A little bit excited :)

[mrbikerboy73]

Great project @ChrisEyles. Just goes to prove that you don't need to spend the earth to have fun on a mountain bike. I remember my brother had a Marin Indian Fire Trail back in the early 90's. Great bikes from great era...

 

[ChrisEyles]

I had to do a bit of minor surgery on the rear derailleur to finish off the bike... it was a proper bodge (those of a delicate disposition might not want to read on!). The pinch bolt threads had stripped, so I drilled a hole through the derailleur body a little distance away and popped in a bolt with a few washers and a nut on the back. It's a little inelegant but works perfectly well and is probably quite in keeping with the bike and the abuse it's likely to suffer! I also put in a couple of extra links in the chain (the RD was grumbling in the granny sprocket) and a DIY chainstay guard fashioned from an old inner tube.

Took it out the last two evenings, once through the woods and once around the trails by my work and it's even better than before. I guess the new tyres must be a bit quicker rolling and grippier than the old ones (plus I now have access to all my gears!). It's still a pig to haul up hills compared to my rigid, but point it the right way (i.e. downhill) and it's a monster For some reason it's also a lot easier to wheelie/manual than my other MTB, which is great.

Planning on taking it up to Dartmoor tomorrow. There's a nice loop from Princetown down to Burrator reservoir and back that I've done a couple of times on my rigid, but it's a bit too bumpy to get much speed up on the downhills. Looking forward to seeing how I get on with this one. There are plenty of rain bars you can get a fair bit of air off, which should be fun too

 

[fossyant]

Good bodge

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

Nice to see a pair of tyres that do not conform to the norm(with peoples names attached to them )
Let me know how you get on with the Vreddy's

 

[Crackle]

Here's how the bike's looking now with it's new paint job, tyres, and pseudo 1x drivetrain.

View attachment 146927

Still got a bit of work to do before taking it for a spin (setting up brakes, headset/stem/bars, cranks, and gears). Annoyingly I'm in work over the weekend but might get a chance to take a quick look on Monday.... maybe even a quick play around in the woods too if I'm lucky.

One quick question - the tyre on the rear wheel has a bit of a hop to it. The rim is fine but the tyre bead is slightly recessed into the rim at one point giving an effective low spot on the circumference. I've deflated/inflated/remounted a couple of times but always there in the same place... any ideas? Or just ride it and see if it pops out into place?

First time I've ever bought/fitted folding tyres with kevlar rather than wire beads and I'm a convert! Fitting was a doddle, didn't even need tyre levers. Mind you, the last pair I fitted were the notorious Marathon pluses on my commuter.....

Probably the longest bar end grips I've ever seen!

 

[ChrisEyles]

Probably the longest bar end grips I've ever seen!

I've got an identical set on my other MTB. I really like them for climbing out the saddle or for faster tarmac stretches. Was dead chuffed when I found this pair in the spares bucket - think they are from a BSO I had when I was about fifteen or so!

 

[ChrisEyles]

Took the bike out for its first proper long ride out across Dartmoor yesterday. I rode a loop I've done a couple of times before on my rigid, looping from Princetown to Burrator reservoir and back (it's a good'un!).

The star section is the descent down to Burrator, which is seriously bumpy and full of fist to head sized granite chunks - seemed to be exactly what the bike was built to handle. It's always been sort of satisfying to manhandle my rigid bike down to the bottom, but this time I was able to sit down and power through the rough bits, and pulled off some jumps over the drops that I'd never have considered on my other bike. Even though the pedals I've got on at the moment are a bit shite, I didn't get bounced off them twenty times or so like usual, and as a bonus my wrists aren't hurting still today

After a cracking descent I pootled around the reservoir and found a lovely quiet spot for lunch and a cuppa (a thermos of tea is definitely the best excess weight I've ever carried around on a ride). That's one of the things I really like about MTB'ing up on Dartmoor, the trails may not be quite as much of a rollercoaster as at a trail centre, but you can get properly out into the wild and not see another soul for miles around, and it's a bit more of an adventure.

