Gotta go with Jerry on this one. No one said he "invented" them, but Gary Klein was *the* one who, after the MIT framebuilding class, went on to market a real product, and the rest is history, as they say.
A friend of mine is a Mechanical Engineering Professor here at the University of Michigan, and when I first met him, I saw a bare, homemade-looking aluminum road frameset hanging in his basement. I asked what it was, and he replied that he had made that as a student at MIT. I asked if Gary was in the class; he replied "yup." Cool!!
The Engineer that sent a resume and a design proposal to Cannondale alledgedly sent the same information to about two hundred various bike-related companies, and the only one to respond was C'dale.... Smart move on their part, I'd say!
As for 1970s boron-reinforced Klein Team Supers being "marginally on topic" I would defer to Dale on that one, but I'd be surprised if he agreed with that statement....
Cheers,
Greg "that's the only TIG'ed aluminum frame I'd ever be interested in BTW" Parker A2 MI USA
> Message: 6
> Date: Sat, 28 Dec 2002 16:31:32 -0500
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> From: "H.M. &S.S. Sachs" <sachs@erols.com>
> Subject: Gary Klein, was Re: [CR]CR Villains
>
>
> Jerry Moos wrote:
>
> I would say some of the most important items which led to the decline of
> classic bikes (in roughly the order of importance) were:
>
> <snip>
> 2) Gary Klein. He demonstrated that an aluminum frame can be made stiff
> as well as light by using larger diameter tubes. He also dispensed with
> lugs and TIG welded the frames, leading to the current dominant design of
> TIG welded oversized tube aluminum frames.
>
> This is only marginally on topic, so if you have better info, please send
> it off-list. I do not believe that Gary Klein, who makes beautiful bikes,
> should be credited with the "invention" of the fat tube aluminum
> frame. These were a "standard" MIT student shop project at one
> point. Indeed, I remember a student coming to me at Princeton, because he
> had mistakenly welded the wrong chain stay to the wrong side. I couldn't
> help him. Gary was awarded a patent. There was a fight over it later with
>
> Cannondale, and I believe they reached a settlement.
>
> The Cannondale story, as I recall it, starts with Cannondale as a niche
> mfg. of "soft" products like panniers. A young engineer from the Electric
> Boat Company (submarines, New London (?), CT) dropped by one day, with
> sketches for what became the C'dale bike frameset. They hired him, and
> learned to manufacture it. And, to their credit, although they have made
> mistakes, they have plowed cash back into improved designs (tapered tubes)
> and better manufacturing processes. Early on, they even had an all-Campy
> (Super-Record, as I recall) model.
> Now, back to our program...
>
> harvey sachs
> mcLean va