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…..

Posted 1 month ago

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/

Posted 1 month ago

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!

Posted 1 month ago

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

Posted 1 month ago

@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!

Posted 1 month ago

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

Posted 1 month ago

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…..

Posted 1 month ago

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

Posted 1 month ago

That is a lovely colour!

Posted 1 month ago

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

Posted 1 month ago

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

Posted 1 month ago

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

IG Stories vanish after 24hrs.

Posted 1 month ago

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:

Posted 1 month ago

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 😎

Posted 1 month ago

Nice. How much for the paint?

Posted 1 month ago

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.

Posted 1 month ago

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

Posted 2 weeks ago

That’s a very nice paint job!

Posted 2 weeks ago

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.

Posted 2 weeks ago

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..

Posted 2 weeks ago

@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.

Posted 2 weeks ago

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.

Posted 2 weeks ago

@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…

Posted 1 week ago

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 🤣

Posted 1 week ago

@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!

Posted 1 week ago

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.

Posted 1 week ago

Lovely paint Joe.

Most acceptable. 😁

Posted 1 week ago