The retro bike chronicles
5 July 2022
By Andy Wigmore
Saddleback’s Founder, Andy Wigmore, tells the story behind his favourite retro bike, ‘the one’ that started an obsession for collecting 90s mountain bikes.
I have vivid memories of the day I did my first ever mountain bike race. It was the 14th of April, 1991, and I remember it being cold, grey and wet. The event was the Hell of the North Cotswolds, which was held each year on the same day as the famed Paris Roubaix. This was no coincidence, since the 100km ride, starting and finishing in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, has a similarly rough, muddy and exposed course, full of brutal climbs and treacherous descents.
At 17, I had done a fair bit of road cycling but was totally unprepared for what lay ahead. I put in a big effort at the start but found myself going rapidly backwards once we hit the first off road climb. As I was struggling to combine breathing with turning the pedals, a rocket ship shot past. The bike, resplendent in neon green and pink, propelled its rider apparently effortlessly to the very top of the climb.
He was going so quickly – or perhaps it was the lack of oxygen – that I missed the brand. But I couldn’t miss the wild paint job and the oversized alloy fork. When I eventually got to the finish I spotted the bike again, lovingly parked next to its owner, who was already enjoying a bacon roll and coffee, having finished some time earlier. Now I could clearly see that this incredible bike was a 1991 Klein Attitude.
Suddenly my faithful Shogun Prairie Breaker simply didn’t cut it. The next day I made enquiries as to how much it would cost to get my very own Klein Attitude and crushingly realised it was over a third of my annual salary as a Pensions Administrator. The dream was put on hold, but I never lost the desire to own a 1991 Klein Attitude in what I later learned was the Dolomiti paint scheme.
Fast forward 27 years, and a friend mentioned that he knew of one for sale. I jumped at the chance to buy it, determined not to miss out a second time, even though the market value all these years on was more than it would have been new.
When it turned up, all the memories of that day in the Hell of the North Cotswolds came flooding back and I was a kid again. Ali at Fat Creations kindly sorted out the paint so that it was like new, and then I spent months on eBay sourcing the period correct Deore XT components in pristine condition.
Three years on, the bike still excites me. Finally building it awakened a desire to continue sourcing amazing mountain bikes from the early 90s that I could never afford at the time. What started as a dream to own one particular Klein bike has turned into owning 18 Klein bikes, four Fat Chances and three Yetis. Am I done collecting yet? I don’t think so.
