Klein Bicycle Corporation

Klein Bikes
Founded1977; 47 years ago (1977)
FounderGary Klein
Defunct2009; 15 years ago (2009)
Headquarters
ProductsBicycles
ParentTrek Bicycle Corporation

Klein was a bicycle company founded by Gary Klein that pioneered the use of large diameter aluminium alloy tubes for greater stiffness and lower weight.

Klein produced his first bicycle frames while 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, Washington, closed in 2002 as production moved to the Trek headquarters at Waterloo, Wisconsin. Widespread distribution in the United States stopped in 2007, and ceased altogether in the rest of the world in 2009.