Looking nearly ready to go! Watching all of these builds with a bit of envy – my bike is with the guy who will be painting it but could be up to 6-8 weeks 😢

Watching his Instagram daily to check for progress photos…..

Very pleased indeed with how mine has turned out. Only had a quick shakedown ride on it so far and now looking forward to lockdowns being over so I can take it out properly.

https://www.pinkbike.com/photo/19936712/

First ride on mine tonight. Haven’t got a chance of posting a photo sorry!
It rode pretty nice, chainstays are very short so it felt like the front end wandered on climbs (well I put it down the the chainstays but it could be something else!)
Going to drop the bars down a couple spacers and shift the saddle forward a touch. Ride was absolutely ruined by some old brake pads I used that must be contaminated as they literally did nothing pulling the levers!
I noticed the lack of suspension on flatter sections but as soon as it got steeper it just rode better, rode a trail with a drop or two. Sort of rode it like my enduro bike and only noticed on the landing, need to be smoother!
Over all pretty pleased, couple small set up issues and it should be sound!

@joebristol I’ve just seen your frame on the MarinoUK Instagram page. Looking spangly!

@pimpingimp- yes just seen the blue going on today – hopefully as the layers go on it ends up quite a deep blue with the sparkles through it from 3 layers of metalflake Josh applied yesterday! It’s a royal blue candy so as I understand it that’s a translucent paint that gets layered up bit by bit.

It’s having Marino in subtle black writing on the downtube that is being painted on in the end – won’t show up too bold against the blue.

Shame I’ve stuck the Pike Ultimate on my Bird Aether just to see how the pike compares via the Lyrik. If the frame is suddenly finished it might have to wear a red Lyrik for a bit which might be a bit bold!

Red Lyriks make you 25% faster so I think it’s worth putting them on the hardtail.

Haha – unfortunately I’ve remembered the Lyriks are non boost and the pikes are boost so the new front wheel for the pike build won’t fit in the lyriks…..

If you’ve got Instagram there’s a ‘story’ visible for the frame in its current state. Primer / base / metalflake and candy laid down so far. Now needs lacquer and polish 😝

https://instagram.com/stories/bristol_bicycle_restorations/2491562629240455455?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igshid=9j7uxgpquet4

That is a lovely colour!

That first scratch is going to be heartbreaking! Looks ace!

Story is no longer there, or am I missing something?

Story is no longer there, or am I missing something?

IG Stories vanish after 24hrs.

The stories vanish and it’s impossible to record them / save them as far as I can see. I took a few screen grabs but they’re not the best. Apparently it’s going to need a lot of lacquer to get a smooth finish as the metalflake is pretty chunky – looking forward to seeing it when done:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKZdpcTh4MS/?igshid=1scdyjvtq63jg

Starting to get near to final look I think. Needs more coats of lacquer and the Marino writing on the downtube – but looking like it’s going to be super sparkly 😎

Nice. How much for the paint?

Just under £300 for paint as it had a base coat, large metal flake, candy blue, lacquer. Plus it’s having painted ‘Marino’ on the downtube rather than vinyl decals.

Frame done – just needs a final polish before I 3M tape it and build it up this weekend. I don’t think it could be much more bling if I tried (other than spectraflare maybe). Quite excited now – only 7.5 months in the making!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLKPzdGhXtP/?igshid=gdf7qvyy9rfu

That’s a very nice paint job!

That’s looking very nice Joe.
I have just ordered a Marino frame off the back of this thread. Ordered it raw, a mate will paint it, not up to the standard of yours but better than powder. I’m going for a fade with metal flake. He builds custom cars, usually rat rods, but he is confidant he can pull it off… Hopefully.!
It’s a belated 50th Birthday present to myself that never happened. I’d never considered a custom built frame at that time and all off the shelf frames didn’t really suit my body proportions. Anyway I’m dead excited. If it’s half as good I’ll be happy.
Don’t really have the funds at the moment to kit it out as I’d like so it’ll be parts bin build initially, I’ll upgrade as and when.

When did you order @asbrooks ?? I love mine but there are a couple bits I might change if I did it again. I held back and kept it sort of conservative in a lot of ways. I kept it different to my enduro bike. More trail bike short travel kind of deal. I think I would go full long travel hard tail next time!
Tempted to ask about current wait times..

@marksnook – I ordered it a little over a week ago. Had I got in a couple of days earlier it would be in the next shipment, which would been this week. I dithered a bit, but I’m not too bothered. From what Luke seemed to suggest that the delivery times are almost back to normal.
Geometry is also conservative as it’s based on the Medium BFe 275 with a longer reach and a 130 fork with a few other tweaks here and there. Settling on the 130 fork will allow me run either a 120 or 140 fork without affecting the geometry too much.. Hopefully.

I sincerely hope for your sake that Marino have changed their policy of just lying to folk but next week will be 10 months since I put my deposit down and a full year since initial enquiry.

Its always, two weeks and next shipment.

