Gary Klein, born (1952-06-09) June 9, 1952 (age 72), attended the University of California at Davis before transferring to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

[1][2] During the Independent Activities Period in 1973, a group of students including Klein worked together under Professor Buckley to produce an aluminum framed bicycle.

[1][2] The prototypes, with larger diameter tubes and thinner walls than those produced in 1973, were displayed at the International cycle show in New York in February 1975.

[3] The next year, he relocated to some disused buildings on his parents' farm in San Martin, California, that had previously been used for dehydrating prunes.

[3][4] In 1977, he patented use of large diameter aluminum alloy tubes to increase stiffness,[5] and in 1980, he moved from San Jose, California, to Chehalis, Washington.

[6][9][10] At its peak, around 250 people worked at the Chehalis plant, but operations gradually moved to the main Trek factory in Wisconsin.

[9][13] Some off-road models featured two designs of one-piece welded stem-bar combination, marketed as "Mission Control" (MC), that eliminated clamping bolts and excess material.

[1][4][note 2] Aluminium alloys have a Young's modulus around a third that of steel, but with thicker tubes he was able to make a bicycle that weighed around 15% less than a conventional model.

[2][14] Highly manipulated chainstays on mountain bikes allowed a tighter rear triangle to accommodate large off-road tyres, and facilitated efficient transfer of power.