Unpainted KLEINs were somewhat rare but not uncommon early on.
Kent Langendorff: I bought an unpainted Pinnacle new in 1988

Cunningham VS KLEIN ATB,
Q: Looks like a Kleiningham to me.
A: Back in the day it was "econ-o-ham
mtbr member VTW

Raw? But Why ?? for the early engineering-race look ala Cunningham

Non Elite vs "Elites" filed tubejoints,
A stripped frame yet unfiled welds offers lightweight and stronger construction (unfiled on rear triangle especially!)
a) its lighter (tuningfactor!)
b) its timeless and pure minimalism plus being functional only!
c) "friends dont let friends ride neon!" really? well, that was just a Bontrager commercial slogan applying to some...and not to "others"...

Back then there were a few tuners and/or shop-owners who preferred the raw Kleins for their timeless appearance and Cunningham/Manitou like look. Brushing the tubes with with some scotchbrite was easy aswell, so they stripped or even ordered raw frames directly from the factory. Among them the rather famous Jed Henri and George Slough (who did some smoothing of the welds on any model and repainted to customer wishes).

To the purists among.... srry for headset and temp. plastic ferrules on some early pics (although an old T. Falcon in its orig. form would be P.C. quoting mombat-timeline, the placeholder however is a contemporary one Tange Seiki).


Some more Info
https://fotos.mtb-news.de/s/91142


Collecting Parts.. and Gems

This build progressively ranging from 87-89 (the first Proto Pinnacle were said to be build 1986).
With maybe the other odd exception like early 90s tires, the Bike is centered around Shimano´s 6Speed indexed 730 group and some parts of 89 XT ll such as cranks and black ano slr front brake along with the new u-brake design.
(In 1989 both XT l and ll were simultaneously available and partly appointed upgrade for the existing group as evolutionary improvement, such as with the reinforced U-brake 2nd Gen inkl a brake brake/booster !)
The actual 89 Pinnacle receveived cantis as KLEIN was about to abandon ubrakes "for good" pretty early on, whereas other companies keppt them coming also on seatstays during the early 90s

Have some feel for the early MTB-Spirit here,

Steve Potts quoted:
“Being involved in; mountain biking has allowed me to turn other people on to a good lifestyle, health and the outdoors.”


update edit,

A nice fillet brazed Columbus-tubing tuningfork made in 89 has been sourced and matches to the smooth weld appearance of the KLEIN frame. Why it also had to be fillet brazed ? ...to match the whole esthetics of the double-pass welds which are hiding behind all the finishing works on the aluminum frame that were also typical in looks of an early fillet brazed steel ATB during the era. In the 80s tigwelding was still sometimes seen critical or as a cheaper option opposed to custom frame building - that's why and also reason for Klein making their (& later top end) Alum forks) designs look seamless..
(well there has been great tig work out there by Cunningham in the 80s often mixed with brazed showsides on forks etc)

.. fork may well be a helmut burns? or vertebra (jon lebsack) or anything made by an early custom building/er enjoying the tapered columbus tubing of the late 80s