Merlin Malt

Can anyone offer any views on the Marin Malt frames – Are they best suited to fast XC riding or more aggressive trail riding?

Fairly generic Tiawan made MTB frames. That’s not to the slate them, they always seem to get good reviews and I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who’s had one who was disappointed with it.

Buy with confidence for cheapo laughs I’d have said.

Are you looking to buy one?

I’ve got an early one, love it to bits (though the mech hanger was naff, im sure its different now!). Very rigid feel, XC oriented I think, unless they tweaked the geometry a lot since mine.

I’ve still got my frame (which I would love to sell cheap as it is cluttering my garage!) Its a nice bog standard aluminium frame. You could run 130mm forks on it if you wanted.
I only used it a few times before getting a deal on something else, so its in good nick.
(if interested email me for details, as this ain’t the classifieds)

DezB – I’m on the lookout for a winter/training bike for mostly XC riding I spotted a good review of the Malt 1 Deore in WMTB and had a butchers but was quickly drawn to the prettier Malt 4 frames!

Mine’s a Malt 1 ltd.
but if you’re gonna be a tart … 😉

Thanks for the offer DezB but if I do buy I’ll be buying complete. cheers

No worries. The frames are fine anyway. The Malt 1 (M) weighs 4lbs. The finish is good too.

The Malt 4 is a really nice looking frame if you’re into the hydroforming stuff. Kinesis Kinesium, with a quality gloss white finish. I had a good look at one when I was buying, but went for the RL 853 instead. Merlin’s geometry is probably more suited to XC but it’s not a super racey geometry.

They do get good reviews – lots of nice pics of the Malt 4 on flickr.

I think the biggest thing is that across the malt range you can get a hell of a lot of kit for the money.

I can’t decide on what bike to get, so one option is to just get a Malt with all the good kit for a great price. If I don’t get on with it I can always swap out the frame, and it would probably still be cheaper than building it up from scratch 🙂