Ultra rare pro-spec MTB from 1991: Team Marin total rebuild 

Best comedy channel on RU-vid.

I understand the constant head-thudding about "catalogue-spec". I have an '89 Timber Comp (that I bought in Japan) that I've been slowly putting back to catalogue-spec and then realised that the Japanese catalogue-spec is different than the US catalogue-spec specifically when it comes to the tig-welded stem (Japanese spec) and fillet-brazed stem (US spec). This took up so much computing power and mind real estate that for a whole hour I had no idea what my wife was saying.

Can it have enugh of these rebuilds. I wonder what it takes to be a part of that secret society of rich English people who ride early 90s bikes.

The most british of 90ties MTB content. So high brow and I am absolutely here for it!

Great tip with fitting the handle bars 👍

In order to make my 11am meeting I’m worried I’d miss the finer details if I watched at 4x speed. Must save for later.

Regarding the paint, I'd go to a good paint shop and let them mix up touch up paint and then carefully apply it and then conserve the frame with something that doesn't f* up the matt finish. Does the paint have a texture? If so you could try something that painters do when they want some texture on a painting and mix some fine sand (probably available in a artist shop) and mix it, it would probably be an endless trail and error thing before one could apply it to the frame but potentially worth playing around with. Also very surprised by the weight considering most parts are light and frames like these are pretty light, I guess in the saddle, bar, stem, pedals and tyres is maybe close to a kilogram that could be saved with some period correct updates?

AMAZING video beautiful bike Am now going on ebay to fine a bike to rebuild [thinking raleigh m trax] can't afford top end by stx\altus a10 has always been a good friend of mine

Surprised that being a member of the elite millionaires cartel of retro collectors that you don't have an ultrasonic cleaner! I bought a minty one of these circa 2008 for a bargain price, also with a flexstem, which now regretfully I sold about 5 years later! But at least she was properly enjoyed by her new owner👍 One thing about XT hubs was that the decals wore and finish become dull, whereas the DX decals where tough and the finish always shiney after cleaning!!

NICE! im in my early 50s & i remember these bikes its great to see sum of the old legends being restored. Bikes should not go for scrap like they used to unless there at the point of no return sumtimes you have to decide how far do you want to go with them. Cheers great video 😊

fantastic work Sir, i do remember the days back when racing cyclocross and the mtb season too in 1990/1991 and the issue i had that even after regularly servicing an xt short cage rear mech, it would wear so badly you'd get ghost shifting on rough ground, with xtr being just hushed whispers to its release date i tried a very different tactic to get a more reliable and longer lasting rear mech, so i used the dura ace RD-7402 road rear mech, it was silly light, very hard wearing and would last 3 racing seasons over the xt rear mech, i didn't ever see anyone using the same tactic, but it worked perfectly

nice build!! still cracks me up everytime you slam that stem in 😂 what a guy ps. nice tip on the jockey wheel positions

Appreciate the level of detail as always and looking forward to some footage of that secret cartel meeting of outlaw retro bike gangs!

The saddle to bar height looks a bit like my bikes from back then.

Back in the day (Late 80's early 90's) everyone raved about Rolls saddles, I HATED them and found them VERY uncomfortable. My go to was a CINELLI VOLARE SLX now going for silly money on eBay. I think I put it on at least 3 bikes of mine.

Beautiful!!❤

What a beautiful bike, Marins were even rare in the NYC area where I grew up and still live. An absolute gem. I’m not as keen on everything having to be perfect with my own rebuilds and renovations but you certainly set the bar very high. Bravo, sir.

God forbid if you “taco” a wheel on your retro get together. Get a plexiglass case for it make a princess bike only .Then put it in the living room on a live edge piece of birds eye maple . The Mrs will love it.

Very unique ride with paint and decals noted. Had to listen to Jesus Jones right after viewing. One thing I noticed is that a lot of 90 bike paints used colours similar or exact to 1990s automobiles. Makes sense if keeping with trends.

More or less what you would get if you typed ‘Matt Berry restores vintage mountain bikes’ into AI

This is the best video I have ever seen on RU-vid. I remember a friend at school had a Marin in that strange alien furry grey paint. We had never seen anything like it. We were like chimps staring at a monolith.

Outstandable...and thanks for the tip on the floating top jockey, I'd never heard that one before - will check my hoard straight away

BTW what grips are those?

Looking forward to more content

Love your channel but i dont like grease on square tapered it can make cranks over tight and open squares on cranks

Reminds me of Kuwahara mtb bikes. I have Kuwahara Pacer 91 and it looks like psychedelic dream! Good job on restoring the bike!

spds 😂and desert wellies with socks omg

What a great vid. My first proper MTB was a Zolatone 1992 Eldridge Grade with the neon red/orange highlights. Unfortunately it got nicked shortly after getting it. Thankfully, thanks to now having a proper job and old MTBs being relatively cheap, I bought a mint one during lockdown. Seeing the patina on yours, I appreciate even more the quality of the Zolatone on mine. Everything is totally original, even down to the (rather too worn) Marin Rockstar tyres. Must get some Smoke & Darts like yours though. They were the boss BITD. The Eldridge was such a great spec in ‘92. Basically all DX (so nice and hard wearing), but with the new fangled RapidFire+ XT shifters (DX and below still regular RapidFire). Shifting gears with thumb /and/ index finger was a game changer! Those early 90’s steel Marins were such great bikes. Lovely zingy frames. Fast but comfortable and great handling. Must take it for a ride this weekend and show those folks on their modern long, low and slack full sussers a thing or two about proper bikes!

