2000 Marin Mount Vision Build

[old_coyote_pedaller]

I have a 98/00 Wolf Ridge which I took the swingarm off to put on my wife's Wild Cat Trail as it had a brake mount that required Marin's weird caliper mount and the Wolf Ridge's swingarm was I.S. , this was several years ago. When I came to build up the Wolf Ridge I used the WCT's swingarm as I could make an adapter to take a postmount caliper. Also realised the arm was 30mm longer than the original increasing rear travel from the original. Build it up at first with a Marzocchi Z1 Wedge 130mm fork to balance the approx. 120mm at back. Moving from riding a Cannondale F800 hardtail with a 100mm Lefty having previously ridden a Cannondale Super V full suss also with a 100mm Lefty the Wolf Ride felt weird handling wise. Put on wider 720mm bars and shorter 70mm stem and I became used to it.

Fast forward to March 2020 and I bought a modern geo Sonder Transmitter hardtail with a 150mm fork. It felt like it did going from the F800 to the full suss Marin. Once again I got used to and liked the change, could descend faster with more comfort and confidence than on F800. That's saying something as I'm in my 60s, being almost as fast DH as I'd been 4 years earlier on the Marin full suss. You don't get faster at my age.

FF again to last year when I rebuilt the Wolf Ridge with a 140mm Fox RL fork, same 70mm stem but with 780mm bars off Transmitter whose bars I changed to 740mm as I found the 780s too wide. Didn't notice the increase in width that had been strange/uncomfortable on Transmitter. The handling felt similar to the modern geo Transmitter. The head-tube angle is certainly slacker, a rough check it's 67-68 degrees, Transmitter is 65 degrees. Wolf Ridge feels good going downhill but needs a dropper post as Transmitter has one and now I'm used to using it DH. Have one but it's 30.9mm, but seat-tube is 30mm so I've checked and it's quite thick walled so there is enough in tube to ream it out a bit. Not noticed about the seat-tube angle difference between the Wolf Ridge and Transmitter when riding but I did notice when I rode my F800 again, it was the bike that now felt weird.....

Started to write this in response to the mention of the offset bushings but got sidetracked by writing the background story. I have a vague memory that I did fit one but can't be sure so will need to check, I have one saved in my eBay Watch List so may have bought one but not deleted from eBay. Memory ain't what it used to be so who knows.

 

[hawkhill97]

@old_coyote_pedaller you can get 27.2mm dropper posts and a 27.2mm to 30.0mm shim - I reckon that's the safer option rather than ream out the seat tube to fit a 30.9mm dropper!

 

[old_coyote_pedaller]

I thought of that but 27.2mm droppers are designed for "gravel" bikes and had insufficient drop for a proper MTB. The dropper I have on the Sonder Transmitter is 125mm, due to bike being a small that's the max, so I wanted the same for Wolf Ridge. There's plenty of wall thickness to be reduced by 0.45mm, there will be plenty of post in seat-tube and the clamp will prevent damage to top, I hope, Not worried, I'm not a heavyweight at 5' 6" nor at my age will it get heavy abuse.

 

[hawkhill97]

Yeah, I tend to agree you'll probably be fine based on that logic.

I'm still not brave enough to try it on mine though!

 

[hawkhill97]

After having my ass thoroughly kicked by Covid recently, it was nice to get out for a gentle spin on the trust MtV today.

It's a bit sad having to take it slow'n'easy though, this bike wants to go fast!

 

[shedobits]

Glad to see that you're back riding.

 

[hawkhill97]

Cheers @shedobits

 

[hawkhill97]

 

[hawkhill97]

Went out for another spin today. Painfully slow but a beautiful day to be out on a bike

 

[hawkhill97]

I've been thinking quite a lot about whether there's anything I'd like to change on this bike, mainly because I've not been able to get out as much and fancy a bit of a winter project.

However, today's ride reminded me that it's already pretty much perfect for wheels-on-the-ground bridleway and general countryside riding, and any changes to make it more capable on man made trails are likely to detract from this.

It's been interesting playing around with the U-turn adjustable travel on the fork. In the lowest 85mm setting, the height of the front end feels just right. This is at an axle to crown height of about 465mm, so already about 20mm taller than the manitou forks that were originally specified on theses bikes.

When I've experimented with longer travel settings (up to 130mm, which is waaaay too much extra length) I've felt the more relaxed upright riding position makes the long stem / narrow bar set up feel a bit lacking in purposefulness - you lose that arse-up-head-down feeling and it just doesn't feel very lively any more. It is somewhat more confidence inspiring on steep rocky descents, but not enough to significantly compensate for the sketchy feel of 580mm bars and a fixed high seat post.

While I generally get on quite well with the high-ish BB height on the frame, this also lends itself better to consistent pedalling over rough terrain without constant pedal strikes than it does to railing berms. If I was going to modernise the cockpit with short stem / wide bars and a longer fork, I think I'd also want to fit an angleset and offset bushings to drop the BB back down to a sensible height. This would probably require an in-line seat post, as my saddle is already pretty much slammed forward on the rails to keep the front end behaving itself on really steep climbs.

I've found myself using the lock-out on the rear shock more than I thought I would, and the Rockshox Monarch I put on last year feels noticeably better than either the SID dual air or the Fox air shock I've had on this bike (and light years ahead of the OEM shockworks coil (undamped?!) unit). If Strava is to be trusted, most of my PBs on the longer off road climbs I regularly ride are on this bike, and it certainly feels very efficient.

I suspect that a shorter stem and wider bar would feel great with the longer fork when out of the saddle and descending, but that would lose a lot of the charm of the bike for me. Flying along natural tracks in that long low stretched out position, and then getting straight on the bar ends to attack the rise at the end of the trail just feels so good on this bike!

For me, the Marin FRSs of this era are close to the pinnacle of performance before frame geometries (and perhaps more notably, bar & stem options) started to drift away from the standard late 90s set up. While they might not have aged particularly well considered in the context of modern trail centres and gravity oriented riding, they are still a real blast to ride on natural trails, have bags of nostalgia and character... and they are unarguably beautiful machines.

Gah, this sort of rambling is what happens when you can't get out and ride like you want to!

Already planning some epic rides on the MtV for next year around Exmoor and South Wales