R800 to Cafe Racer!

[black lightning 1987]

Beautiful animal!
I always liked the two-tone/fade (whatever you call that) colours.

I call it flip-flop, because it looks like one color in one light and a second in different light. Cannondale used it, but I don't think on as many bikes as Klein. I have one Cannondale with it - the 1998 R4000 in Kameleon Fire. Fades are different as that refers to two solid colors, one applied over the other without a masking line.

 

[black lightning 1987]

Klein has never been a bike brand that has been on my radar, but my interest was piqued so I went looking. Believe it or not they must have sold a bunch because I found twenty of them within a couple of hundred miles. About the same as the Cannondale brand, although most of the Cannondales are newer models. Here are a few of the pretty paint models. Most are of a more contemporary paint palate.

I don't remember the details but I think there was some legal back and forth between the two companies regarding who had rights to details about the manufacturing process.
I'm just guessing but I'd think Cannondale sold a lot more bikes.

 

[black lightning 1987]

1992-93 the fork was refered to as Delta V suspension fork. In 94 it became the Headshok™.
Gravel, down country, trail, all mountain, etc.. are like most biking riding style terms are made up by some overpaid marketing monkey. If they throw enough poop out there something is bound to stick and people will flock to it. Gravel bike makes it sound tough, vs slight sturdier road bike with wider tires, or drop bar mountain bike. Most people stil call drop bars curly bars around here, and the bikes they are attached to, ten speeds!

How many of those curly bars are turned upside down?

 

[black lightning 1987]

I would have to say both (Cannondale & Klein) were incredibly innovative (and we should bear in mind this was the most innovative era of mountain biking so to stand out gives you some idea of how incredible both brands were).
For me, Klein edges it in the 'aesthetics' category.
Whilst groundbreaking and indeed fascinating at the time, some of their designs however, were (with hindsight) slightly.....'sketchy'? Further, although the frames were immaculate, they used after market suspension (as opposed to developing their own).
I'm thinking more of the Mantra here - like riding a bloody kangaroo at times.....
Cannondale however.....well for me their innovation has stood the test of time.
The Gemini STILL looks current - that slack geometry is everywhere.
And then a couple years ago someone invented the term 'gravel bike' (in order to tempt us to spend yet more money)......and here's the thing.....some gravel bikes have what is effectively a Headshock suspension unit.
They act like it's a new thing, but Cannondale were doing it decades ago.
First Headshock bike released 199? (someone might be able to enlighten me/us).

Klein had the first press fit bottom bracket that I know of, but I'm not a fan as it greatly limited what you could do if you wanted to change cranks. If I wanted to put a Campagnolo crank in my Aeolus (which I probably would have liked to do when I built it up), It might require a custom machined spindle. There was minimal advantage to their press fit BB. The only thing I can think of is that they were able to increase the diameter of the cartridge bearings by eliminating threaded cups. Klein's internal cable routing looks great but in my experience has poorly made ports for the casing stops.
Who is selling a bike with something that resembles a Headshok?

 

[JohnnyD]

How many of those curly bars are turned upside down?

More than you or I could count.

 

[kickflip]

1992-93 the fork was refered to as Delta V suspension fork. In 94 it became the Headshok™.
Gravel, down country, trail, all mountain, etc.. are like most biking riding style terms are made up by some overpaid marketing monkey. If they throw enough poop out there something is bound to stick and people will flock to it. Gravel bike makes it sound tough, vs slight sturdier road bike with wider tires, or drop bar mountain bike. Most people stil call drop bars curly bars around here, and the bikes they are attached to, ten speeds!

Yes, yes and yes.....
When the whole gravel bike thing started, i was just like.....

 

[kickflip]

Klein had the first press fit bottom bracket that I know of, but I'm not a fan as it greatly limited what you could do if you wanted to change cranks. If I wanted to put a Campagnolo crank in my Aeolus (which I probably would have liked to do when I built it up), It might require a custom machined spindle. There was minimal advantage to their press fit BB. The only thing I can think of is that they were able to increase the diameter of the cartridge bearings by eliminating threaded cups. Klein's internal cable routing looks great but in my experience has poorly made ports for the casing stops.
Who is selling a bike with something that resembles a Headshok?

I don't know who's selling them as i have no interest in them.
They're not a Headshok as such.
The ones i've seen are elastomers (there might be a coil in there somewhere) in or around the headtube.
They're not calling it 'headshok', but they are implying that having a relatively small amount of travel in the headtube (that can be turned on or off) is the 'latest and greatest'.
Claims of improving handling, eliminating fork flex, increasing efficiency etc.....all the things Cannondale did in 1992-93 with the Delta V suspension fork (which i now know thanks to JohnnyD

 

[kickflip]

I don't remember the details but I think there was some legal back and forth between the two companies regarding who had rights to details about the manufacturing process.
I'm just guessing but I'd think Cannondale sold a lot more bikes.

I think you're right black lightning 1987.
Old Cannondale's can be picked up really cheap.
Klein's feel much more 'niche'.
Anything like a Fervor, Rascal (or Top Gun) seems to go for $$hundreds (sometimes $$thousands).
Probably a factor in that is that there are simply less of them.

 

[black lightning 1987]

Since you mentioned the earliest Headshok, here's my 1992 Delta V 900. Built up ten or twelve years ago from a frameset I found on eBay.

 

[kickflip]

Since you mentioned the earliest Headshok, here's my 1992 Delta V 900. Built up ten or twelve years ago from a frameset I found on eBay.View attachment 14325

Now that's what I'm talking about!

 

[Jon K.]

I call it flip-flop, because it looks like one color in one light and a second in different light. Cannondale used it, but I don't think on as many bikes as Klein. I have one Cannondale with it - the 1998 R4000 in Kameleon Fire. Fades are different as that refers to two solid colors, one applied over the other without a masking line.

Axalta calls it "Chromalusion", but there are several companies that sell similar paint that changes color based on viewing angle.

The first version, created by Optical Coating Laboratory, Inc. in 1979, was called ChromaFlair. There's a pretty good Wikipedia article about it.

ChromaFlair - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The base coat has no color at all - the colors are created by light diffraction, rather like seeing colors in an oil slick on the driveway.

 

[kickflip]

I read the first paragraph under the 'Effect' heading.....
Made my brain feel funny
Very cool, very amazing.....in a 'I don't understand entirely, but I like it anyway' kind of way

 

[letsbike]

I agree.