MARIN NEWS & REVIEWS

Hardnut hardtails are two a penny these days and it was the small independent companies that led the way with this craze. So as to not be left out, some of the big companies have jumped on the bandwagon too. The first thing that you notice about the Marin is what a cool-looking bike it is with a burly ovalised front end, beefy box section rear, big gussets and a bright paint job. And the fact that it will only set you back £550 made us want to get on board even more. More »

THE LOW-DOWN

Listen to any other manufacturer announcing their new XC suspension bike into the UK, and without fail they’ll tell you it’s a “Mount Vision beater”, and it’s easy to see why they need one. The trails are swarming with Mount Visions, they’ve bagged Trailquest and Polaris titles, and the National XC Championship. So how’s the “champ” looking for 2000. More »

As with the Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo, the Marin Quake 5.0 should be seen as an all-rounder rather than a pure slalom machine although it’s got bags more slalom kudos than the Fisher. A triple crankset is the all-rounder give-away. Put a single on it and it jumps quickly into slalom mode. It’s one of four Dual Slalom Racing bikes in the Marin range (one is a 24in-wheeled one-speed, which we also have on test) but Marin say they also see the “Dual” tag as dual purpose as well as dual slalom. That’s fine by us. After all, not many people race dual slalom on a day to day basis and it’d be a shame to leave a bike like this in the shed for weeks on end. More »