1996 Marin Pine Mountain

[heymarge]

Picked up this lovely 1996 Marin Pine Mountain locally the other day, only had a quick look at it so far but it seems fairly original if a little scruffy.

From what I can tell, it is bang on catalogue spec apart from the tyres (now Schwalbe Black Jacks), brake blocks and saddle. Down sides are that there is a (smallish) ding on the top tube, and the rims have suffered somewhat from badly positioned brake blocks. The main aesthetic issue is that someone has been channeling their inner Jackson Pollock with what looks to be areas of touch-up paint which I can only assume are covering scrapes to the original finish (and on the bottle cage bolts and on the brake arms). Note the 'Datatag' sticker - not seen one of those on a push bike before, normally seen on motorbikes.

It does seem to ride OK, and doesn't look to need anything doing urgently on the mechanical side other than brake blocks and some more air in the tyres. The current plan is to give it a good wash and then take it out for some rides, it's slightly smaller at 17.5 inches (19/20 inches) than I normally ride so will be interesting to see how it fits on extended rides, longer term it might get an oily rag wafted in it's general direction and I'll see if I can do anything about the touch-ups.

 

[heymarge]

After taking the bits of old insulation tape that were stuck on the frame, I filed down and re-aligned the brake blocks (new ones ordered) and gave it a wash. I'm not sure if I've made it any cleaner or if I have just spread the grime around more evenly, it still needs a proper clean. On a positive note it looks like the touch-up paint will scrape off from having a quick go at it!

With some air in the tyres I took it out for a spin in the sunshine and it went really well, everything worked spot on, the ride was lively and it climbed nicely, I was almost getting the hang of the Gripshift by the end. Looking forward to more rides on it so can't be bad!

Couple of scenic non-action shots:

 

[sam_white]

The actual datatag number is the sticker on the head tube, just above the bottom headset race, in case you were curious.

 

[ExpertBlay]

@Mod-Master

 

[heymarge]

The actual datatag number is the sticker on the head tube, just above the bottom headset race, in case you were curious.

Ah nice, I hadn’t paid much attention to that, just assumed it was a duplicate of the serial number from the bottom bracket!

Only update is that I’m cleaning some hand painted gold paint off the ends of the brake cantis while I have them in bits to put new pads in. The gold is coming off but it’s taking the original black/smoke finish with it (if it was still there under the gold). Will paint them black before putting them back together.