Gammon units 😂😂😂

A triumph. The video and the bike. What a stunning machine. I will wade in on the DX though. With so much XT on there it would bug me, even if functionally they were perfect. Similarly the seat post. Otherwise it's perfect. Battle scars and all

I’m never super picky with everything being period correct or super original if it’s something you actually ride. Bit different for something to be displayed. I have a 1990 NA Eldridge Grade I use daily, it’s got a rack so it’s great for around town errands. But I didn’t keep it original. It just has LX on it but I put linear pull brakes and modern shifters on it. I do not like cantis personally, and I’m not down to try and revive ancient plastic shifters. But it’s ridden, it gets dirty, it has chips and scrapes, I put a rack on it sometimes to move packages. It’s a lot different than an example of showcasing a particular era and build as it was. So no, I am not offended by the seatpost. Even if I have the original black one. The silver one looks better on that build.

Nothing more than to say I absolutely love your channel. It's clear from the 'if you know, you know' narrative that there are many of us 'men of a certain age' who were all obsessing about the same details in the early 90s and are now doing so all over again! Takes me right back...

Oeuf dans la vissage. What a mistaka to maka

The crank is clear anodized, you can only polish the worn shiny bits Can be de-anodized with careful caustic bath,- will polish up beautifully but will need regular polishing

Fantastic. Thank you for another great video. I am taking my 1990 Palisades Trail to the trail tomorrow.

love this man! subbed and ill be tuning in in future

Nice👍🏻

My 1991 klein pinnacle has a full XT group set

Fantastic bike! I have the 91 palisades with the same zolotone paint. The 91 is the very best year for Marin

Fantastic build!

Sublime. Well done 👏

Old bicycle billionaire$$$ connoisseurs, we gather again.

Very nicely done and a great result. Your video should be part of curatorial studies. 👍

Love it! Beautiful work! I had those clipless pedals in 91, I spent every bit of a months worth of paper route money on the pedals and a pair of Nike shoes to go with them! Of course they were on a 91 Cannondale M1000...

Dread the cartel thinks you are the " goat " of vintage rebuilds

gotta love that '91 servo wave action, remember it well on the upper end diamond backs from the same year, superb build.... it is screaming for the original (100mm/+5deg?) pink stem tho

Great build, as I always love seeing early-90's neon & XT together. Couple possible tips - for the cranks, sanding the face works very well, removing the old anodized finish. I did that to mine & polished to a shine. Seeing that you want to keep a matte finish, you could sand with progressively finer sandpaper & it will leave it with a beautiful matte finish - that's what mine looked like before polishing. Also like the silver brake levers matching the post. If you did want to go back to black, you could rattle-can paint the levers & post - did that to my kid's old Diamondback & turned out very nice & surprisingly durable. Finally, a tip for the gummy shifters - get a can of contact cleaner & spray/flush them out. You can do this with them still assembled - may just have to remove the shifter cables. It's very fast-drying & once they're completely freed up, spray some light lube in to smooth it up. Did that to my set 10 years ago & they are still as smooth as the day I did that. Another thing I did notice is that you may have a HG-70 DX cassette. Not sure if it's just the video, but the DX had a matte finish & the XT had a chrome-plated finish, that seemed to be long-lasting, even on old rusted units. That may explain why it has a DX hubset - maybe a wheelset from another bike? Again, beautiful build & love to see a Team Marin on here, as it's obviously super-rare & has the best component spec.

Lovely build. Good commentary. I want to join the cartel! As a personal choice, I like the neon yellow next to the neon pink. Keep it coming.

Very enjoyable and interesting as always.

What an absolute dream. Still looks better than anything on the market today. Please be upstanding everyone.

Fantastic bike and commentary on the rebuild as I have come to expect from the master. I love the paint scheme and don't mind the scratches at all, better than touch up paint that doesn't match.

Greetings from the States. Another cinematic tour de force! Bravo!

DX hubs are awesome - Just need some Campy Stheno's - A respectable and considered build, but the Girvin Flex stem... dunno. I still find it insane the amount of innovation which occured between 1991 (well 89) and 1994, clipless, suspension forks, bar ends (though Onza's came out a few years earlier) , Camelbak, Psycho tyres...

Beautiful build, a real treasure 👌🏻 I could easily live with the dx hubs but would struggle with that stem in the long run. Can’t believe how well that pink still pops after all these years. Let us know how it rides…

Looks great!

What a beauty. That would have been more than adequate to tackle the xcc course at Val di Solé the other day too 😅

16:00 that's genius

That’s it. I’m in love 🩷🩶 Well done sir. I’ll have to set one up for myself even though I swore not to add bikes to my collection until 2026. Preparing for some serious eyebrow raising by my girlfriend.