@MarquisMatsugae I was pretty impressed with the Vredenstein tyres. They were great on the boggy Dartmoor peat sections I went through, as I'd hoped they might be (since they were advertised as wet mud tyres). The granite on Dartmoor is usually quite rough, so traction isn't really much of an issue on the climbs, but I was pleased to see that the sidewalls survived a few brutal scuffs on the descents without losing any rubber. I opted for the 2.0s since I don't think the 2.4s would leave much (if any) clearance on my frame/forks - they washed out a little on the gravelly/rocky fast downhill corners, but in a reasonably controllable fashion. I've also had them on slate trails and loamy rooty woods trails, and they've been great there too. I've not yet tried them out in bad weather though (TBH I'm a bit of a fair weather rider, especially with vee brakes), and I've read a couple of reviews which say they're very slippy on wet smooth rock and roots, so nice to have a heads up there.



I was a little worried about the climb back up to Princetown with a 32/30t bottom gear, but it wasn't as bad as I feared. A lot of the climb is sufficiently techy that the suspension made up for some of the torque I was lacking. Not sure whether it would be optimal to get a new front gripshift and run the bike as a 22/32 double with 11-30 on the back, or to save up my pennies and get a narrow wide (oval?) single ring up front and an 11-34 cassette on the back... though for now I'm planning on running the drivetrain into the ground as it is and gloating a little to myself how little the bike's cost me. Either way I get the feeling I will be hanging onto this bike for a while

 

[keithmac]

Just goes to show you don't need to throw endless amounts of money at a bike to enjoy it!, nice refreshing read!.

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

Nice report back @ChrisEyles ,and I agree with @keithmac that your 20 quid has exceeded my/your expectations.
What is the travel on your sus units ?
My 1996 Pro-Flex had 100mm up front and a mahoosive 80 mm on the back
The reason I asked about the Vreddy's is I came across them before.
The 2.4's sound an ideal size,but my trails are predominately small stones and gravel,so might struggle.
Thanks for the report,and nice to see Marin were making good handling bikes in an era where I thought they didn't
Just goes to show never judge a book by it's cover

 

[keithmac]

I can always remeber my workmate coming back from Leeds after just spending £2000 on a downhill full suspension "bike", it was actually just a frame and a rear shock absorber.

Considering this was 15 years ago I was lost for words!.

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

I can always remeber my workmate coming back from Leeds after just spending £2000 on a downhill full suspension "bike", it was actually just a frame and a rear shock absorber.

Considering this was 15 years ago I was lost for words!.

Do you remember what it was ?

 

[ChrisEyles]

What is the travel on your sus units ?

The front forks are 100mm RST Mozo Pro. They're only spring/elastomer combos, but they handle really nicely. Other than the lack of lock-out, I'd say there's not that much to choose between them and the RockShox Tora on the (modern) hardtail I borrow a lot to ride. The rear I'm not sure about TBH, and I don't know how to measure it either. I've got the spring pre-loaded about half of the available amount giving around 25% sag and am yet to bottom it out despite trying quite hard. There's a little bit of pedal bob, but since this is the only FS bike I've ridden I can't really compare it to anything else.

nice to see Marin were making good handling bikes in an era where I thought they didn't

I *really* like it, but I would say that the handling is definitely of its time what with the steeper head angle and narrow bars/long stem combo. It's very different from the modern 29er hardtail I ride, requiring a somewhat more active approach to digging the bike into corners. I personally prefer it, and although it does feel significantly harier on the fast tricky sections I'm not sure that's a bad thing (until you go over the bars that is!).

I think I must just have struck lucky because although I imagine the geometry is similar-ish to my (same vintage) rigid Marin the slightly smaller frame size is absolutely spot on for me. Both are ace for railing around the corners, but the smaller size seems a lot easier to wheelie/manual/jump on.

 

[keithmac]

Do you remember what it was ?

I'm sure it was a San Andreas, his was black though. He did a fair few downhill races so probably an investment!.

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

I'm sure it was a San Andreas, his was black though. He did a fair few downhill races so probably an investment!.

That name does ring a bell .
That would have been the mutts nuts back then.
As was my Pro-Flex

 

[keithmac]

It was similar to this one, had some fancy triple clamp front forks (Marrzochi Bombers?). I had a go on it but preferred my hardtail Dawse Edge XT which was significantly cheaper!.

Have you a pic of your pro-flex?.