Marin Mount Vision Pro Build

[hawkhill97]

I was thinking eventually getting a triple clamp fork from the era, I think for now the manitou will work. Though the bike came with a catalogue from whenever it was purchased as well as the receipt, I noticed the b-17 and team frs dh both came with triple clamp forks and thought it’d be a good upgrade down the road.

I'd personally stick with the Manitou fork you have - the ones with TPC damping are actually pretty good. I use a 100mm travel coil spring oil damped RST Delta fork on mine, not as good a performer as a modern fork maybe but a good match for what the bike was designed around.

Forks from that era have a shorter axle to crown measurement than a modern fork, even sticking to the same travel (80mm-100mm). So an upgraded fork will raise the front end and BB, which in my opinion doesn't do the handling any favours. This would be even more noticeable with a triple clamp fork.

The B-17 had a longer swingarm and possible other geometry differences, which make it play nicely with the longer fork.

These bikes perform best on pedally cross country loops, any trails warranting a triple clamp fork would probably be more fun on a different bike IMO!

 

[hawkhill97]

An M950 XTR crankset would look ace. It'll definitely fit the frame, though you may possible need a new square taper BB if the spindle length on your current one isn't a good match for the XTR crank (it will fit, but might push the chain line too far in/out for the front mech to work, in the worst case the chain rings could contact the swing arm with too short a spindle).

 

[cheesebutt666]

I'd personally stick with the Manitou fork you have - the ones with TPC damping are actually pretty good. I use a 100mm travel coil spring oil damped RST Delta fork on mine, not as good a performer as a modern fork maybe but a good match for what the bike was designed around.

Forks from that era have a shorter axle to crown measurement than a modern fork, even sticking to the same travel (80mm-100mm). So an upgraded fork will raise the front end and BB, which in my opinion doesn't do the handling any favours. This would be even more noticeable with a triple clamp fork.

The B-17 had a longer swingarm and possible other geometry differences, which make it play nicely with the longer fork.

These bikes perform best on pedally cross country loops, any trails warranting a triple clamp fork would probably be more fun on a different bike IMO!

Ah I see, should I maybe down the line see about getting the fork rebuilt then? I think it’s functional, though I wouldn’t know if it weren’t, Ive never dabbled with anything of the sort, though I notice there is a distinct suction or squishing sound whenever I push down on the handlebars. I think I stumbled on someone explaining that happens if it’s laid upside down or on it’s side for some time, it was laid down in wrap whenever I got it sent out to me but I doubt that would affect it at all I’m sure? I get that though, I’m honestly new to any of this but I remember seeing my dads b17 when I was younger always wanting to ride though I was very young lol I’m excited to build it up.

 

[cheesebutt666]

An M950 XTR crankset would look ace. It'll definitely fit the frame, though you may possible need a new square taper BB if the spindle length on your current one isn't a good match for the XTR crank (it will fit, but might push the chain line too far in/out for the front mech to work, in the worst case the chain rings could contact the swing arm with too short a spindle).

Thanks for the info, it’s helped a lot! I actually don’t have any BB, I purchased it just the fork, headset and handle bars and the rear shock. I found the old catalogue and it says it’s 112.5mm spindle, is that the length of the BB itself? I’ll definitely need to do some more research about it, and I think from what I’ve seen in catalogues it came with shimano xt and xtr m950 parts. But I recently watched a post on YouTube of someone upgrading an retro bike to m950 groupset and thought it could work. Thank you again for all the help!

 

[hawkhill97]

The spindle length on a square taper BB has to match the crankset, so check what's required for the crankset you end up going for. The only thing specific to the frame is 68mm/73mm shell - from memory I think the Mount vision is 68mm but it's quite easy to measure

 

[hawkhill97]

I've not serviced one of the old Manitou forks before, but most are fairly straightforward to do a lowers service on. See if you can find a manual detailing the process online maybe?

The damper is probably a sealed cartridge on that fork (check in the manual), in which case I doubt there's much that could be serviced in it. If it uses elastomers anywhere, it would probably benefit from new ones, though they might be tricky to source.

I'd build it up and ride it first, if it feels good it may not need any maintenance doing.

 

[old_coyote_pedaller]

Nice looking frame/bike you've got yourself there.

