Klein Bikes was a bicycle company founded by Gary Klein that pioneered the use of large diameter aluminum alloy tubes for greater stiffness and lower weight.
Klein produced his first bicycle frames whilst a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the 1970s, and full production runs of frames began in the 1980s. In 1995 the company was purchased by the Trek Bicycle Corporation, and the original Klein factory at Chehalis closed in 2002 as production moved to the Trek headquarters at Waterloo. Widespread distribution in the United States stopped in 2007, and ceased altogether in the rest of the world in 2009.
Gary Klein, born June 9, 1952, attended the University of California at Davis before transferring to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). During the Independent Activities Period in 1973, a group of students including Klein worked together under Professor Buckley to produce an aluminum framed bicycle. After analysing a number of contemporary steel frames, and examining ones that had broken in use, they were able to determine the stresses placed on a bicycle frame. Faced with limited available types of aluminum alloy tubing, the students chose to construct frames from 6061 aluminium alloy seamless drawn tube; alternatives such as the stronger 7075 aluminum alloy were discarded because of the tubing dimensions.