vp's Cogworks: The Marin and Beyond

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?

Nope. These bikes are PERFECT for it.

My initial plan was to sell the all the XT stuff and go singlespeed. Instead I'll just toss a big ass cruiser bar on it and that's it.

~10.8 kilos, stiff as hell and very fast. Will need to shorten the chain a lil bit.
Apparently the brand is Belgian, but that's pretty much the only info I could find.

Pics.

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I believe that is the very definition of MINT!

Ta!
So, ordered some cruiser bars, V-brakes & levers, and my cheap AliExpress thumbie arrived. The Minerva's seller also kindly provided a set of 26x2.1 Rapid Robs, which I'm planning on using.
Today I've removed the front derailleur and two chainrings, gonna rock it 1x8 with the 42T stock one for now. Then hopefully a Stridsland NW should arrive sometime around the end of summer. :)

Overall the bike should be very IG-friendly lol.

Sounds very exciting! Looking forward to more pictures.

Crispy fresh!

So far the build is going as planned, but I will only be able to sort of finish it up tomorrow. The 26x2.1 Rapid Robs fit very nicely, and there's still quite a lot of clearance, which makes me wanna go wider - maybe 26x2.35 Fat Franks in the near future. They are quite cheap and look super wank, which is the ultimate aesthetic goal here. The bike will be an fantastic mixture of high-end, expensive retro, and cheapest-from-the-webshops components. Should be fun.

Sneak peak:

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Maxxis DTH would be more wank then Fat Franks though

I know, and I would love to, but they cost twice the price! Wanking on a budget, sort of... I'll look around for sales and local ads, just in case.

Wanking on a budget

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:-D

I'm sorry to tell you, but they are likely twice as nice too.
I'm not one for blindly throwing money at projects, but not buying the cheapest tyres is really worth it imo.

Alright, alright, I'll hunt for DTHs! I really want to try them, they were never available anywhere in Hungary back then so here's my chance...

Another budget option is Peyotes. Pretty happy with mine so far, although admittedly I’ve not taken them seriously off road. Bought mine on eBay for £15 each.

Saw them in your thread, they look rad, but I think the DTHs look and probably roll a lot better. Potential wanker bike - will not use it off-road. ;)

Yeah if you’re not cheaping out definitely go with the DTHs.

Yesterday I cabled it all up. The 90 cents AliExpress thumbie is by far the best thumb shifter I have ever encountered (although I haven't used it extensively). Micro ratchet, has about 25 engagement points, feels satisfying af. 2-3 clicks changes one gear on my 8-speed setup, works like a charm.
Really hope it will last, it seems solid, but well... 90 cents. Will probably buy a few more, for future builds.

The rear tyre has some funny wobble, I will try the soapy water pop-into-place method, hopefully my small hand pump can handle that. Will need to get a proper floor pump soon.

Post #666 and it doesn't have pics...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUyO3j6jn5U

And then a set of Vittoria Tattoo Lites came up for real cheap, 26x2.30 too... Should I?
They look fun but I've never heard of them.

Edit: welp, it seems someone took them already, so sticking with the DTHs probably.

I love every bit of it, except for the saddle. I need a wider, more comfy one for this.

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Got myself a Selle Royal Freccia, right now it seems nice and comfy, will need to test on longer rides too.

Then, I was thinking about installing a bar end shifter for extra wank points, but needless to say these bars don't fit them. The cheap Ali thumbie is... well... cheap. Initially (before cabling it up) it was really nice, but turns out there's a lot of play in the micro ratcheting, which means downshifting is not as adequate as I originally thought. It works, but it could be a lot better.
I'll hunt for some old LX/DX/XT 7sp thumbie and will use it in friction mode for 8sp compatibility - it would look a lot better than this one too. Alternatively I can opt in for some thumbie adapters for a lot of money.

Then, I ordered a set of 26x2.35 Fat Franks after all, mostly because they were on sale. Plan is to pull the trigger on DTHs when Stridsland chainrings get back in stock, for a nice double upgrade.

Okay, so turns out the bar end shifter actually fits into my cruiser bars. Now I need to find a way to route the cable properly.

Fat Franks arrived and fitted, plenty of clearance, looks ridiculously good imho, pics by the weekend hopefully. Lil change of plans, will swap a few cockpit parts from the Redwood. Grips, Avid brake levers, shifter are all going to the Minerva, and the Marin will get drop bars again, just because. But this time it will look nicer. I need to find a rather tall, short (60-80 mm), black quill stem with a 25.4 clamp.

Hope to snap some better shots over the weekend. Fuzzy little thing helped with swapping the components. :)

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a rather tall, short (60-80 mm), black quill stem with a 25.4 clamp

Been thinking of exactly this for my trek, I'd be interested to hear what you come up with! Have only found silver quill stems in those sizes so far (some nice nitto ones tho which are tempting).

I pulled the trigger on this one, not as tall as the Nittos unfortunately, hopefully not too death either:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33008634785.html

Loving all the red ano parts on this! V cool