What happened to Marin?

ScottChegg – Member

I went to buy my first ‘proper’ MTB I wanted a Marin Eldridge Grade and nothing would turn my head.

Except for the Orange Clockwork I bought instead. I’ve never looked back.

I bought a Clockwork with the insurance money after my Marin was nicked.

The Marin was better. 🙂

I have a beard and a Mondeo, but no ronhills, and I’m really shocked at how many people seem to base their bike purchases, predominantly or significantly, on how “cool” it looks, or how “hot” the brand is.

Don’t they all look the same five minutes into a ride when they’re covered in mud?

I had a 1994 San Rafael cromo-framed hybrid that saw several years sterling service as a commuting workhorse with the occasional bit of touring.

Put chunky tyres on it and had my first ever go at MTB-ing on it with a couple of excursions into the Surrey hills, when I was living in Sarf London.

Lovely bike to ride, if a bit of a tank.

Sold it a couple of years back cos I wanted a 29er and there’s only so much room in the shed.

One of my regular riding buddies still rides a pearlescent B17 with yellow forks. Hideous!

I have a beard and a Mondeo, but no ronhills, and I’m really shocked at how many people seem to base their bike purchases, predominantly or significantly, on how “cool” it looks, or how “hot” the brand is.

Don’t they all look the same five minutes into a ride when they’re covered in mud?

Sure, but equally if you have two broadly similar bikes at a similar price why not get the ‘cooler’ one? What are you losing out on by getting the one you like more? And whether ‘cooler’ really means anything in practice is neither here nor there.

I took my ’09 Wolf Ridge in to the local Marin dealer for its (free) bearing replacemnt only to find they’d stopped stocking Marins (still did the bearings though).

Apparently the owner also has some kind of real-estate business which isn’t doing too well and has taken up their time and money so they’ve stopped all investment in the Marin brand. Shop said the latest bikes just can’t compete with rivals on a spec/price basis.

Not sure it had much to do with an uncool beard related brand-image (which i’m pretty sure only exists with the older members on here).

I had a 96 Rocky Ridge and it was ace then. My friends had rift zones and mount visions and they are even better!

My ’97 Quake, which is currently residing in my garage gathering dust after having been rebuilt a couple of years ago then only ridden 3 times.

I found this Alpine Trail in a skip at the council recycling yard. I fitted the Hope brakes and old XT drive chain and spent a week cleaning it up. Sold it after a year for £400 to help pay for this.

A few weeks ago my nephew asked me if I could have any bike in the world, what would I get. I told him I’d already got it. True bike love.

Love my 2010 attack trail, yes its heavy and a bit silly but I’ve always loved the quad II linkage and its been an awesome bike since i got it, the new ones are a bit dull to be honest

Stravomuller, I used to have a squeaky dinosaur for a bell. Then one day I noticed the groove the zip tie had worn in my bars.

i had a marin 2009 wolfridge and a meta 55 the meta was fine around surrey hills. when my son and I went to afan the marin mashed everything brilliantly at speed and was confidence inspiring. The meta on the otherhand felt out of its depth and the frame cracked. the marins dont always look pretty but they are built well and are fantastic fun- especially with pike shocks- much under rated.

“latest 2013 quad 3 designs are a rocker-link design somewhat similar to the Old Trek design aren’t they?”

No
Quad link 3’s are quad links, just in a different position to quad link 1’s or 2’s:

“with pike shocks”
pike forks?

Ah, a little linkage behind the BB then?
I wonder how they ride compared to the QUAD II design? They just look dull and generic now which is a pity, with the Whyte design it stood out and you knew what it was. They used to have a great reputation for hanging quality kit on the frames at a good price point.

My 2009 Wolf Ridge is simply a joy to ride, its the one i always want to take out even though it wouldn’t be suitable for the trip!

Muke, I thought the formula was half the value new and then minus 10 percent per year

I always loved the look of the ‘Indian Fire Trail’ and used to drool down the window of Watson and Cairns in Leeds as a yoof. My first MTB was a rigid M-trax Raleigh and I so nearly replaced it with a ’99 Mount Vision after getting some compo from an RTA , in the end I plumped for an XTR/crossmax equiped carbon GT I-drive that a shop was selling for half price. I figured the extra £300 on the GT was a better deal than Marin + it pedalled better over bumpy stuff. The new stuff doesn’t really catch my eye even if I could afford one.

I’d still be using my 98 East Peak if it had disc mounts.

@ mtbtomo you could well be right, I can’t find the 2nd hand price thread I saw the other day to check. I will watch Ebay for a while to get some idea of going prices before deciding what to do.

Here’s my Marin Quake 7.1… gorgeous but weighty at 20Kg, but an amazing AM rig with 7″ suspension travel. One you get used to pedalling it its a formidable bit of kit*

*the advantage is that once you can pedal 20kg uphill with relative ease then you get on anything else and take off like a greased whippet without breaking sweat!

I used to own a Team Marin at one time, used to be owned by Dafydd Roberts who rode for the UK XC Marin Team.

Also had a palisades trail one of the first proper mass market MTB’s in the UK. They made some great bikes but did seem to get lost a bit and turned into the ford mondeo of the Mountain bike world.

Would still like to own a Team Titanium !!!