Homeopathic Bike Dr. Gustav Klein

NOT Mythical, but much like Aunt Jemima, just as fictional.  Dr. Gustav Klein, is/was a pharmacist, with a chain of apothecaries, he may never have ridden a bicycle. 
When Browsing the web for a bike part, dynamic search will press the buttons for you, and where you land is manipulated by the very worst Dot-Com era mechanics.  Way Way Back when there was No Google, [GASP], I recall a client telling me about the "New Google Thing" which was democratizing WWW search, and opening doors to so many more narrowed search results, "...and that". He continued excitedly,  "...Results appear nearly instantly!" He said with building enthusiasm (that), "They, (Google) search like a couple hundred thousand places all at once!", and, ["holy shit man!"] "filter super accurate results".  I remained incredulous and, just to get him to leave me alone, I'd promised to look into "Google", when I got back to the office.  This was an era still flush with fresh flip-phones, DSL, Laser Discs, laser-mice, laser printers, Plasma TV's, and Surround Sound.  In this [my] ancient society, it's citizens purchased batteries at their local Radio Shack. Soon everyone would own a Mountain Bike, A Tivo, an Ink-Jet printer, and an MP3 Player, which they'd plug into their dashboard cassette adapter. I remember this like yesterday, mostly because it was the first time I tried a Google search, and perhaps the last time I would actually get an agnostic search result.  Way Back then, people searched for shit, and they saw so much shit, that they had to use hyphens, and commas, and cogent key-words to find anything relevant at all.  Google would show the user how many places it was looking, and how long the results took, as if they wanted to flaunt a rather pedestrian algorithm. Anyway -- That's about when the internet began inventing things all by itself, building upon it's silly methods, and herd mentality.  Filtered search results are why we all hate each-other today, but Hey!, they also are why we all dress alike. As Search advanced, the results may have become more relevant to the typist,  but that was likely only because Americans had become so homogenized that those doing the searching all wanted to find the same crap quickly. Beige Levi's Dockers for example --  And this is basically where we are today.  Search is so slanted and bullshit, that before you actually find what you'd set sail to discover, you've seen so much other bullshit that you've completely forgotten what you were looking for, ...and you'd already bought what they told you to buy.  Even if you'd only wanted a recipe, you'd now be waiting for UPS to bring  that new Gas Grille or pizza oven.
Anyway, before A.I. levels your search into untainted relevance -- Sergei and Fakebook were back in the lab massaging  machine-learning like kobe cows to feed users more directed garbage like fatted  French geese.

Before the wheels came off search the first time, eBay search algorithms, would compile independent nouns and adjectives into "relevant" categories, and largely still rely upon these search terms to feed your results. So it is no wonder that the Internet, which is banefully broken, merges completely unrelated search parameters until they become their own manifest ghost.
In a way, the crowd built the back-end, and 'our results' provide endless amusement when one searches for an alternator, or brake pads,  and find new feminine hygiene products crammed into our cart. The data-set is broken, the mechanism is broken, and the dynamic web wants to destroy us all.
So it is wholly unsurprising that the same cuckoo mechanism would eventually invent a human being out of thin air. Or... More specifically exchange one German Pharmacist for One American Bicycle Builder.  Gary Klein became Dr. Gustav Klein, and at this point in both of their retirements, their brands are merely nostalgic afterthoughts.  For a break from this crummy blog, open a browser and search for a Klein Adroit Mountain Bike.  I Guarantee that you will get results for the widely praised Porsche 911 of Mountain Bikes, and if you want to buy that used Adroit, your search will bear the Name Dr. Gustav Klein, prominently in your result. If you Search for a Homeopathic Prostate remedy, you may land upon Dr. Gustav Klein,  here you will not see any bicycles in your search result.
But there is this one smart guy who'd deserved veneration in the early 90's straight through to Y-2-K for making magical products, and his name was Gary Gordon Klein. Gary Klein was an engineer who grabbed a degree at MIT, and then built some crazy cool Bicycles.  He didn't invent the Aluminum bike, but he patented several innovations and made it an effective, even lethal weapon for bicycle racing.  Gary Klein changed the entire category during the 90's Mountain Bike Boom, Press-fitting cartridge bearings into perfectly milled tubes to cut weight, and to make his bicycles bomb-proof. He invented loads of innovations, but no homeopathic prostate remedies.  Gary Klein was a very real human being who'd set up shop in Mary's Corner, Chehalis Washington.  Chehalis is a tiny rainy whistlestop outside of Seattle where a lake, a river, and a train punctuate, skilled factories catering to Seattle's Aerospace biz.  Gary saw so many opportunities to "Fix" the American Bicycle through methodical rocket science, better metallurgy, chemistry, sexy paint jobs,  and with of course with meticulous craftsmanship.  He was affable, active, and an avid cyclist. In particular Gary's company excelled in building exceptional Aluminum Mountain Bikes. Klein set the benchmark for precision and quality, like a Rolex, or a Rolls Royce. The Klein Brand was gold.
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Many will take credit for inventing A.I. and rediscovering  Agnostic Web Search, just before it is replaced again by more filtered Bullshit, & Dynamic A.I. Search. Soon all of us will be replaced en-masse by our avatars.  In the meantime I'll cherish fondly thinking for myself, travelling  places, riding cool bikes, and meeting interesting people. 
The other day, an enthusiastic younger person asked me (an old person) about Klein Bikes from way back in the 90's, and unsurprisingly I had a lot to say on the matter. They then asked me about Dr. Gustav Klein, and who he was and how I may have come to know him " Who?" I asked? 

