BikeRadar story, but forum is better here...
Gotta suck. Looks like the CEN testing might have made the frame more heavy.
http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/marin-scrap-new-alchemist-platform-23013
'First ride' review:
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/mountain/product/alchemist-49-09-34918
kind of makes you wonder how many current bikes would have "durability " issues under new regs ?
anyone going to copy and paste it, BR is blocked at work.
I think CEN testing my be the final straw in convinceing me to build a jig and learn to braze. I used to have a 10 yr old Sunn XC race frame in steel, 3lb!!!!!! You just couldnt get away with building something so nice now 
Shame, it was a real looker.
CEN testing my arse
they simply ran out of Ugly, Marin rely on Ugly and it's alloys for R&D, no Ugly = no bike.
Real reason - ugliest bike ever, funnily enough it probably didn't sell.
Apparently they're recalling them from people who were dumb enough to buy one already. Something to do with linkage plates and they're offering full refunds or a new different bike.
Fishy indeed!
Ouch, that's a real own goal. Overweight, two years late, then junk. some-one's gonna get fired...
FFS.It's picture like this that give mtb magazines, journos and photographers a bad name. DICKS! 
fido recoiled as he realised his owner had thrown the ugly stick not for him to fetch, but at his bike.
That is one butt ugly pretzel bike
I think CEN might be the reason it's heavy, but I am not sure about the actual failure mode. The first ride thing says they drilled holes in the down tube(!)
Ugly and a deathtrap.
Good going.
It does strike me that the one size fits all CEN test seems a bit daft, given the vast differences in load subjected to a bike with a skinny xc rider on an xc course and a STW biffer at a trail centre.
Bring back weight limited frames.
almost makes my maverick look good...................
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.
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.but not quite
Cynical_al, what's wrong with the picture? It's a bloke riding a bike..?
Bring back weight limited frames.
nope, bring back risk. It's slowly but surely being replaced by dull.
6.74lbs for a 100mm frame? That's hilarious! And they've specced it with a SID, so it's not even like they can really say it's a more 'aggressive XC' bike or whatever they're calling it these days.
Sounds like they're sensible for ditching it!
Cynical_al, what's wrong with the picture? It's a bloke riding a bike..?
I think it's the over the top unnatural "rarrrrrr" pose!
I give CEN 18months/2years before someone proves you can build a frame that passes CEN but fails catastrophicaly at the first hint of a trail, thus proving its pointless, or manufacturers start building frames and selling them through some loophole (F1 cars dont need an MOT, would a race bike need a CEN cert' ?)
Apparently they're recalling them from people who were dumb enough to buy one already
That's just spin - such a person doesn't exist
Cynical_al, what's wrong with the picture? It's a bloke riding a bike..?
Yeah, and the trees are almost vertical for once.
WMB have printed far, far worse in the past.
spoon its already been done bikes dont need to be 6 odd pounds to pass cen either ...however price is what sells and i wouldnt expect the queue to be very long for steel frames over 600 quid
if a bike is designed for racing it doesn't have to comply with cen either
big loophole first page of document
Yeah, but you know that even on a canal towpath he rides with his bum over the rear tyre, a handlebar deathgrip, and gurns like he's squeezing a breezeblock out on Boxing Day morning.
That's just spin - such a person doesn't exist
I'm not saying it's true but just posting the source... I'm mates with a local marin dealer, I'll see what he says also...
I'm not saying it's true but just posting the source... I'm mates with a local marin dealer, I'll see what he says also...
I was joking Gary 
chakaping - MemberCynical_al, what's wrong with the picture? It's a bloke riding a bike..?
Yeah, and the trees are almost vertical for once.
WMB have printed far, far worse in the past.
What!!!! your saying they turn the pictures in magazines to make it look steeper 
I have spent ages on google earth looking for that wood where all the trees grow at 45 degrees
Is that bloke the one that spoils the bike? Is he the "test engine" of the WMB team? Do Marin bikes that don't bounce like a pogo stick on climbs?
The tilting of the picture is annoying, even though it's the other way round to normal.
The pose of the rider makes me want to spend a few months digging a hidden tar-pit for him to ride into and a second one between it and the photographer so when the phtotgrapher runs to help he falls into the second one.
The two pits would be close enough together so it can all be filmed.
Can't you guys just take decent pictures rather than this tosh? And as for the writing, don't even start me
So why do manufacturers build heavy frames to pass the CEN tests? Even a big hardtail could be "for raceing only (at enduro type events if you don't mind finsishing towards the back)"
Boy am I glan I'm out the bike trade (and esp the bike design side of things!)
The CEN testing is a great example of a simple premis (test different types of bikes differently depending on their intended end use) being taken and transformed into a cobbled monstrosity that serves no perpose except the committe-whores who made it up and whos pay packets depend on an unweildy document that looks good onthe shelf.
Sorry but the test procedures are a joke and bare no relation to real life use of the bike! Even a first year engineering student (who are all drunk most of the time...I know I was) could pick holes in it.
All it has done is provide another way of driving people to buy "off the shelf" frames from the TBG which all come with a CEN certificate rather than try and design something new which is great for the big players in the TBG... The traditional place for innovation was small companies turning out specialist components (think Marinovate V-brakes, the Action-Tec fork or the A-Headset desinged by Pace!) before they got accepted by the main stream (and ripped off...but thats another story!)
Rant over...
SSP
"The Bicycle Group"?
Can someone explain - do ALL frames have to pass the CEN test, including custom or low volume?
Is it an EC standard or where is it's authority otherwise?
before they got accepted by the main stream (and ripped off...but thats another story!)
Well they could always have patented their ideas?
What amuses me is that Marin seem to be attempting to create a 100mm travel light(ish) weight race/enduro/trail bike.
Er, forgive me if i'm wrong but didn't they already do this?
I have one called a 2004 Mount Vision sat in my kitchen!
I was wondering when the media hype about 'travel' would come full circle and we would suddenly be told that 100mm is the new must have amount of suspension to get the most out of our riding.... 
TBG - Taiwan Bicycle Guide. Big catalogue of far eastern bike stuff you can buy (with or with out your logo on it) pretty much where lots of the "branded" stuff comes from!
Not sure about custom stuff but I know one UK small manufacturer that is building test frames with specific tubes and having them tested and then applying a weight limit for that tube set. Although I guess that sort of thing comes under "For Racing Only" 
AFAIK (and this is going back a few years when this was being thrashed out) custom one-offs are not covered as it was not economical to build two frames only to have one trashed!
SSP
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