as the title says really…. after opinions on the marin rock springs 2007 ish.

am looking to buy one tomorrow and wanted some opinions here if anyone had experience of them?

its built up with fox float r shock, marzochi bomber forks unsure yet on model and a mix of deore x5 and x7 drivetrain and magura hydraulic disc brakes.

also what is a good price? am looking to haggle for about £250 – £275

any info gratefully received 🙂

I owned a 2006 Wolf Ridge, I think they are basically the same frame wise. Judging by the amount you still see on the trails, they were well built. Compared to the latest bikes the BB is a bit higher and the HA won’t be as slack. If you don’t care about stuff like that then go for it.

Thanks, i want something a bit different from my somewhat fragile trek 15.5″ carbon elite xc bike. something im not afraid to throw off some big drop offs. am thinkinbg for under £300 I cant really go wrong!

I’ve got an Attack Trail from the same year, which is the same frame. As said its got a high BB, but the ability to change the rear suspension from 4-6 inches offers flexibilty for different terrain. For the price you are hoping to pay it sounds a bit of a steal!

I think they’re great! But then I own one that I got 2nd hand a couple of years back for a trip to the Alps. The plan was to sell it afterwards, but I kept it and it’s off on it’s 3rd Alps trip this summer.

Lots of people told me it would kill me as it wasn’t slack enough, only had QR wheels and forks etc. but I’ve managed to ride at the same pace as friends on more expensive and modern bikes and haven’t killed myself yet.

2007 was a transition year in the Marin Quad Tara range as they went from one rear suspension designs to another newer chunkier version. The bikes in the years before had 4-6″ adjustable rear suspension, this was fixed on the Rock Springs in 2007 at 6″ and it’s geometry is slightly slacker due to the use of an Alpine Link in the suspension. Most of the other Quad Tara bikes used the new suspension design so worth checking whether it’s a start of 2007 ‘old shape’ or a end of 2007 ‘new shape’, mines the ‘old shape’

Hope that helps, good luck.

thanks for your info, deffo going to buy it from your info and other reviews ive been reading…

cant wait to go get it tonight…

shame im away for weekend on a spa weekend with missus and cant ride it till next week. only thing im not keen on is the sram x5/7 set up.. had bad experience with sram stuff so going to swap it all out straight away for xt drivetrain, crc can do shifters, mechs, cassette, chain and middle/inner rings all in xt for around £130 so for about £400 ill have pretty good bike to thrash through the winter without ruining my lovely carbon xc bike.

You’ll probably find it very different to ride, mine feels like a really upright riding position compared to my XC bike, and like you’re really sitting into the rear suspension as opposed to on it…if that makes sense!

The SRAM kit on mine has been faultless, although the rear mech needs replacing since it got ripped off in the Alps…let me know if your getting rid of yours! 🙂

Have fun once you get to ride it, and enjoy the spa weekend.

mrbotticelli – will most certainly be changing from sram to shimano. will drop you an email with bits and prices when changed next week if you want any let me know before i put them up here for sale.

what year is yours? I am pretty sure the one im getting is 2007 from looking on bikepedia and the colour of the frame is dark blue which they didnt do any other year.

whats your opinion on the marzochi bombers? unsure yet of model ive always had fox or rockshox so hoping these are going to be ok? mid level perhaps?

cheers

Darren

Mines one of these and has Fox Van R’s as forks so cannot help with thoughts on the bombers.

The Rock Springs was the bottom of the range in previous years with the Wolf Ridge and Attack Trail being the higher spec models, but all built on the same frame. In the US in 2007 the Rock Springs appears not to exist, but the same colour frame is used with a different spec using one of the other names. Don’t remember seeing any with standard spec bombers so possibly a upgrade?

Please let me know what you want for the rear mech as whilst the existing one has been fixed with a vice and hammer a replacement and/or spare is probably a good idea.

didnt buy it, was a bit rough! forks would not adjust and rebound was so slow it pointed to internal issues, wheels were soooooo old and brakes were awful and plastic levers.

the search continues……

what did you seriously expect, with a 7 y/o MTB for less than £300?

Shame, good luck with the search.