http://www.ambmag.com.au - 79garage.
I did need to attach the dropper post, and it did take some fiddling
with the cable housing in the frame, to feed to back through so the post
could slide into the frame. I also don’t bother riding off road with tubes.
The rims are tubeless compatible as are the tyres. But you will need to
take off the stock rim tape to fit tubeless tape, and bring your own valves.
After that it sealed up pretty easily with some trusty Orange Seal sealant.
All built, the bike looks pretty cool. The colour scheme really pops,
although on some angles the fork looks to be a bit disproportionate to
the frame tubes. I can see why Marin have a dropped top tube, but the
little frame bridge looks a bitt naff. The full-carbon fork is nice, although
I did need to glue the threaded insert for the through-axle into place. The
fork could take bigger rubber than the stock 37c tyres but I’m not sure
the back end could handle anything over a 40mm, which might be on the
small side for some people looking at adventure bikes. I personally have
a hardtail in my shed as an adventure bike. A flat bar does not offer theriding positions and long-distance comfort
of a drop bar, and I think the definition of an
adventure bike depends on your definition of
adventure. My only concern before tackling
some routes was tyre size and gearing. With
a 42t stock chain ring the Marin comes stock
with a reasonably tall gear range, especially if
it was going to be loaded up.ON THE TRAIL
With a 170mm headtube the 565mm effective
top tube doesn’t feel as stretched out as you
might think a drop bar bike would feel. With
the stock stem slammed, the Marin Gestalt
is still quite upright. Which is perfect, it’s not
a road bike or even a cyclocross bike – you
need to be a little more upright. Thanks to
a reasonably steep seat angle you do stay
centred on the bike when riding, keeping
weight on the front wheel. In this way it
behaves not unlike modern mountain bike
geometry. The steeper seat angle keeps you
comfortable when on the flat and with weight
forward when climbing, but it helps to keep
the seat out of the way when standing up for
descents. With the dropper down, it gives you
plenty of room to really move the bike around
like you would riding your mountain bike –
there’s just less margin for error without
suspension, wide bars, or a wide tyre footprint.
Heading out of my driveway the Marin was
easy to get along with right away. It’s quick
to accelerate, and really easy to settle into aRIDINGEXPERIENCE:
Riding, racing and
working with bikes for
a while.
GENERALLY RIDES:
Norco Revolver,
Transition Smuggler,
Norco Threshold CX
HEIGHT: 178cm
WEIGHT: 72kg
BIKE TEST TRACK:
Around south east
Queensland.
MIKE BLEWITTTESTED