hawkhill97
Retro Guru
A few years ago now, I built up a year 2000 Marin Mount Vision - build thread here:
https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/2000-marin-mount-vision-build.400588/
It's a lovely bike to ride, and to me, is aesthetically one of the most iconic of the late 90s cross-country full suspension designs.
However, in terms of ride character, it's still very much of it's era.
It feel best to me built up as in the photo above, with a long-ish (100mm in this case) stem and narrow bars (580s here - with obligatory bar ends). Having played around with different fork lengths, the 85mm travel (465mm axle to crown) fork pictured is as long as I'm happy to go before the (already quite high by design) BB is raised to the point where it starts to detract from the overall handling.
I have tried out an alternative, much more modern set-up (see thread above - 130mm fork / 60mm stem / 780mm bars), and while it was admittedly much more capable on "proper" MTB trails set up like this, the high BB, lack of a dropper post, and to a lesser extent the steep-ish head angle, always made me feel like it was trying to be something it's not.
A lot of my riding these days is on the sort of trails where the Marin feels rather out of it's depth, and consequently it hasn't been ridden as much as it deserves, save for the odd cross-country loop after work.
I've been wanting to do an overnight camp on Dartmoor for a while now, and thought that the Marin would be absolutely perfect for the terrain around the Okehampton area, which tends to be a mix of 4x4 access tracks, long hard climbs, and fast but not particularly technical descents.
Planning a trip like this is always half the fun, so after a few evenings plotting out routes on an OS map, I set off early yesterday morning with the trust Marin in tow.
https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/2000-marin-mount-vision-build.400588/
It's a lovely bike to ride, and to me, is aesthetically one of the most iconic of the late 90s cross-country full suspension designs.
However, in terms of ride character, it's still very much of it's era.
It feel best to me built up as in the photo above, with a long-ish (100mm in this case) stem and narrow bars (580s here - with obligatory bar ends). Having played around with different fork lengths, the 85mm travel (465mm axle to crown) fork pictured is as long as I'm happy to go before the (already quite high by design) BB is raised to the point where it starts to detract from the overall handling.
I have tried out an alternative, much more modern set-up (see thread above - 130mm fork / 60mm stem / 780mm bars), and while it was admittedly much more capable on "proper" MTB trails set up like this, the high BB, lack of a dropper post, and to a lesser extent the steep-ish head angle, always made me feel like it was trying to be something it's not.
A lot of my riding these days is on the sort of trails where the Marin feels rather out of it's depth, and consequently it hasn't been ridden as much as it deserves, save for the odd cross-country loop after work.
I've been wanting to do an overnight camp on Dartmoor for a while now, and thought that the Marin would be absolutely perfect for the terrain around the Okehampton area, which tends to be a mix of 4x4 access tracks, long hard climbs, and fast but not particularly technical descents.
Planning a trip like this is always half the fun, so after a few evenings plotting out routes on an OS map, I set off early yesterday morning with the trust Marin in tow.