We’ve been super impressed with the last two years worth of Marin Bikes.
Announced today is their latest hardcore hardtail, the Marin San Quentin.
Marin have really upped their game in the last couple of years.
The range has had an almost complete overhaul and brought out some great low-cost offerings like the Hawk Hill, some EWS worthy top-end bikes like the Wolf Ridge and some real-world, fast, fun and affordable bikes like the Marin Rift Zone and Nail Trail.
The Marin San Quentin
The San Quentin is built with the input of their rider Matt Jones and fills the hardcore hardtail gap in their line up, the Marin San Quentin.
Marin have always had plenty of hardtails and we had a blast riding the Nail Trail… but until now they’ve lacked a more aggro bike that’s suitable for gnarlier trails. The San Quentin seems to answer that one.
Prison Blues
All of Marin’s bikes are named after Californian trails or landmarks.
San Quentin is, of course, the infamous maximum security State Prison that housed Charles Manson and hosted two of Johnny Cash’s live concerts (not to be confused with Folsom Prison which inspired Cash’s ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ track and ‘Live at Folsom Prison’ album).
Just in case you were wondering, that is!
The basics
The ‘Quentin is said to be a blend of Marin’s dirt jumping Alcatraz and it’s trail riding Nail Trail. The alloy frame is built around a slackish 65° head angle and a roomy cockpit, with a 464mm reach on a large.
The bike is built around 27.5″ wheels and takes tyres up to 2.6″. The frame is series 3 6061 alloy with double butted tubes and has internal cable routing for shifters and dropper posts. It has a bolt through axle and a no-bother 73mm threaded BB.
The price is really impressive and will be good for anyone looking for a low-cost but heavy hitting mountain bike or for a decent N+1.
There’s three versions of the bikes, all sharing the same frame and all specced with Marin’s own cockpit and rims. All bikes, regardless of price come with wide 780mm bars, short stems, lock on grips and a 1x drive train. That means that you can still have a ‘proper’ feeling bike on a low budget.
There’s three versions of the bike:
The Marin San Quentin 3 comes with a RockShox Revelation RC fork, Schwalbe Magic Mary tyres, FSA Comet cranks and a Shimano SLX rear mech. This top spec version comes with a 150mm X-Fusion Manix dropper seat post. That’s £1450.
The Marin San Quentin 2 comes with a RockShox Recon RL fork, Schwalbe Hans Damf Performance Line tyres, 11 speed SRAM NX and FSA Comet Cranks. That’s £1150.
The Marin San Quentin 1 comes with SR Suntour XCM32 fork, Schwalbe Hans Damf Performance Line tyres, Tektro hydraulic brakes, Shimano bits and Marin’s own cranks. That’s an absolutely amazing £650.