I know you are constrained by the non-disc fork and swingarm so v-brakes it is, but I've built 4 full-sus Marins for my 2 daughters, my wife and myself. My youngest's Mount Vision has grown with her from a 13.5 to 15.5 to now a 17.5 by just changing the front triangle and transfering all the bits including Rockshox, Hope wheels/discs. Oldest daughter has a Wolf Ridge, Hope wheels/discs, RST fork. My wife's Wild Cat Trail started off with the swingarm that has Marin's idiotic non-post mount, non-IS caliper mount so changed swingarm to one with a proper IS disc mount from another Wolf Ridge frame I had bought. Her's has an RST fork, Formula wheels and Shimano disc brakes. All decent bikes built on the cheap over the years but way, way better than Halfrauds type crap.

As you mentioned changing fork maybe what I did with the other Wolf Ridge frame and swingarm off the Wild Cat Trail might be of interest, give you ideas in case further upgradeitus takes hold.

The swingarms on these frames are interchangeable as long as you use the correct length shock for the front triangle. Realised the Wild Cat Trail swingarm was 30mm longer than Wolf Ridge original which is added on to length near drop-out. With correct length shock this gives approx 120mm of travel, a good bit more than travel on period type fork. Bought a Marzocchi Z1 Wedge with 130mm travel, built it up with Hope hubbed wheels and Hope disc brakes, 3x8 drivetrain, wide-ish bars, shorter stem. Made adaptor for problematic disc mount on swingarm to get around the daft mount. Felt weird at first after riding my F800 Cannondale hardtail with 100mm Lefty, but got used to it and it felt good on harder downhill stuff that the Cannondale, and me, couldn't cope with. That was about 3 years ago, till last year when I got a new, modern geometry hardtail with 150mm fork, so stopped using Marin almost entirely. Fast forward to earlier this year when through boredom needed a bike to build/upgrade so Wolf Ridge was the focus.

Found a Hope hubbed wheel with 15mm axle and a Fox 140mm travel, 15mm axle fork that went with it off a guy in Edinburgh who is on Retrobike. Changed drivetrain to 1x10 with Shimano 10 speed shifter and XT rear mech with 11-50 cassette, single ring RaceFace crankset. The front mech on these Marins is a pain trying to fit and adjust it with swingarm always seeming to be in way so why not just get rid off it? Replaced brakes with new Shimano 4-pot disc brakes. Even wider bars and even shorter stem than before plus Maxxis 2.4 front and 2.3 rear tyres to complete rebuild.

The longer fork has changed the head-angle so bike handles a wee bit more like a modern bike, think it is around 67/68 degrees compared to my modern hardtail which is 65 degrees, but it will never be quite like a modern bike. The frames are capable enough and can cope with longer travel, there will be guys who'll say it can't cope and it'll break, I disagree. I'm never, at my age, going to be throwing it down steep DHs at warp speed nor would I be if younger, you really need a proper modern bike for that.

 

[cheesebutt666]

The spindle length on a square taper BB has to match the crankset, so check what's required for the crankset you end up going for. The only thing specific to the frame is 68mm/73mm shell - from memory I think the Mount vision is 68mm but it's quite easy to measure

Odd question probably I have no idea what I’m talking about, but I’ve seen shimano has newer hollowtech BBs, do you think that with this frame I could put new shimano parts on it? Or would it literally just not work at all? I feel that a lot is going right over my head lol

 

[hawkhill97]

Odd question probably I have no idea what I’m talking about, but I’ve seen shimano has newer hollowtech BBs, do you think that with this frame I could put new shimano parts on it? Or would it literally just not work at all? I feel that a lot is going right over my head lol

Yep, you could put a hollowtech BB and matching crank on if you wanted, no issues with that that I'm aware of.

@old_coyote_pedaller I reckon the chance of breaking a frame with longer travel forks is negligible unless you're riding crazy hard, but having tried doing this on a few older mtbs designed around shorter forks I don't think it improves the handling - especially on a bike like the Mt V that has a pretty high BB to start with. But at the end of the day it's all personal preference, as long as you like how a bike looks and rides it's a good bike!

 

[d8mok]

M950 chainsets don’t use a square taper BB.

You need the correct 1st version of the Octalink which come in 112.5 and 116 lengths. These are expensive now at around 50-£60 just for BB.

I’ve got two sets of M952 for sale. 1 good set and one with wear.