 Gary Klein , born ( 1952 @-@ 06 @-@ 09 ) June 9 , 1952 , attended the University of California at Davis before transferring to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT ) . During the Independent Activities Period in 1973 , a group of students including Klein worked together under Professor Buckley to produce an aluminum framed bicycle . After analysing a number of contemporary steel frames , and examining ones that had broken in use , they were able to determine the stresses placed on a bicycle frame . Faced with limited available types of aluminum alloy tubing , the students chose to construct frames from 6061 aluminium alloy seamless drawn tube ; alternatives such as the stronger <unk> aluminum alloy were discarded because of the tubing dimensions . 
