I bought this bike about 5 months ago and enjoy it quite a bit! I swapped out the tires for maxxis ardents to lower the weight a bit and cruise better on pavement which seemed to help a ton with its sluggishness. It feels smooth on trails, the frame bends around turns and absorbs a lot of impact through rough terrain. To me this bike feels like a jack of all trades, it can do many things well but doesn't necessarily exceed at any one particular thing. Perfect for someone who only has the desire for one bike that can pretty much do it all.
Thanks for the review, the bike indeed weights a ton even with the needed modifications. You didn't mention one thing tho, how is the lockage of the fork? Does it work properly or not?
You could switch to a rigid fork, though it might be a challenge finding one with the same axle to crown length to maintain the geometry. Switching wheel size is physically possible however the bottom bracket height would drop by about 19mm which could be dangerous because of how easy it would be to hit pedals going over rocks or pedalling while cornering
@@dougsphoto Yes, some similarities. The Bombtrack is beautiful and is probably the one to pick if you were almost exclusively bikepacking. The Marin is more for those interested in using the bike as much for riding mountain bike trails as they are using it for bike packing.
Cromolly hardtails don't typically represent the best derailler for dollar value race... I think people buy these with specific goals in mind and realize this Pine Mountain is pretty decent price for what you get and the niche it fills.
