter stopped doing its thing.

DiabloScott

Do you have the hang of those microdropouts yet?

Pantah

Haven't taken the rear wheel on or off yet. I know they're goofy rear dropouts but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it no problem.

jackbombay

Pic of my girlfriends "new" Klein. 1997 Quantum Race. I can fit on it, but its. abit small for me, but, this bike absolutely rips, and the paint is amazing, especially in the sun!

Force 

Greetings all. Was hoping someone could provide some information about this Klein frame. Looks like C500 serial number. Pressed in bottom bracket. Thanks!

dddd

On my Klein Performance with it's 126mm spacing, I used the original wheelset and put a 10s Shimano 12-30t cassette on, retained by a long-threaded 11t lockring that nested into the recess of the 12t small cog, giving a good couple of threads of engagement while also allowing plenty of splined engagement for the smallest cog.
I had zero spoke or dropout clearance issues with the 7800 derailer cage or the 10s chain, but did bevel the non-driveside side of the small chainring's teeth to better match the 10s chain's width.

In one fell swoop, the bike went from 7 cogs to ten (critically, the 10s cassette mounts a little narrower than the 8- or 9-speed cassettes).
The long-threaded 11t cassette lockrings are available from the Timu site, listed as a "cassette cover" if you're searching).

tcs

Lamont Cobb

I'll probably never own a Klein, because they command a premium, but I can aspire to owning a Cannondale, which has gotta be the next best thing.

Pantah

Force - I'm no expert but know a decent bit about Kleins. The fender and rack mounts makes your model a Performance, Klein's touring frame. The center/top mount downtube shifters (as opposed to the more common side mounted shifters on the downtube) and steel fork means it's pre-90's, probably mid-80's. Kleins, far as I know, did not get any sort of head badge or decal until 1997. The funky white and red steering head decal is not original. The press in bottom bracket cartridge bearing was a Klein mainstay until Trek acquired them in 1995, though weren't phased out for another year or so.

FYI, those bearings can still be easily found, bearing code is 6003-RSR or 6003-2RS, the latter of which is more common. The suffix, those last 3 digits (2RS) aren't as important, it's been my findings that they have to do with how the bearing is sealed. The 6003 is the important part as that dictates the physical dimensions. The bottom bracket spindle is effectively a long, straight, pressed in metal shaft. A basic hydraulic press can get it out.