vp's Cogworks: The Marin and Beyond

Ordered some bits. Gonna increase the gear ratio from 42-13 to 42-15, as my knees don't tolerate the former. I also intend to swap the stem. As much as I love its looks, I think a shorter one would be beneficial for a more comfy, cruisy ride. Meanwhile my eyes are keenly seeking a dirt cheap black seatpost...

New page, here's the same pic once again:

Minor changes for the bikes at my old place. Prolly gonna sell the Mali and keep the roadie...

1 Attachment

This KTM Strada CR (?) came up locally for dirt cheap. It has a ton of stuff needed to be fixed. It's too big.
I'll buy it naturally.

1 Attachment

Swapped the stem, added a half link. Less rad, less lethal.

2 Attachments

And after 7-ish years I finally got to ride a bike to a proper trip. From the southwest of Budapest to Szentendre, 60 km ride. On the Bianchi, naturly.
It was a beautiful, and tiring ride, and the bike was ridiculously good the whole time. Some roads were absolutely morbidly horrible, but the machine held up without any issues. Also, no punctures!

5 Attachments

Our ride went through asphalt, gravel, dirt roads, forest tracks, cobbles and all kinds of different paving. Most of the time the river Danube was by our side. Was a total blast! Gotta get back to the saddle properly and do more "adventures" like this.
I need a beer now and a proper saddle for the next one.

4 Attachments

Lovely pictures, 60km on the Bianchi sounds quite tiring though.

Thankfully most of the ride was flat, so no issues about it being single speed. It was more tiring cuz I'm weak. :P

Dirty! But it started to clean up nicely and nothing's frozen. Took it to lbs for re-greasing stuff, bought new brake pads, cables, cable housing, tyres. Should be ready next week or so.
Has some rather nice stuff on it, Arabesque 600 headset, 6sp UG casette Shimano hubs, Mavic rims.

5 Attachments

And done, more pics sometime soon. 10.9 kg right now, so rather hefty, and deffo on the big side for me, but it's still decent for commuting and stuff. Braking power is surprisingly good, given the brakes are exactly 36 years old.
Frame's most probably a KTM Formula S, originally equipped with an Arabesque 600 groupset, and probably dates to 1983 or 1984. The latter suits me better, love me an Orwell-bike. :)

1 Attachment

Buying this in a few days. High-end Marin trekking bike from approx. 1993. Butted Tange CrMo tubing, full 700CX groupset. Should be fairly light. Drop bar build obviously (given it's not too big for that).

1 Attachment

Nice...

Cheers, it is! Just got it. It's light for its size (11 kg).
Some data:

Marin Redwood 1993
Tange MTB Butted CrMo
Effective TT length: ~565 mm
Standover: ~790 mm
Headtube: 150 mm
Seat tube C-T: 510 mm
Takes 26.4 seatpost (blessed be thy engineers for uniformity across steel Marins) and 1" headset
135 mm Marin Lite CrMo stem
Full 700CX (XT-level 3x7 hybrid groupset)
Araya VX-400 rims
Ritchey headset
XT Shark Fin

Swapped saddle and seatpost (to a non-layback black one). Plan is: get a short ass stem and some very compact drops, a set of brake levers, and build it up with my 7sp bar-end shifters to be the ULTIMATE do-it-all bike. #savethetriple

Also the KTM above has a stuck seatpost, yikes.

Yes man! Should have tire clearance for a 2.0 slick in the rear if its like mine :)

I'll check! The current 700x38 ones are pretty good though, they're Maxxis something, I think I'll stick to these for a while.

Bits ordered.
Two pairs of Tektro mini-V brakes, an XLC HB-R05 road handlebar (69 mm reach: nice), some road brake levers and misc stuff. Gonna be good and I'm really really excited for this build...

I'm hyped to say the least. Bars look super comfy, they even have 6° backsweep. I really can't wait to put this all together...

3 Attachments

Change of plans. Marin's geometry is not optimal. The replacement is something pretty darn good.
Edit: can't upload photos from phone for some reason...

You tease!

;)
Early 90s Dancelli, with a ridiculous paint job. More detailed shots soon. Golden splatter paint over not-so-sick fadez (looks battered on the pic but it's nearly pristine in reality). Shitty 300LX groupset to be replaced.

C-C 53 tall, C-C 55 long = perfect size for me. Pretty good tyre clearance, but it weighs a fucking tonne and a half with these components. Overall a bloody dream bike if the alignment is sorted. Fingers crossed.

1 Attachment

Dope!!! That looks promising man. How did the alignment get all messed up?

-

Nice score! It reminds me of my bottecchia before the drop bar conversion:

Good luck with the alignment, given that it shouldn't be a high end steel, I guess your chances are pretty good :)

Your Bottecchia is still one of my forum favorites! <3 Yeah, it's their in-brand tubing, nothing fancy (it may even be Hi-Ten).

I took the Marin for a 11 km spin today, and man, it's just too good. Hands down the best bike I ever had, even with the size issue. 700CX shifting is INSANE, really some absolute top-notch and extremely underrated groupset - or maybe I have a low bar of expectations.
I'm definitely going to keep and convert the Redwood AND do the same with the Dancelli (if it can be re-aligned properly). I can sell either of them (with profit) later on if one doesn't work out.

I'll get a 60-70 mm stem with a negative rise, that might just work for this one. The problem isn't really the length on the Marin (565 mm C-C), but the front height. The top of the headset measures 89 cm from the ground (is this called stack?), while the Dancelli hardly hits 80.