omg, a full carbon Klein

Very nice simple looking Klein. Almost minimalistic. I like it. I wonder how it rides? It looks fast. 🙄

sma said:

[img]kleinjapan.comqelite v.jpgOpen ↗[/img]

kleinjapan.comq elitev.htmlOpen ↗

Japanese brand?

Reeks of TREK
The forks
the drop outs
the parts

At least the new carbon Le Mond's look like a different concept not the same design team with different geometry.

And shouldn't a Klein be bright orange or yellow or something??

I wonder which factory in Taiwan is producing those?🙄

Phill P said:

Reeks of TREK
The forks
the drop outs
the parts

At least the new carbon Le Mond's look like a different concept not the same design team with different geometry.

And shouldn't a Klein be bright orange or yellow or something??

It does look a lot like a trek. I have one of the last Chehalis built Kleins and there is a Trek shadow cast on everything they do. That isn't a bad thing,I just like the idea of a smaller brand. Klein is known for nice paint and the white seems bland to me too. A guy I ride with has a Klein q-pro trek era
bike and it is very nice. It seems durable too-he put 14,000 miles on it last year and has about 13,000 this year! Trek seems to make very good carbon frames-my local dealer had one sawed in two and it had no filler or voids. The shop owner said that at the last Trek dealer event at the factory they had other carbon frames cut in two and many had voids that were filled. So I have nothing against Trek I just liked the idea of Klein as an independent mfg. I don't think that really means a bike is good or bad, just less common. Trek does have a marketing challange trying to have Trek,LeMonde and Klein all offering carbon frames that are not the same!

A carbon fiber Klein is like an aluminum Corvette. It might be fine but it's just WRONG and I don't know why anyone would want one. I don't know why Kleins are so popular in Japan but Klein fans in the USA like the fact that they are the best at what they do - and that's no compromise aluminum, great paint, and flawless welds.

DiabloScott said:

A carbon fiber Klein is like an aluminum Corvette. It might be fine but it's just WRONG and I don't know why anyone would want one. I don't know why Kleins are so popular in Japan but Klein fans in the USA like the fact that they are the best at what they do - and that's no compromise aluminum, great paint, and flawless welds.

Good point. I have a corvette and know what you mean. BTW I put a hitch on it and a sports works rack. Not making any friends with the corvette purists but nothing touches the paint and its a fun way to get to the ride. I guess I don't want a carbon klein either. It bothered me that they came out with a 105 equiped bike and called it a "Stage".The stage 1 was an early klein and very cool, not a price point driven attempt to mass market what had been a smaller high quality brand. I do love the Klein paint! My local dealer told me that Klein is also very popular in Europe selling more there than the U.S. I don't know if this is true. I hope Klein isn't lost in the LeMonde, Bontrager, Trek machine.

mrklein said:

I guess I don't want a carbon klein either. It bothered me that they came out with a 105 equiped bike and called it a "Stage".The stage 1 was an early klein and very cool, not a price point driven attempt to mass market what had been a smaller high quality brand.

Funny that you mention that. I have a "real" Klein that I bought way back. I was not too happy when the company was acquired by Trek. I was even les happy when they moved the factory. And I was quite [censored] when I walked into a bike shop and a one of the sales staff was talking a clueless coed into buying a low priced Klein. Up until then there was no such thing as a low priced Klein; there was barely a medium priced one. I knew right then that Trek would destroy the company. They had no clue about managing the brand. After that Klein was not even on the radar for my next bike purchase.

If they are going carbon, it has to be a money issue. It has been hard to get a premium on AL frames for a long time. At least it has been in the road market. Companies like Ellsworth are doing well with AL MTBs. In the MTB space Ellsworth has done what Klein should have done but was incapable of under Trek's management. Cannondale seems to be making a decent transition to carbon. Maybe Klein can too, but it is hard to see what they do as anything but another brand of Trek. It is like trying to pretend that Merlin is not currently just a rebadged Litespeed.

My Klein is post Trek, pre Wisconson... built in Chehalis but after Trek bought the brand. Things were fine then, craftsmanship as good as it ever was, not too much influence on product line from Trek, no generic parts.

After the move to Wisconson they got gimmicky carbon fiber rear ends, Bontrager stems bars wheels cranks tires. Still great bikes but far less of the Klein character and just ordinary paint jobs.

Once aluminum became the material of choice for the cheapest bikes, consumers were less willing to buy aluminum expensive bikes. I think the same thing will happen with carbon fiber - the gee whiz is already mostly gone but once Taiwan starts making $8 CF frames it's going to be a lot harder to convice people to buy $3000 CF frames.

You might like to read my History of Klein Road Bikes on my blog. Lots of good photos too.

DiabloScott said:

You might like to read my History of Klein Road Bikes on my blog. Lots of good photos too.

Cool site. I noticed that all the pictures seem to have the Klein lettering filled in. Mine is just an outline of the earliest font.