2000 Marin Mount Vision Build

[DunxC]

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.

I have to agree I bought my FRS frame and Pace forks around 22 years ago.... And have only added a 2005 Mount Vision with Revelations for some gravity assisted fun. Heavy wheels blunt the acceleration ( No gravity assistance ! ) but with Hope V2 vented fronts and a ten speed set-up X2 up front it is hard work on tarmac, where it's older similar spec. sibling isn't.

Back in the day I ran a u-lock as a tri-bar to hang even further off the front for an aero advantage.... hunting down and chasing "roadies" was such fun.

But almost 25 years on I'm struggling to get back to pre-Covid fitness. Each new year I say I'm going to do more mileage, but work and age sap my enthusiasm to get cold and wet.

Great thread, enjoyed your story this evening.

Dunx

 

[hawkhill97]

D-lock aerobars, I love that! Got any pics?

 

[hawkhill97]

My riding has been progressing towards slightly more technical trails over the last few years, and while the bike has always ridden beautifully, it has always felt rather out of its element on steeper / scarier trails.

So I thought I'd try out a slightly different set-up on the Mount Vision to bias it towards this type of riding. I've gone with the de rigeur wider bars / shorter stem (780/60 if anyone's interested), and have upped the fork travel from 85mm to 110mm (since I've got a coil U-turn fork, this is ridiculously quick and easy to do, so seemed worth trying). Also fitted some beefier tyres and a slightly bigger front disc rotor.

Haven't ridden it in anger yet, but on test riding locally the front end is still relatively low by modern standards, which I like, and the BB doesn't feel quite as stupidly high as I feared it might.

Will be interesting to see how it rides when I get the chance to take it somewhere more exciting!




To my surprise, the brake hoses and shifter outers didn't need replacing to fit the wider bars (they do limit how far the bars will turn more than in the previous set-up, but can still go well over 90 degrees so as long as I'm not throwing bar spins I should be alright).

To my further surprise, I quite like the look of the old school grip shifters like this - nice and clean looking!



Also pinched a head tube badge off a wrecked frame I acquired a while ago - it was stuck on my garage wall, but thought it should grace a Marin again.

 

[hawkhill97]

Just back in from a day's riding in South Wales.

The new set up feels pretty good - unsurprisingly set some PBs on the climbs (compared to a modern 150mm FS), but also a few on the downs too, which I wasn't expecting. I suspect this is partly due to a very fast rolling rear tyre and partly due to the brakes being less good

The high BB is awesome for technical climbing (a fair bit of that today). It does feel less good for linking tight berms together, but I think that should be manageable with a more assertive cornering technique once I get used to it - and it's clearly not holding it back against the clock.

The lack of a dropper was less of a nuisance than I feared, though it did mean I had to do a lot more out of the saddle climbing than I prefer. My one attempt at leaving the seat at a compromise height for a descent did not go well... very nearly stacked it on one steep tight corner and was a crazy ride after that getting bucked up by the saddle down a steep stepped section.

With the seat dropped it handled everything I'd ride with the bigger modern bike with no drama - doesn't give quite the same feeling of invincibility, but it's still pretty composed for a short travel bike.

Think it's going to stay like this for a little while now.

Fortunately, even with the silly wide bars, I still think it's a bit of a looker

 

[hawkhill97]

Went out for a quick spin after work today on my local trails.

There are quite a few sections of tight bermed & flat corners. The bike does need to be leant/pushed more assertively into turns than I'm used to, and doesn't feel quite as planted as it could through the turns, but with the right technique it absolutely flies along.

Tested out a couple of steeper rooty bits (below - always disappointing how much flatter a photo makes this sort of thing look ) and the bike behaves very nicely down these too.



To my great surprise, I bagged a fair few PBs on this ride too. These are all trails I've logged 50+ reps on Strava, so a PB is significant at this point... still wondering how much of this is down to the rear tyre (Conti X-King - almost a semi-slick), but it looks like the Mount Vision has the edge over the more modern (well, it's a 2010, but this is retro-bike after all) longer travel FS I've ridden a lot on the same trails.

My local spot is fairly winch & plummet, so using a quick release instead of a dropper post is a non issue.

I am wondering about fitting one for more rolling terrain though... does anyone make a decent 30.0mm dropper, or will it be a case of getting a 27.2mm and shimming it?

 

[hawkhill97]

Oh, and I finally found a use for the bottle cage mounts on the bottom of the down tube (can't think that anyone would want to drink out of a bottle that was mounted down here the amount of crud it would get coated in!) - an old tyre recycled as a down tube rock guard. I put a horrible dent in a frame at this location a few years ago bombing down a loose rocky trail, and that is exactly the sort of riding this bike is now destined for

 

[hawkhill97]

Well that didn't last quite as long as expected - the Mount Vision is now back in retrobike mode with long stem, narrow bars, and honking great bar ends!

Took it with me for a week away on the Gower and managed a cracking ride taking in coasts, castles and a couple of really nice ridge sections. This sort of non-technical, longer distance riding (with lots of climbing!) is where the bike really shines.

 

[hawkhill97]

For those who may be interested, the longer forked, wide bars / short stem set-up proved to be extremely capable, but 1) a 30.0mm seat post makes it difficult to fit a dropper post, which IMO is required for the sort of riding you'd do on this set-up 2) with a long fork, that BB is just too high... it's not the end of the world, but I'm pretty fussy about bike set up and it's definitely noticeable. I do wonder if offset bushes and an angleset would fix this (I suspect possibly so).

Instead, I'm in the process of fixing up a slightly more modern 2010 Marin Attack Trail for more spirited riding:



This one urgently needs a good brake bleed (amongst other bits of TLC) before it gets ridden in too spirited a fashion though!

 

[Splatter Paint]

Great thread

 

[hawkhill97]

My trusty Marin going through the door into 2024