I haven’t even had a photo of the completed frame but I did get one with it in the jig so I might get it one year after I put the deposit down but then I might not.

Its a strange mix of angry and excited.

@boxwithawindow Yeah I’m away of the risks, it seems to be a lottery as to who and when gets their frame. Maybe I’m being too optimistic or naïve that Marino have sorted out their issues. Only time will tell I guess

On a positive note, at least there is some news about your frame…

Settling on the 130 fork will allow me run either a 120 or 140 fork without affecting the geometry too much.. Hopefully.

That’s what I did with mine and I’m going to adjust the forks from 130mm to 150mm when I CBA to clean them to slacken the seat angle and shorten the reach a smidge. It’s based on the mk1 Switchback crossed with a mk1 BFe 275 pretty much and it’s there or thereabouts- it’s a nice thing when it’s not covered in mudguards and racks 🤣

@asbrooks – I hope you frame comes quicker than mine did – or the chap above who still hasn’t got his.

I think things are better in terms of resource after the initial wave of Covid in Peru – lots of issues for Marino – struggling to get welding gas / moving ‘factory’ / sheer volume of people ordering frames. But a few weeks sounds extremely quick / optimistic given the logistics involved.

Sounds like you’ll get a decent paint job and good that you have a mate that can do it. Mine’s pretty good but it’s not perfect once you look up close in a few areas. I think because the lacquer had to be so thick to smooth over the chunky metalflake there have been a few small runs in complicated bits of the frame. I’m not too bothered – I just want to get it built and go out and see how the geometry I specced works out.

The frame is pretty heavy despite speccing 725 (tapered headtube / post mount brake / iscg tabs etc) but should build up around 28lbs minus pedals I believe.

I stuck on the fidlock bracket last night and I think my bottle cage mounts might be a tiny bit wonky…..need to stick the bottle on to verify that’s the case and it’s not just the Marino writing that’s slightly wonky!

Spent a while cutting and fitting 3M tape (a bit badly – quite a few bubbles – but it’ll protect the paint which is the main thing) and partially built it.

Still need to connect the gears / either shorten the chain or tweak the b screw / internally route the rear brake and shorten the hose / go through and check the torque on everything / change the rear rotor for one big enough for the pm standard on the frame etc. Hope to have it ready to ride this weekend.

Lovely paint Joe.

Most acceptable. 😁

@joebristol
Does the dropper post cable come out of the seat tube or the down tube?
could you possibly post a pic?

@stevie750

Afraid I don’t have any photos and it’d be a full dismantle job to show it.

If you’ve gone internally routed dropper it goes down the downtube in a small diameter stainless steel internal pipe. On mine this squeezes in between the bb shell and where the seat and down tubes join and just deposits the dropper outer cable in the bottom of the seat tube. The angle it does this is ridiculous though – straight at the side wall of the seat tube.

I greased the inside of the seat tube / dropper cable outer and then as I pushed it down from the top of the downtube I also pushed a large Allen key upwards to get the end of the cable outer going up. It was as awkward as that sounds!

Just to update this thread I’m really happy with the Marino still. Perhaps I could have gone another 5-10mm longer reach if I’d wanted to make it a bit more hardcore but it’s fun for what I want like it is.

The erase components front hub has turned out to be utter pap. Eats bearing like no hub I’ve ever had before. Not sure if it’s just a poor sealing end cap to blame or just the difficulty in getting exactly the right amount of preload on the endcap (you set this once clamped in the fork).

I’ve retired that front wheel for summer duty only and now an XM481 / Hope front hub combo that became spare from my fs (I went 29er on that) is now my mud plugging front wheel on the Marino.

Thanks, Joe
Just looking at the custom option just now.

Here’s mine sporting it’s new finish of mud and rust.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2mWh7r5]Scottish Dust.[/url] by multispeedstu, on Flickr

Here’s mine – complete with offensive mudguard….

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYJkXvbMs8n/?utm_medium=copy_link

@stevie750 I don’t want to be a party pooper but, on the back of this thread I ordered a custom Marino last February. After sending many emails and only getting the occasional response, as far as I know, I’m still no closer to getting mine. So be prepared for the wait.!

Started my order last January. UK guy had some stuff to work through and so it stalled until I nudged the guys in Peru in April I think? Got the frame in December. Pretty much what I expected, so fine by me.

@sillyoldman – you’re not wrong about that mudguard – it’s gopping!

Hahaha! I know…. Not easy to find a decent guard that fits a long rigid fork. Suggestions are most welcome!

Mudhugger FRX with the extension for a tidyish looking but full coverage mudguard. Some things are worth the fashion faux-pas 🙂

@DanW Cheers – I’ll check them out. Think it’s the bolt on RRP one I have on 36s on another bike – it’s been good. Zip tie version of either would probably work OK with a couple of additional zip ties on the fork legs eh?

@sillyoldman you were lucky there then. I’m quite jealous. After the last exchange of emails, I’m hoping that it’ll go into production quite soon.