Work day: Klein Pinnacle Elite

After we had done our week groceries, I decided to take advantage of the good weather we were experiencing here in Laramie and decided to spend the day out in the garage, working on one of my neglected projects thanks to the cold weather. 

Today's lucky recipient was my current bicycle project, my 1990 Klein Pinnacle Elite. If you've been reading my blog, you know that I got this bike last summer and have made it my project to make it awesome again. 

Due to the extreme temperatures and weather we've had since the holidays, I haven't done much to her until today. The last time I was able to wrench on her was Christmas Eve when my brother and I took off the crank arms.

So today was my chance to make some real progress. At the end of the day, I had the brakes removed, the front and rear derailleurs, the Mission Control bar/stem combo, and the seat post. The latter two took some man-handling, as the previous owner seems to have neglected the bike and they were stuck. 

So a few things I've like to share:

First thing I discovered was the fact that the Deore DX rear derailleur had two unique notes. For those of you a little versed in mountain bike components of this vintage, you will know that a "short cage" Deore DX is a rare sight. The short cage was generally only ever used with racing set ups, and the de facto racing stuff was the higher Deore XT gruppo. So the fact that this is a Deore DX short cage makes it a pretty rare find. 

The second note of this derailleur didn't appear until I started wiping away some of the accumulated grease and dirt. As I wiped the pulleys, I discovered that they weren't the stock black pulleys, but in fact were a common third party upgrade: blue aluminum pulleys. 

I'm really looking forward to seeing how nice this derailleur looks after I get her thoroughly cleaned up and back on the bike. It's going to have a very fun retro look to it! 

The next thing I wanted to share was the saddle. As I taking it off of the Deore XT seatpost, I noticed that not only was the saddle a Selle Italia Flite, but it also featured the lightweight titanium rails. A closer inspection revealed that the rails were indeed a titanium color! It's too bad that I won't be able to use this saddle, as the leather and padding are torn up in the rear. I won't toss the saddle, but even if it was in great condition, I don't think my uberclydesdale rear could handle this racing saddle.

One of the things that Klein mountain bikes of this era featured was a integrated handlebar and stem called "Mission Control". This bar/stem combo was basic a minimalist aluminum stem and handlebar that are welded together. It is a very lightweight answer but it sacrifices adjustability. Case in point is this Mission Control. After getting it free from the fork's steerer tube, I set about to thoroughly inspect it. I noticed that on the ends of the handlebar were what appeared to be cut off ends. According to what I read, the Mission Control handlebars are about 22.8" wide. Mine measured to be about 21.25" wide. So it looks like a previous owner cut 0.75" off of each end of the handlebar.

As the sunlight was disappearing on the horizon, I started wrapping up and cleaning my garage. In order to keep the parts from becoming lost, I kept the parts in Ziploc bags. There was a bag for each derailleur and a bag for each brake set. The bags were placed into a plastic box for safe keeping. Eventually I will take them down to the co-op for a thorough cleaning and lubing, so they are ready for installation back on the bike.

Here are the wheels I am hoping to use on the Pinnacle. They are a set of Ritchey wheels, with a radially laced front wheel. I got this wheel from a high school mountain bike team that was getting rid of their wheels that didn't have disc brake rotor mounts. They were moving all of their team away from rim brakes and going to better performing disc brakes. This was a score for me! The next time I am working in the garage, I need to check that the rear hub will fit in the Pinnacle's rear triangle. The frame was built for the narrower 7 speed hubs, but I suspect that this wheel is a 9 speed, so I may not be able to use it. We'll have to wait and see!

Well the bike and its parts are all now put away after a productive day. I am looking forward to another day of wrenching in the garage on this beaut!

--The UberClydesdale