1991 / 92 Klein Adroit - Line forms to the rear

I have wanted to restore an proper Adroit for some time and finally put together a suitable fuselage for just such a project. When I agreed to buy this bike I thought it was just another run of the mill Adroit, if there is such a thing. However, upon receiving it and taking a closer look I realized that this is a pretty special bike.

The first thing I noticed is that unlike every other Adroit I've ever seen which uses a 31.6mm seatpost this bike uses a 27.2mm post. The seat tube necks down right above the junction with the top tube to accommodate the thinner post. I believe that the rest of the seat tube is the same as used on the later Adroits (34.9 OD) but I haven't measured it yet.

Most people know that one of the distinguishing features of an Adroit frame as compared to an Attitude is the Addition of Boron / Carbon Fiber epoxy onto the seat and chain stays to reinforce those areas. You can clearly see the exposed fibers on the chainstay in the next picture. According to the Klein painters all of the later production bikes had the boron strips covered in bondo and sanded to achieve a smooth surface for painting, this bike has paint applied just to the bare boron, no bondo.

This frame however is ever more special as I found more Boron / Carbon Fiber applied to the inside of the headtube, something I've never heard of before. This is definitely getting interesting.

A couple more interesting bits that make this a special bike are the serial number placement on the rear non-drive dropout (AD0D2) and the fact that the rear brake bosses were Titanium. Something that was predominantly done for special orders and team riders. The last thing is the color, if this is really a 1991 model then Gator Linear Fade is unusual as it should not have been available until 1992. But this bike is very different from the other 2 1992 bikes I have and different still from Tinker's old Storm bike which I used to own back in 2001. So what's the story?

Of course no Adroit is complete without a Strata and I just happen to have that fit this frame. There is still a lot of work to do. All of the cable housing ends were stuck inside the frame. I manged to get them out eventually with some penetrating fluid and a drill. Quick tip here, pulling on the housing caps with pliers often just tears them leaving you with nothing to grab. Using a drill with a slightly oversize bit and applying power slowly will spin the housing ends inside the frame freeing them up to extract them with some good pliers. Next I have to remove the two water bottle bolts on the underside of the downtube, they much like every other fastener appear to be fused to the frame.

More in the coming weeks.