****The Official Mountain Bicycle Gallery Thread****

mrk

mrk

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Picked up a stand off Amazon this week not expecting much for £26 but actually it's very good, mainly for storage purposes so bike doesn't fall over i the shed but also useful for working on the bike, cleaning etc.

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And the first trail ride around a local valley and a tea break at the top, suspension did its job :D

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mrk

mrk

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Joined
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Cheers!

I have now cut my seat post as it needed to be shorter by 3.5 inches due to Marin giving bikes with extra long posts for some reason. Much better now.

Also on a lighter note, I spotted this whilst clothes shopping today, biking attire for the blue 90s colour themed Marin owner? :p

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mrk

mrk

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I was tempted to go out this morning on a ride as we normally do every Sunday but both my mate and I just could not hack this wind and rain combo on the coast. Maybe this evening we will though just throw caution to the wind and get soaked lol.
 

mrk

mrk

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Joined
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You do like getting the thing wet don't you :p

6AM sharp this morning was riding out with a mate. We did just over 17 miles around the local coastal routes. Such a nice area to live and ride in really for the sea views and quiet calm country roads and air especially watching the sun rise over a hot tea (I always take my thermos along hah).

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Absolutely love this bike though. Even the 2x8 Altus setup I have come to really appreciate. We have a lot of uphill sections on various terrain here and my lower gears are just brilliant for that. My mate has a Norco Fluid 10 with 1x10 Deore and he said for uphill stuff and the long stretches downhill he doesn't have the gearing. There were climbs that I could pedal up whilst still sat down with ease where he had to stand on the pedals and really crank which made me appreciate the extra front chainring for added range (36/22T front, 11-34T rear).

To be honest I don't think there's anything I'd change any time soon at all. Out of the box it's such a nice bike to ride.
 
Last edited:
Caporegime
Joined
13 Jan 2010
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Llaneirwg
Went out to a mtb bike track for the first time .
Really enjoyed it.
It was an hour ride from the Welsh coast where I live.

The hills are significant, I grew up in the flats of East anglia. I'm certainly grateful for the electric motor! The hills really zapped the battery even with me peddling on eco mode.

I think i got 25 miles out of the battery if I had used it to empty. Its rated at 60-70 miles on flat!

No idea how much these hard tail electrics can take. I didn't get air. But I did go over some chunky jumps.

I did get a little video.
 

mrk

mrk

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Joined
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Camo colours :cool:

I am very much looking at groupset upgrade in the new year, seen a few bundles at ChainReactionCycles from both Shimano (Deore M6100 etc) and SRAM (NX Eagle) within the sub £300 range so will likely go for one of those. I think 1x12 would be best suited to my multi-use riding.

My only concern is fitment as I understand I may need to change the wheel hubs too if a larger cassette won't fit on the existing one?

Anyways, today's ride out pic along the coast with a brief excursion through a short trail:

Sunrise_bike_ride_20201129_071352.jpg
 
Caporegime
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20 Oct 2004
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....
Camo colours :cool:

I am very much looking at groupset upgrade in the new year, seen a few bundles at ChainReactionCycles from both Shimano (Deore M6100 etc) and SRAM (NX Eagle) within the sub £300 range so will likely go for one of those. I think 1x12 would be best suited to my multi-use riding.

My only concern is fitment as I understand I may need to change the wheel hubs too if a larger cassette won't fit on the existing one?

Anyways, today's ride out pic along the coast with a brief excursion through a short trail:

You're freehub, depending on what you change. It might be cheaper to go 1x11 if have a shimano groupset already. As it isn't always possible to change to the new shimano freehubs on all wheelsets.

It doesn't seem like your climbing much proper off road mountains, so a 1x11 will probably be fine.
 

mrk

mrk

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Joined
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Hmm if it comes to it then I'll change the wheels too if it means I end up with a better suited upgrade, but yeah 1x11 does sound the optimum for me.

Climbs locally aren't steep, there is a valley trail that's got some heavy climb on one section though but the plan is myself and a mate will start going to Rogate bike park in the summer and make use of their trails so having the range would be great from a 12 is I can fit it in my budget but am likely going to be just fine with an 11. I don't know what the front forks are properly like yet on a bike park like that so may or may not upgrade that in time. At the moment I have no issues with it really even though it's a basic XCM on 120mm travel.

It's still all new to me so reading around and seeing what others have done in user reviews on groupset bundles etc. I will be buying whatever is needed and dropping off to local bike store to get the swapout done so less headache my end.
 
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