"Dr. Gustav Klein..." "Oh No!", "This is the Guy who the internet invented out of the clear blue sky". "No no", I said,  "That's not a real person". Or rather I should say, he is/was a real Pharmacist or homeopath in Germany and Austria, with a chain of apothecaries to his name, but Dr. Gustav Klein is not the Guy who built your Bike.
In every Web-Search for Klein Bicycles, there is this fictional amalgam who seemingly arrived in America well after Gary Klein sold his company. Klein bikes were venerated in Germany and Japan well after he'd wound down his factory in Washington State.  But Gary Klein was the undisputed father of cutting edge aluminum bikes. Whereas Dr. Gustav Klein, was Known for homeopathic, and Holistic remedies, along with a chain of branded Pharmacies.  Gary Klein built his first Aluminum Bike in 1977 at MIT, and didn't know Gustav.
Gustav is not the German word for Gary, nor is Gary Klein natively German. The Germans admired his bikes, true -- And they started to collect them well after Gary sold his soul to Intrepid, (AKA The Trek Bicycle Corporation).   Because the Germans amassed collections, and even a museum for Klein Bikes, (I suppose) his name became synonymous with German Bicycle craft. Later somehow the Internet linked the Pharmacist to the Bike Maker, and viola!, Dr, Gustav Klein is in the Bike Biz.   This is of course understandable because Germans trend toward quality craftsmanship, and because Klein is a German advective... But also it's strange because Gary Klein built bikes in the Pacific North West, and  although he had no PHD, he may have been secretly fond of Germany -- Who knows.  Gary and his brand were firmly rooted in the US.  First manufactured in California where his parents owned a Prune Farm, and then Washington, where he worked with seed money and a few College partners to  "Innovate and patent Aluminum Bicycle craft". It is important to mention that Gary Klein sold bikes all over the world and while American Boys were wild about them, they became like Levi's, Marlboro, or Springsteen, in Japan.  He was as hot as Hansel, and his bikes were big in Japan longer than any other market.

​There was never a Dr Gustav Klein in the American Bike Biz, but you can find him in Germany, and even walk into his pharmacy for a (quack) remedy. A bit like Chef Boyardee, who was in fact a real Chef, He didn't necessarily invent SpaghettiOs. Dr. Gustav Klein had nothing to do with Klein Bicycle Magic.  Dr. Gustav, may have been cross pollinated in Japan when young enthusiastic boys and men were searching for authenticity by American appropriation.  This adulation of Americana is so beautifully nostalgic, but slowly being erased  by the Mandela effect of internet laundering.  
I checked with eBay as to why their product search Lists: "Dr. Gustav Klein" on every single search for a Klein Bicycle, and they stated that this was (of course) "the correct attribution".  Regardless of this silly misappropriation, Dr. Gustav wants to sell you one of his classic used bicycles for well over market value, plus fees and shipping, and some homeopathic tablets for your back pain.   
Sadly Japan and Germany's 90's veneration of American culture doesn't really happen today -- Our culture, and in particular our hobbies, like bicycling, could use some authenticity, creative inspiration, and really truly needs some ordinary heroes.  As our former authenticity blends it's colors, darks, and whites into one machine, we as a culture come out  quite bleakly grey.   

...Or Beige, Because, well... American is so very blasé right about now!

​The below Klein BIO. was reprinted directly from Wikipedia, because... no one writes their own dating profile or resume these days, and it's far more genuine to state that I didn't actually forge this book report either.

Gary Gordon Klein  6/9/1952 –
AMERICAN ENGINEER
In 1973, Gary Klein was a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). As an engineer and as a competitive road racer, Klein was interested in developing a bicycle frame that was stronger and more responsive than those currently available. Klein developed a prototypical oversized tube design aluminum frame as a part of an MIT independent study course, a design he took to limited production in 1975.
The Klein frame was revolutionary; Klein may not have been the first person to theorize as to how aluminum could be employed as a material in frame construction, but he was the first to advance the concept of the oversized aluminum frame. Steel had been the material of choice for most cycle manufacturers as it is a stiff material, approximately three times as stiff as aluminum. Conventional wisdom in the early 1970s world of cycling manufacturing was that an aluminum bicycle, while lightweight, would lack the stiffness to perform. Aluminum bicycles were derided as spaghetti bikes, frames that lacked the stability required by a serious athlete. Klein theorized that if the tubes used to construct the frame were of a larger circumference, an aluminum frame would possess an even greater stiffness at a lighter weight than the conventional steel frames. Klein's aluminum frames were approximately 15% lighter than the conventional models. Klein determined that a 1.5 in circumference aluminum tube (3.75 cm) was approximately five times stiffer than a 1-in (2.5 cm).
Klein developed a proprietary welding process to compliment his frame designs, creating smooth, aerodynamic welds at each join in the frame. Klein ultimately patented 18 different designs and processes in relation to his aluminum frames.
The modern Klein designs have maintained a cutting edge status among both mountain biking and road cyclists. The frames manufactured today are a variety of aluminum and carbon fiber composite constructions.
Klein parlayed his frame development into the multi-faceted Klein Bike company, producing mountain bikes and road bicycles for the international market. As modern bicycle development moves further in direction of frames made from carbon fiber composites, it is likely that the Klein oversized aluminum frame will be given its proper recognition as an important historical step in the development of faster, lighter, and more responsive bicycles.