News: Custom Built Steel Hardtail From Peru Costs Just £216

The magnificent Machu Picchu is danger of being overshadowed by Peru’s bargain custom frames starting from £216!

http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/custom-steel-marino-frame-peru/

worth a punt? Tempted? maybe

who would have thought steel was cheap

I gave a cheap Australian frame builder a punt a few years ago with a steel FS. Never again. Great communication up to a point and then radio silence for 2 months.

Frame eventually tuns up, nice raw finish and neat welds, but it weighed about 11lbs and after taking it out for a few rides it just felt wrong.

I got the measuring tape out and measured out the geometry. It was way off!
– 15” ST instead of 17.5”
– TT around 21” instead of 23.5”
– HT angle 71′ instead of 68.5′
and it continued.

Fair to say it got stripped and sold. Despite the initial cheap cost, no one was interested in it as no one had ever heard of them, so sold for a substantial loss.

This could of course be the opposite to how the Marino guys work, but just making you aware.

$100 postage to the UK, plus I’m guessing whatever import charges, VAT, parcelforce admin fee etc.

A few years ago alot of polo players got marino to build them frames. Straight tubes werent too bad but some of the bent seattubes to get really short wheelbases…

You could visibly see they stuck out to one side. 😆

I had one. Chicken shit welds and the fork was an inch longer than ordered. an inch? how do you do that?

friend had one and the seat-tube was hilariously squint. We sent Marino a photograph with string attached from headtube to dropout to check straightness. his response? “I don’t have tools to measure that”!!! no string in peru?

They also weigh the earth, straight gauge steel.

There ARE good cheap custom frames out there. Try Mielec from Poland.

Marino are shocking however! Of all the people I know with one I don’t know anyone who got one which is as ordered.

THis has gone well. 😆

Of all the people I know with one I don’t know anyone who got one which is as ordered.

James ordered a trials frame that i think was atleast straight?

I can’t see STW sharing this (10x) on Facebook 😛

ORLY?

Had a couple of Marino frames (one of his older, non cro-mo models that was half this price almost 10 years ago and one cromo) and they were both spot on. You get what you paid for when he first started and I was one of the “fortunate” ones to get a frame turn up with the geometry exactly as requested, though from all reports his QC, materials and welding has all improved since.

I’d have another.

I wa’s tempted till I read this. Now I’m not sure!

I should possibly just save for a bit longer.

I had one but I found it pretty itchy and it smelled terrible by the end of a ride.

Thread reasurrection…..

anyone dipped in for a marino recently?

all seems a bit doomy gloom here from a couple of years back, but https://www.pinkbike.com/u/Red-Rims525/blog/marino-bikes-are-they-any-good.html
may suggest, though weighty they may have improved.

you could probably get that sick bike you were looking for…ahem.

they now spec DB tubes, the option of heat treatment and reynolds 725.

worth it?

or just wait for Brant’s bikes…?

Plenty of owners in the Steel is Real FB group from what I can tell. Few FS on there as well.

I bumped into a Marino rider on the trails recently. She was really pleased with it. Was a proper aggro LLS hardtail.

or just wait for Brant’s bikes…?

You know what you are getting from a brant bike, it comes with a UK warranty and planet x customer service (which has improved since brant went back)

Free UK postage, no taxes, import duty etc and it will probably be cheaper..

He just needs to take our money!

I’ve got a marinio built sick.

Its ace! but its 4kg! For a hardtail!

I suspect I will never break it 🙂

You know what you are getting from a brant bike, it comes with a UK warranty and planet x customer service (which has improved since brant went back)

Free UK postage, no taxes, import duty etc and it will probably be cheaper..

And decals that look like they were designed by a 2 year old. (Appreciate this is not Brant’s department, but pretty much every frame that comes out of OO / PX looks awful. They’d do well to hire someone with an eye for aesthetic).

Its ace! but its 4kg!

Holy **** :O

How does a thread that’s not been active for 2 years get resurrected? I thought they all got closed off after 12 months. I thought you’d have to be a Mod to do that. Is it actually 24 months now?

Its ace! but its 4kg!

Holy **** :O

In its defence there is a lot of steel involved!

https://ep1.pinkbike.org/p5pb17414124/p5pb17414124.jpg

My 92 marin eldridge frame was (i weighed it) 2.26kg. that was considered to be light, but not crazy light.
double butted steel.
Not a stiff frame though.
Alu or ti frames were noticeably lighter.
So I’d expect modern frames to be heavier than that, due to stiffness and strength requirements, but even so, 4kg, wow.

‘Custom built’?
My arse, custom built means It’s built to the order of a customer, not hacked together in some scabby backstreet welders where even I could do a better job, & I can’t weld.
Has anyone on here actually got a custom frame? IE, built to their own specs & sizing?

Not many I’ll wager.

“My arse, custom built means It’s built to the order of a customer, not hacked together in some scabby backstreet welders where even I could do a better job, & I can’t weld.”

I was shown the drawings for the Marino I saw (I started asking questions about the geometry) and it seemed to be a custom build. Welding and finish looked perfectly fine too.

I got one, eventually after an hilarious catalogue of ****-ups. The guy sent me one intended for a chap in Sweden originally, then my one. Then HMRC charged me 14% (non EU bike duty) rather than 4.7% duty for a bicycle frame (i still need to claim the difference back). But, in return I got totally custom geo of my choosing, post weld heat treatment, custom colour (i called it Peruvian racing green). She’s a tad portly but super fun, welds are OK but nothing to shout about, and I got a t shirt and a truck load of spares by way of an apology for his bad admin.

My arse, custom built means It’s built to the order of a customer, not hacked together in some scabby backstreet welders where even I could do a better job, & I can’t weld.

How do you think the sick bikes were built?

From what I’ve seen of customers stuff, it ranges from almost off the peg, to customers telling him what they want and he’ll fill in the gaps, to full custom FS frames. Yes the welding isn’t the finest you’ll see, but it’s good enough for most users.

Standard butted 4130 cromoly ht frame should weigh somewhere between 2.8 & 3 kilos in a medium size, Ragley Blue Pig is 2.95 kilos and that’s built for abuse. You can knock approx 1/2 a kilo off that if you’re buying something exotic like 853. 4 kilos for a frame is batsh*t crazy. I’m assuming that he’s using pig iron?

That Sick bike above looks broken! I’ve got a fairly LLS and slack fs bike and you have to ride it aggressively to get the best out of it and get it to turn in on slow / tight corners. Presumably that Sick is much the same – although I guess it’ll get steeper when the forks sag a bit?

4 kilos for a frame is batsh*t crazy

Is it that crazy?  That looks like quite a large frame and it’s obviously a pretty basic set of tubes but I have an Onza Jackpot that weighs 3.3Kg in a fairly small frame size.  Anyone weighed a Surly or Stooge to see how they compare?

My large Mk1 solaris is 4.9lb, so about 2.3kg

My large Singular Swift and Inbred SS were both ~ 2.5kg.

4kg is more than some xl full suspension frames I’ve had with shock, bb, headset and rear axle.

But steel is real! I’ve never got the steel frame thing

They’re quite lardy then.
Wonder if the 725 would end up a decent weight? Suppose were looking at genesis tarn weights here.

Hmm.