Oversize alloy

Most alloy frames were 'oversize' compared to the steel or even ti equivalents.

I've owned a Klein, a real boneshaker that sadly I didn't enjoy, though the gator fade paint job was a joy to behold. I've always fancied a Cannondale with a p-bone suspension fork. The one I hanker for has a white to blue fade, saw one at center parcs and it reminded me of the first proper mountain bike I had, a Raleigh Cajun with a lovely white, turquoise to dark blue fade paint job.

One day...
 
Ishaw my experience too. I was young in my off road riding in the 90s and everyone hailed Kleins as the pinnacle of design and performance. Foregoing a Cinelli Columbus frame, I went for a Klein build. Now, I know that was a huge error, and the Cinelli steel would almost certainly have been a far superior ride. But…fashion…and whilst on any sort of fireroad the Klein was lightning fast, it was a brutal ride everywhere else.
 
Aluminium worked better for the larger rider. The material gets stronger when manipulated and heat treated into certain shapes and wall thickness

Cannondale and klein were those that took the time and effort to explore the material's properties over the majorly of companies that used it because it was cheap

They were some of the first to commercialy move away from bonded and lugged frames which tended to fail around the joins rather than the tubing itself

Many a cannondale only failed through over zealous paint removal because the walls were so thin!

Steel needed skill to manipulate and became expensive to produce over aluminium so the look of those fat tubes made for good marketing, it looked tough and sat nicely with the idea of mountain bike plus some funky looking aero Road and TT

Then carbon took over with arguably even bigger tubes and not being restricted by a crystalline construction, weird engineering shapes could be made that laughed at those inefficient lardy alu frames, even the funky hydroformed stuff

Aluminium hasn't gone away though

Just remember, aluminium frames became cheap to produce so by the mid 1990s just about everyone had a big fat tubed frame somewhere in their range
 
I can't remember the name but I think it was a British maker. It was bright yellow with black lettering. With a very very over size down tube.
 
Heavy by whose definition? I have an estay frame from the same manufacturer that can be a sub 21lb build easy

Those Boss bikes hit the nail on the head with their fat tubes, exactly what was the antithesis to the skinny steel of the day

Once every other brand bought their fat tubes out, they all started to look the same

One stand out for me was the GT Pantera for the 1992 year, a fat down tube that made my dull and hefty 531 Magnum frame Claud Butler look like spaghetti
 
Ishaw my experience too. I was young in my off road riding in the 90s and everyone hailed Kleins as the pinnacle of design and performance. Foregoing a Cinelli Columbus frame, I went for a Klein build. Now, I know that was a huge error, and the Cinelli steel would almost certainly have been a far superior ride. But…fashion…and whilst on any sort of fireroad the Klein was lightning fast, it was a brutal ride everywhere else.
No way, Kleins were far superior to Cinellis. For sure less comfortable, but a rocket on climbs and very precise on DHs. The, I dunno what Cinelli you are talking about, but earlier Columbus Max tubed frames were very stiff. Finally, it also depends on the Klein. Attitudes were way better than Pinnacles.
 

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