My first full suspension bike. My Klein Mantra Comp. I went from my black Giant Iguana to this. The poor Iguana, cracked at the bottom bracket area after 6 years of a hard beating and I only weighting 125 lbs. (whew those days are long gone, i'm taking about that weight!). I think I paid $1200 for the Klein, it was yellow. I had a friend who had the same year bike but it was with a black swing arm. He claimed they ran out of yellow swing arms and they just used black instead. I liked the full yellers instead. It was a great climber, it felt a lot lighter riding it, although it wasn't great going down a rocky hill. But then again it wasn't meant for the rugged trails of Ringwood. Incidentally, Ringwood took my Iguanas' life away.
Anyway, I must have upgraded the Klein near the end of it's life. See what happened, it didn't have a replaceable hanger and I bent the rear swing arm. So I had to get the bike aligned every Tuesday at the shop. At this point, there was no more swing arms avaiable thru Klein. Everytime I rode, the chain skipped like the cassette and chain were bad. They replaced the cranks, the bottom bracket and the rear hub bearings. Finally after the bike store sucked all my money, they called Klein to get some answers and possibly a new swing arm. No swing arms, instead they offered a trade in the frame and a reduced price for a new bike.
So my choices were a Trek, Klein and a Gary Fisher. They gave me a a paltry 150 bucks for the frame and I got the Trek Liquid 25 for $1200. Jeeze what different ride that is. Sitting upright, so heavy compared to the Klein but it handled downhills much better. BUT that front fork, RS Psylo sucks. It's been rebuilt twice. It tops out with a clang. I don't need a bell to warn the other bikers or hikers, this thing clangs loud enough to hear me coming!
I still have it. Still riding it. But shortly I'll be moving on to my next ride my new DLW.
-dirty bert
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