rothaz
Marin Fan
My pin up bike as a young teenager had always been the 93 Marin Titianium FRS. It was impossibly inaccessible - retailing for around USD $5,000, which inflation adjusted is about $10,000 today. One night lying in bed, 25 years later and approaching my 40th birthday, I was struck by one of those lightning bolts that I imagine a few people on here can sympathise with... I FINALLY HAD TO have one!
After trawling through pages and pages of images on google for a few weeks I came across the below on an Indonesian website, "https://www.bukalapak.com", which seems to be sort of like Indonesian Gumtree. This was quite tricky as the entire site is in Indonesian (which funnily enough I don't speak). I contacted the seller and using Google Translate (he didn't speak English) established that he believed this was a Titanium FRS (and in a 19in Large Size - I'm 6'2"). In such a sorry state, it was hard to be sure.
I posted the photos on the Marin Early Years Facebook page which generated quite a lot of excitement... and argument! Many seasoned pros insisted that it was a steel Pine FRS, whereas other were convinced it was Ti.
Anyway, I got the Seller (now on WhatsApp) to send me some videos of him testing it with a magnet and send photos of the serial number. I decided that was enough proof for me, and resolved to go for it. Despite being in the sticks in Java, he still knew what he had, and I certainly didn't get an absolute steal!
Next I had to work out how to pay for it (via his cousin in Jakarta with a Paypal account!) and ship it to me (in Abu Dhabi!). I managed to find a freight forwarder who would air freight it to me once it was delivered to an address in Jakarta from Java.
Then began a month long argument with the delivery company (Aramex) as one of their employees tried to defraud me and hold the bike to ransom. All rather infuriating but I got there in the end!
After trawling through pages and pages of images on google for a few weeks I came across the below on an Indonesian website, "https://www.bukalapak.com", which seems to be sort of like Indonesian Gumtree. This was quite tricky as the entire site is in Indonesian (which funnily enough I don't speak). I contacted the seller and using Google Translate (he didn't speak English) established that he believed this was a Titanium FRS (and in a 19in Large Size - I'm 6'2"). In such a sorry state, it was hard to be sure.
I posted the photos on the Marin Early Years Facebook page which generated quite a lot of excitement... and argument! Many seasoned pros insisted that it was a steel Pine FRS, whereas other were convinced it was Ti.
Anyway, I got the Seller (now on WhatsApp) to send me some videos of him testing it with a magnet and send photos of the serial number. I decided that was enough proof for me, and resolved to go for it. Despite being in the sticks in Java, he still knew what he had, and I certainly didn't get an absolute steal!
Next I had to work out how to pay for it (via his cousin in Jakarta with a Paypal account!) and ship it to me (in Abu Dhabi!). I managed to find a freight forwarder who would air freight it to me once it was delivered to an address in Jakarta from Java.
Then began a month long argument with the delivery company (Aramex) as one of their employees tried to defraud me and hold the bike to ransom. All rather infuriating but I got there in the end!
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