Marin Mount Vision Carbon XM Pro

The Mount Vison has been a staple of the Marin range since what feels like the dawn of time itself, and as a brand Marin are having a bit of a resurgence in the UK. The Mount Vision XM Pro ticks all the boxes expected of a modern trail bike with 140mm of plush travel front and rear, 27.5 inch wheels and an excellent balance between the ability to pedal it uphill and then hammer it back down again.The Mount Vison has been passed around the office and grinder team like someones unlimited lift pass that they forgot to add a photo to. It’s been taken out on big days on big mountains, wet trail centre smashfests, and local after work rides where the only focus was to ride down as many things we could before the sun hid away, the pub stopped serving, or our Reverb inevitably stopped working. Which it did, but thats what happens when everyone rags a bike that was just fun to ride.

This spec of the Mount Vision is as bling as they come; XX1 drivetrain matched with XX1 brakes and carbon cranks do the going and stopping. With a real feeling of love for the XX1 drivetrain in the office it’s something that once you stay on top of chain wear, and get an appropriate front chainring for your capacity, will keep you going for a long time while simplifying the whole riding experience. Should you want to you can run a front derauiler on the high direct mount, but really, you don’t need to, the whole things just works better with a 1×11 setup.

Up front we have a FOX Factory CTD fork with FIT dampener and out rear a Float X CTD both with the stiction reducing Kashima coating for that super slick suspension performance we expect from a bike of this price. The suspension system is what Marin call Iso Track and is in fact not a four bar as it looks as there is no pivot at the rear dropouts. As many other companies (like Yeti) have tried to do, the movement necessary for the suspension system to work, comes from flex in the chainstay and seatstay. This drops a bit of weight, moves a pivot you’ll inevitably have to service and, if you’re worried about the durability, the frame has a five year warranty, so do your worst.

Oddly, this upward flex in the chain stays – let’s all say it together folks: is “vertically compliant and laterally stiff” – interestingly enough though, it actually is. There’s not a huge amount of flex in the back end during riding that I wouldn’t expect from tyre squirm and flex within the wheels themselves. if anything there is less than expected, which is probably due to the wheel set that came with the bike. Wheels are a carbon rim affair made by Formula and rebranded for Marin. Stiff, fast engagement, tubeless out of the box. All the boxes I want ticked from day one.

Climbing it’s fine, as long as you don’t get off the saddle and start to honk along, at which point the bike will squat down and wallow as you try to get it to climb. Stay seated; no issues, it’ll get up more than you probably can on lesser machines. So more of a sit and spin, than a stand and grind. Point it downhill and with the front and rear ends open the bike will eat more than its 140mm of travel belies, until you try to really get on the brakes when the flex in the 32mm stanchioned FOX is noticeable, and combined with some suspension jack off the rear end gave me one or two nearly OTB moments until I adapted how I was riding.

The frame itself has internal cable and hose routing for the rear brake. Personally, I see this as a down side. I dislike having to bleed brakes if I need to change them. I hate trying to route cables internally, after I’ve inevitably pulled out the old cable housing. But happily, you can run them externally if you like, underneath the natty little rubberised down tube protector and under the top tube with removable guides. Also, Marin are offering a lifetime warranty on their “Enduro Max Black Oxide” bearings – best name ever – which is great news for UK riders where bearings are normally considered to have a quantum existence somewhere between new and dead.

Locally the bike was great, once you realised that it needed a seated climbing style, not my normal XC “attack all the things” climbing style. A weekend of riding in the Lakes on bigger badder descents brought the bike into its own where it relished the tech-rock strewn descents.

Honestly, I don’t think the Marin is much of a looker [I actually think it’s pretty nice looking – Ed] and being the stand-up-and-hoon type I really didn’t look forward to pedalling it up things. But when I pointed it in the right direction on a trail that really let it show off what it was capable of I was very happy with it; it’s a bike that I’d really enjoy ragging day after day.

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Barney Marsh

Barney Marsh takes the word ‘career’ literally, veering wildly across the road of his life, as thoroughly in control as a goldfish on the dashboard of a motorhome. He’s been, with varying degrees of success, a scientist, teacher, shop assistant, binman and, for one memorable day, a hospital laundry worker. These days, he’s a dad, husband, guitarist, and writer, also with varying degrees of success. He sometimes takes photographs. Some of them are acceptable. Occasionally he rides bikes to cast the rest of his life into sharp relief. Or just to ride through puddles. Sometimes he writes about them. Bikes, not puddles. He is a writer of rongs, a stealer of souls and a polisher of turds. He isn’t nearly as clever or as funny as he thinks he is.

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