Trek Marlin 29er Single Speed

Review to follow.

Its doubtful that you’ll find a better bike for £300 new anywhere.

This bike requires only one change from stock to punch way above its weight.

This bike requires only one change from stock to punch way above its weight.

Smaller wheels? 😉

Frame?

Continental x-king protection tyres in 2.4 front/rear would turn this bike into an excellent mile munching and trail weapon. 760 bars with a shorter stem would be the icing on the cake. It really begs to be slammed over in the turns.

It does require lots of fiddling with at setup however. Even the garbage brakes once tweaked perform extremely well and predictably considering their poor rep. They just need fine tuning and breakin’ in. More to follow.

The forks, they weigh more than the moon, and they’re shit as well…

The frame is as one would expect. Perfectly tigged in Taiwan. The dropouts are pure class. You just have to get used to them. Once set chain tension remains under tension just fine.

Thats obvious. The forks are garbage and should be replaced by salsa cromotos.

Have you got to the plastic headset yet?..

Got one of these a few years ago. Forks lasted two rides, cranks are crap, wheels lasted OK. Apart from that, it was a dirt cheap intro into ss and 29ers. Only the frame survives and Its a good’n 🙂

Ok. So one change might have been understating it a little. I’d get shut of everything apart from the lively frame.

As it stands though the sum is much greater than the parts. It just plain works as long as you keep the fork locked out.

Forks definitely need to go, as they weigh a ton and have a horrible top-out clunk.
Brakes are serviceable, so probably worth using until the pads wear out 😉

A friend bought his at the same time as I bought my geared version. I bought mine because I’d tested the top of the range,’Paragon’ which uses the same frame. Really liked the Paragon, but couldn’t get on with SRAM shifters, so bought the bottom of the range model and changed the bits I didn’t like.

We both fitted Manitou Tower Pro forks – which have an offset almost the same as the stock G2 items, but are significantly lighter.
The Tektro cable brakes were replaced by some bargain priced Shimano hydro units, and I fitted a complete SLX drivetrain that was irresistibly priced on a German website

The result is that we both have comfy mile munchers that we’re very pleased with.

Another friend borrowed to single speed to attend the recent SSUK2013 event and absolutely loved it.

Now I think about it, I know somebody else with the SS who has Manitou forks fitted.

If you can locate one, it really is a good starting point to a great SS build.

😀 the frame is indeed lovely, this is my Wahoo.. I found out they are all the same frames up to the Xcaliber which I used to own and missed a lot, this rides lovely..

The only things left on from new are the bottle cage bolts,..

Before dropping some serious cash on my first 29er I pulled the trigger on this bike. Thought it would be shit but I was pleasantly surprised.

The wheels needed laterally truing.

The forks should really be locked out at all times owing to the clanking effect.

The mechanical disc brakes are really bad at first but when the pads are worn in and the levers are adjusted fully inwards they will have great stopping power. No in the same league as XT’s but if you pull hard enough they will do the job in all but the most difficult of downhill sections.

The hubs seem great for a budget basher and as you’d expect once greased properly the cup n cones spin like mad.

The cranks are budget. Not hollowtech stiff but still perfectly acceptable. To get more power down you’ll definitely need larger flat pedals.

Stem, bar and grips are very basic. a 760 or dare I say it 800 bar with shorter stem would really sort the front end out. I’ll be ditching the fork for a rigid and will slowly change the whole bike.

The frame alone is worth £300. Once you convert to single speed the only option you have left is going dingle. Gears are for girls. lol.

Oh yeah. The freewheel is very very bad. Poor tolerances. Noisy. I’m not expecting it to last more than 500km.

When it goes a new wheelbuild is in order. Phil KISS hub on crests with double dingle. Can wait so I’m off now to put a few miles on her so it knackers up quicker.

Rotors also cook hot.

I have a Trek Cobia. The only things left “stock” on it are the wheels and seatpost. Managed to get some Reba forks off an X-Caliber, the model up, so mantained the G2 geometry.

Come the winter, I’m thinking rigid fork, singlespeed, maybe even Avid BB7 brakes for low maintenance

I’ve found the paint on mine (2011 model) is rubbish. The matt finish doesn’t take much to look quite scruffy in places. This is the only real down side I’ve found to it

Awww, poor Khani 😥

GF x-cal, fooking orsums….and MINE! 8)

Fenred..you’re so mean 😥

Gears are for girls. lol.

give us a kiss.. 😉 big boy, I swing both ways…

Fork to be replaced when money permits but @ < £300 it’s a blinking great bike

Rear logo/valve issue now fixed btw 😉

Who’s selling them for £300?

Not sure about new but 2nd hand mine was in the classifieds on here but often see them on Ebay.

http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/ selling at £300 a pop.

It is what it is. Mile munch the crap out of it then upgrade if you like rolling on wagons.