Back in the 90's every other bike I saw was a Marin but I hardly ever see any now, what happened there then?
Great hardtails still, but bit of a full-sus crisis.
Not as well made and expensive for what you get. The ride quality isn't as good as they used to be I had a rocky ridge that was completely respecced with manitou twos etc and loved but when I tried to upgrade to an Indian fire trail I just didnt fancy it. The change in the full suss range also wasn't the best. The quad link wasn't the best move an I never found it that nice to ride for that kind of money you could get better
You can't be talking from experience; The quad link works very well indeed. I had a quake that was one of the best pedalling big bikes I've ever owned, & that includes some relatively exotic boutique frames. Furthermore, the quad 140 range was widely acclaimed by all testers as a fantastic range.
They're not pretty bikes but they do work incredibly well. Try one and see.
I love my quad 140, geometry for me is perfect as it's super slack with a low bb. The big downside with them is weight as the frames are heavy.
From what I see the full sus get great reviews and are pretty good value for money so I'm not too sure what the post a couple up is talking about.
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/mountain/product/attack-trail-08-22480
my quake7.3 pedals pretty well for a near 7'' travel bike. I take on jaunts into the peaks, whilst being knackered at the end i do a good 15-20miles on it. Couldn't do that for many other similar bikes.
problem is though, they are bloody heavy. The good side is that they're not so fashionable and cheap 2nd hand!
06 marin alpine trail 4-6" adjustable travel - loved the way it reacted on square edge hits. Very flexy. Found crack in frame after using it for what I'd call mini DH in the FoD.
08 marin quake - used it for trail riding as Hansrey above does and apart from the whole 7" sofa style travel thing it was really good. Pedalled well and obviously descending was great. Loved the way it reacted to square edge hits. Did a whole week of riding the northern scottish trail centres and then finished the week by doing the fort william enduro dh. Whether it was the drops at the end of the fort william track or using it for morzine DH I found cracks in the frame.
Got a warranty replacement and used that for DH only and of course soon found cracks in the frame again. in the same place.
09 marin 140 - received this as warranty replacement for the quake and will be using it as my trail bike. Yet to be built up but i'm wondering how long it'll last. Can't wait to thrash it - trail centres and "mini DH" at FoD, leckhampton hill etc.
I'm 11 stone run my shocks at 30% sag with bottom out ramped right up high. I've currently got an 07 giant trance which has been put through a lot for a 100mm xc frame and it has been superb. Spesh demo for DH has had a week in morzine and the drops and jumps I was doing on it were far far beyond what the quake rode and it's performed brilliantly.
TL;DR - had several marin full sus bikes. Suspension action has felt great but they seem to blow through travel too quick and are weak when they hit the end of the travel.
Liking my bright orange nail trail. Even fully rigid it rides well. Shame the headtube is crazy long though.
Wonder how long it will be before some cOck comes along and posts that picture of the bearded bloke riding a Marin
I'm over the whole beardy thing, my Marin Wolf Ridge is an absolute hoot to ride.
And I haven't got a beard.
They dont have that sandfinished grey frame paintjob and dayglo forks/stem combo any more. You have to be able to read (a downtube sticker) to spot a Marin nowadays! I think that there are plenty about, particularly since a few years back when MBR awarded the Mount Vision trail bike of the year or somethinglike that. That basically turned Marin back into Specialized over night!
I have a Mount Vision. I dont have a beard 🙂
TBH I never quite worked out what the whole beard issue was..."as if the chin is the window into the soul"
My rocky ridge is properly ace, it's a woodsey singletrack machine. I am growing a beard currently tho...
My first ever MTB was a 1995(?) Pallisades Trail. I loved it with the grey frame/purple forks. Looked pretty classy I thought. They just don't produce a distinctive enough bikes any more.
04 attack trail here. Ridden it all over the UK and 4 weeks of alps. Only downside is the high bb height (15.5) but a great bike to ride. Think I prefer the look of the whytes now to the marins. Lifetime bearing guarantees and cheap to buy. Should be loads of them out there.
Had three.
Still got my 1999 Attack Trail, love it.
Also had a 2004 XC100 and a 2006 Mt Vision Pro (warrenty replacement for the other one) as race bikes. Sadly they don't do a full-on XC race bike nowadays so I've got a Yeti ASR-carbon instead. Still like them, they just don't make what I'm after.
When the AT eventually gives up the ghost I'd definatley have a Quad-XLT to replace it.
I do have beard by the way.
Just picked up a Wolf Ridge II and loving it very much.
The XC versions are nice too, especially the Mount Vision.
Got an 09 Mount Vision 5.8 and I love it...not sure if it is heavy - it doesn't seem to slow me down (my ability does that!)...feels very comfy and it works very well (from what I can tell).
I'm about to stick a slightly higher rise stem and a flat bar on it so I can stick some bar-ends back on so I can get back into comfy climbing positions (not got an issue with riser/bar-ends except the risers have more sweep which puts the bar-ends almost straight and they aren't as comfy).
I don't see that many Marins kicking around (although I have spotted 2 or 3 commuting when I'm going into work)...only know of 2 other people personally that ride them...but they also rate it highly...
No issues from me, but I suspect the need for a fancy name on the frame has meant Marin has lost some buyers (vanity to some people is more important than buying something that does the job but doesn't cost as much)...
Loved my '08 Mount Vision, the quad link suspension was great. The frames are slightly heavy, but I'm 6'1 and near on 14 1/2 stone so no point having a skinny whippet bike.
I think one problem the higher end full sus bikes have got in the UK is, for not much more money, you can have a full carbon "uk built...ish" quad link bike that rides rides just as well, if not better.
apologies for the hijack, but where did u find the cracks on your Quake Dirtbiker1000?