vp's Cogworks: The Marin and Beyond

Thanks mate, me too!

@oheyitsdrew
Cheers, it's Tange MTB butted tubing. I'm quite a Marin fanboy so I'm biased towards saying you should not fight the temptation and just buy one!

@si_mon628
The 10 speed issue is no problem for me, to be perfectly honest after taking a ride at a local trail I realized I could've even stayed on 7 with a little wider range cassette...

What I am actually temped by is the microSHIFT Acolyte 8s groupset, but it seems to be unavailable anywhere. It's so damn cheap I just have to try it some day.

New page, so here's some pics:

So bloody good

This marin is lush and so well kept! Perfect all-rounder, good work man!

Cheers guys, missed these last two comments, appreciate it! Bike's amazing, I can't stop jumping down curbs and riding through mud. :)

Meanwhile a hers & his shot:

cute couple

Cheers!

Meanwhile I've renamed both the thread and myself to make things matchy (so my website, IG and YouTube are all in unison).

Koga's sold, its new owner will add gears and will actually use it as a road bike, which is really nice.
Been a fun project, learned a lot again. Hopefully I'll have another bike in the near future, eyeing with local retro MTB listings right now...

Mom's using the Merida I built her a lot, which puts a huge smile on my face.

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Well that's cool. Did you ask her for some in-ride shots?!

Thanks! No need to ask, she uploads them herself!

Planning to build a 26" gravel thingy. Drops, bar end end shifters, maybe some tanwalls. Currently on the hunt for a nice frame or full bike on the cheaps. Hopefully I can snag a RockHopper, sliding dropouts would be good, if I ever decide to go singlespeed.

And the Marin should get mudguards next month.

We love our bikes.
Although the Marin's chainline is atrocious, I might need to do something with it sooner or later.

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I've managed to order a second-hand C15 carved for a reasonable price, should be here with me by the end of the week. Really excited, never had a Brooks, don't know what to expect, hopefully it will be comfy.

Having some brain farts about Marin's shifting. It's all good, except for the 6-7th gears, these are crunchy and jumpy for some reason, even though I have a friction shifter I cannot get them right.

• The chainline is quite horrible, chain's straight in the 8-9th gears, then it starts bending to the left towards the bigger cogs. However, even on the largest sprocket it feels less jumpy and crunchy than the 6-7th speeds.

• Maybe the derailleur doesn't like the 9sp chain? I hardly think this is the case given how slight the difference is between 9 and 10. I don't have another long cage derailleur to test this out, so the big cogs will not be cleared, but I can test up to the 3rd one I believe.

• There is no visual sign, but the derailleur cage might be bent. I can also test if this is the case by trying another RD.

• Then it might be the derailleur hanger of course... It's a CrMo frame, with the hanger built into the dropout. I could test this with RJ's method.
  

Are there any other things I should try? I can also swap the casette to an 8-speed and check how that works. I had no issues with 7 speed back then.

I’ve used that method of checking hangar alignment. Pretty easy and seemed to do the trick in my case.

Cheers, I will check this afternoon, thankfully I have some spare wheels lying around.

I'm quite leaning towards going 2x on the front, mostly because I really want to keep these cranks, but the chainline is just ridiculous with this 1x setup. I might go full Radavist, and put up an extra ring without a front derailleur...

I guess that’s one problem with hollowtech cranks - you cant muck about with spindle length like you can square taper :-(

So, the hanger was actually aligned pretty well. Then some creaking was eliminated after I tightened the cranks. Tried with another derailleur, no big changes, now I'd say it's pretty good, it doesn't want to jump gears anymore.
And my C15 has arrived, hopefully there's gonna be some good weather and I can try it properly. :)

Indoor pic, guess what's the weather like...

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very handsome bike

Thanks! Aiming for the wanker hybrid aesthetic...

wanker hybrid aesthetic

Sorry to disappoint, but it looks too sensible for that. looks proper good though, hope you'll like the C15 as much as I like mine :)

Ta!
Went on a ride yesterday, was fun, although I'm afraid the C15 isn't comfier than the old Avocet... Well, I'll need to put in a few hundred kms before calling it not good.

Tomorrow...

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Bought it. Damn thing is too good. Mint condition, full XT, and I believe it's close to 10 kilos...
Would it be a monstrous thing to part it out and use it as a comfy town cruiser?