198? Marin Pine Mountain

[xerxes]

Here's my Marin Pine Mountain, I've owned it from new and think it's an '88 or '89 model, which means I've had it for about half my life. :shock:

Currently fitted with road tyres and used regularly in all weathers as a workhorse.

The chainset, wheels, gears, brakes and shifters are all original, but as you can see in the image, the saddle, seat pin, handlebars and stem have all been changed.

It's looking a bit scruffy now and there are quite a few deep scratches and chips in the paintwork and there is some rust. I was thinking of having the frame and forks striped and powder coated, which should keep then good for another 20 years.

 

[lewis1641]

Cool.
Having repainted one of my own bike's that i'd owned from new i'd strongly suggest having a good think about it too. I had an emotional attachment to that bike and i destroyed it when i repainted it' it just looked too good. It wasn't MY bike anymore, just A bike if you get me

 

[THWANG-666]

hi
as above please only repaint it if you can as it is now i did the same with one of my bikes totaly regreted it sold it not long after and am still looking for said and that was a pine mountain.
thwang

 

[xerxes]

I'm not sure that I have an emotional attachment to the bike and I do have a very nice "best bike". To be honest, I don't think I ever really liked the pale grey of the frame. I chose the bike based on the very favourable reviews it had at the time and I still like the ride; it's comfortable, fits me well, feels right, although it's a bit on the heavy side compared to newer bikes, I recken it's around 30 pounds.

I live on the coast, about 200 meters from the beach and exposed frame and sea air can't be a good combination. I thought about repainting it myself; I managed a pretty good job with aerosol cans on a racer a few years back. But I notice that professional jobs seem to be a lot less now than they were about 15 years ago, or actually about the same price, which is fair bit less in real terms if you see what I mean.

There's a powder coating company not far away that have a good reputation and seem to know what they're doing with bicycle frames: www.windridge.co.uk/content.php/410

I was thinking of having the whole frame and forks a bright orange, about the same colour as the forks are now.

 

[Steve Kish]

Here's my Marin Pine Mountain, I've owned it from new and think it's an '88 or '89 model, which means I've had it for about half my life. :shock:

Currently fitted with road tyres and used regularly in all weathers as a workhorse.

Snap!

..although mine's now got mudguards.

 

[xerxes]

Hi Steve,

Mine currently has mudguards and a pannier rack, so it looks really fugly.

I see you've made a lot of changes to your bike, where did you get it done and how has the finish held up compared to the original?

I notice you've also replaced the cantilever brakes with V brakes, are they an improvement?

 

[Steve Kish]

That's more or less how I bought it 2nd hand on eBay, TBH. I'm assuming that the colour is original, as it has the Marin decals laquered over.

I had this as an off-roader before I got a Kona but now I've slicked it up as my CTC touring / newspaper round bike. It's my only steel current bike and I must confess that I really like riding it. The White Industries cranks that came with it can take a 20T granny ring, so even with a corncob 12-up cassette, you can just ease up almost any hill.

The V-brakes are marginally better than most of the old style cantis that I've used and are a piece of cake to adjust.

 

[boblo]

Pine Mountain

I've got his brother. Mostly original 'cept tyres/saddled and bits of transmission:

 

[Easy_Rider]

Those white pine mountains look lovely!

I also agree about thinking twice about repainting. You could touch up the scratches/chips and use some frame saver to keep the inside from rusting as that's the more vunrable part rather than the outside. Moisture (wet salty sea air in your case) will be on the inside of the tubes corroding the frame inside out.

 

[xerxes]

That's much smarter than mine boblo, with regard to re-touching, it's not really viable, the frame is more chip and scratch than paint so a complete re-spray is the only real means of protecting the frame and hopefully smatening it up a bit. Althogh I don't want to over do it and give it too much theif appeal. :roll:

Incidentally, allthough I have changed a lot of components, I do still have all the orignal stuff in various boxes in the garage.

Steve, I don't remember Marins being that colour, I remember they used a dark textured matt grey paint for the main frame with flourescent coloured handlebars and forks for a year or so after I bought mine, there are several of them on this site. They also had fatter rear stays, which yours looks like it has. I thought they started to come with front suspension after dark grey bikes, and then switched to alluminium frames, but it was a long time ago. :?