Blast from the past: Klein Mantra

[p nut]

Did anyone ride one of these? I remember scanning through magazines in the 90’s and used to oogle over them. Of course, they started at something like $4k, so that was a no-go for me. One magazine, I think Mountain Bike Action, heaped praises on them. Handling, climbing prowess. Can’t remember the columnist’s name, but he was always harping on the Mantra.

I just happened to see one up for sale locally and got nostalgic.

[Anthonys]

Wow, looks so unique. I had a GT full suspension team bike from 1996 and it was a blast to ride.

[klasse]

Mantra has it's following, but certainly not a holy grail of MTBs. I don't know that I've seen this color before. The geometry looks nice!

[mcteague]

I had a 1999 Mantra Race and it was my first full suspension mt bike. It was fun but a bit odd. The wheelbase would change length during suspension movement which is kinda weird. Still, not bad for the hilly, twisty trails I rode back in the day. More of a climbing bike than a downhill machine. If fact, steep downhills were it's weakest point if I recall, always felt like you were going to go over the bars.

Tim

[KonaSS]

Originally Posted by mcteague

If fact, steep downhills were it's weakest point if I recall, always felt like you were going to go over the bars.

Tim

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/1996-k...as-a-bike.html

It is a good read if you are at all interested in Mantras!

[BryanE]

Collarbone breaker.
Hard breaking going downhill was an adventure.
I knew of one broken collarbone and two people who owned them. Briefly.
Wouldn't ride that thing if you paid me.

[Ozz]

Originally Posted by BryanE

Collarbone breaker.
Hard breaking going downhill was an adventure.
I knew of one broken collarbone and two people who owned them. Briefly.
Wouldn't ride that thing if you paid me.

What accounted for this being fault of the bike rather than user error?

Ah...read article linked above....interesting

[Pegoready]

Originally Posted by Ozz

What accounted for this being fault of the bike rather than user error?

From the Pinkbike article (I've never ridden this bike so I can't confirm or deny this account):

Hit the front brake at high speeds and the front end (with its whopping three inches/75 millimeters of travel) would dive, the swing arm would hinge forwards, completely extending the rear shock, which radically reduced the wheelbase and created the steepest possible head angle at the absolute worst possible moment... It was hard to fully appreciate all of this, of course, because you were now busy flying over the handlebars. There was no shortage of f*ckery afoot.

I’ve lost count of the number of outstanding riders—guys who raced downhill at the semi-pro and professional level—who were unceremoniously flung from the stink-bugging bike. It was as if every Mantra bitterly resented being ridden and was merely biding its time before it drew first blood.

[Pegoready]

Gotta say this bike scratches my early teen, circa 1998 bike lust in so many ways:



It would be fun to rip around town or on some fireroads for nostalgia's sake, and then transfer the 8 Speed XTR onto something else

[MikeD]

From what I read, Klien didn't want to pay patent royalties so they put the suspension pivot where it was. That supposedly made a poor performing rear suspension. Basically, the bike was a turd (from what I remember reading).

[jcs7282]

I used to lust after one of these sooooo bad when I was a kid.

Back in the good old days when MTV played music videos, V-brakes were the baddest thing going, and the anodization was purple. Times were simpler.

[Buzz Killington]

I was riding next to a friend who had one. So it stink bug and throw him over the bars. Looks like a cool bike but no fun to ride. Uphill though it did climb well.

[dustyrider]

I had a roommate and riding buddy that spent what amounted to a small fortune to me on a brand new one. It was his pride and joy and he loved riding the bike. At that time, all I could afford was a hardtail and there was a lot of full suspension experimentation going on so I was eager to try it. Being that we both rode the same size bike it was easy to switch on rides. I rode it down one technical hill and never wanted to ride it again, ever. I feel like he was still riding it ten years later. He never liked riding fast downhill and would often trials ride up sections most people struggled to hike a bike up. I remember seeing Jeep put these out at some point too, but it has been awhile now.

[p nut]

Originally Posted by MikeD

… That supposedly made a poor performing rear suspension. Basically, the bike was a turd (from what I remember reading).

Were there full suspension bikes in the 90’s that performed well and wasn’t a turd?? GT LTS, Trek Y… 😂🤣

I remember getting on a friend’s Specialized GC and being severely disappointed. Felt like I was riding through a foot of mud.

[dddd]

Almost all of the early full-suspension bikes were still running steep ~71-degree headtubes and long handlebar stems, so the bikle could easily topple forward if much front brake were used while descending.

The Pro-Flex bikes used a linkage fork with the notorious "J-shaped" travel curve, so merely touching the front brake dragged the front axle rearward.

Using a shorter stem with a longer top-tube (bigger frame size) tended to make the steering twitchy on those bikes which had not-so-much trail it seemed.

I am recalling the Santa Cruz Heckler as the first popular mtb that I had ever ridden, that boosted my confidence greatly. It had a touch slacker headtube angle, which thus not only steered calmly using a shorter stem but also put the front wheel further out front to prevent doing an endo.

Gary Fisher "Genesis" bikes featured a longer top tube and shorter stem, which improved climbing traction and helped prevent endos. But I don't recall if they exploited a slacker headtube angle at all(???).