1990 Klein Attitude Team Dolomite

This is the third and last in the series of vintage bikes I showed along with Spectrum at this year's NAHBS. This Attitude came to me from the Pacific Northwest, Portland to be specific. It was a sorry looking bike (originally painted in Dolomite) with a black uniklein fork and a beat up MC1. The bike definitely lived a tough life and the then current owner really didn't know what it was, much less where it came from.

I managed to source an original 1990 style box crown rigid fork and the frame got painted along with the Bruiser Attitude late last year. The colors are spectacular and the finish really couldn't be better. I have to give props to Spectrum for yet another fine job!

I decided to go with a fairly basic build on this bike and so I went with Shimano M732/735 XT. However, since this was a show bike it needed just a touch of flair. So, to spice it up a little bit I added Bullseye hubs and cranks, American Classic post and Quick Releases and a beautiful white perforated leather Turbo saddle. Tires are NOS Panaracer Smokes, 2.1 rear and 1.9 Comp in the front. In hindsight a matching 2.1 in the front would have  been better.

It's always a little bit interesting working with Bullseye parts. They are revered by many in the vintage community and always look the part, but man are they difficult to work with and then in the end don't really work all that well. The front hubs had brand new bearings and still had a fair amount of play in them, and that's after trying several different axle and bearing (brand) combinations. The first generation cranks were a nightmare and will be replaced by 3rd generation cranks shortly. The spider only mounts with  one bolt which means that keeping the chainrings in plane was not possible, this made setting the front derailleur a challenge as the chainline walked in/out during rotation. I won't even talk about the bearings...

Overall the bike was stunning and a huge hit. Hopefully it'll find a good home soon!