My first 26er! Marin Bear Valley SE workhorse build :)

Picked it up last week exactly as pictured, haven't had time to change anything yet. My first 26er since being 12 years old. Big grins on the way home. Loving it. Bought originally as a lockable beater but is more fun than expected. NS rag+ is great but not been getting much use. Now I'm tempted to upgrade the Marin and keep it as a tourer, gravel, commuter everything kinda thing. Don't know if this idea will stick but will definitely have to address the front end situation. Headset extender has to go, and want to find a cheaper alt for velo orange klunker bars (80gbp) preferably in chrome.

almost ordered this Fairdale MX-4 Bars in chrome for 45 but they sold out and can only find them for 60 on ebay and they look a bit hmm cheap, but then

I found this guy in Indonesia (I think) https://www.instagram.com/p/CyZy2NQy0Kq - probably will order both bars he's got as can't imagine which one will feel better and also tempted on the forks... might as well...

Next up: do I keep 3x9 or splash on Stridsland or Medium thing, figure big cassette and more gears, new wheels, disc brake mount weld on the back, etc etc etc or just keep all 27 gears and chill hmm

Also does anyone know how to identify the year on those?

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Just messaged the guy to check prices for a cycletruck

Yeah they look sick! On the components it seems it’s basically double of whatever the Indonesian price is, but I couldn’t find the cycletruck price on insta

It’s 895$ for the frame
That’s the info he sent:
I only made 1 size, this frame is recommended for height 168cm -180cm

Material steel JIS G3445
(Japan industrial Standar)
Wheelbase 1039mm
Seattube 540mm
Headttube 323mm
Top tube 540mm
Angle headttube 73°
Angle seattube 73°
Stack 589mm
Reach 369mm
Chainstay 461mm
BB Drop 81mm
Seatpost 28.6

is that shipped? either way seems really decent huh? you gonna do it?

so I got 1 of each bars and canti/disc forks all in raw coming from Edsen! which means probably one of the bars will be for sale.

also, black sks bluemels on the way

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Nah, too small for me but there are some decent builds online.

Parts arrived ! Great worksmaship for Edsen all the way from Indonesia

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this looks awesome! wow!

Hey! That is my old Bear Valley SE.

Glad to see its still alive and doing well :)

Oh amazing ! How long have you had it ? Bar and fork installed below btw (will have to cut steerer a bit more but was just rushing to put it on and playing safe - you can always cut more right ?)

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Oh my that looks great.

I had it around 6 months before I moved on to this:

I do miss that Marin though so first dibs on frame please if you decide to move it on?

EDIT: also price on that spare bar youre going to move on?

This looks great. Forks look super nice. Can I ask what they ended up costing once they'd arrived from Indonesia?

well I thought I will be selling the other bars, but now I started thinking it could be pretty dope to put lower rise bar on the steamroller that is currently waiting for parts to go back to fixed after being a single speed for a couple of years. it would probably be 60 pounds if that doesn't feel as good as it seems in my mind's eye.

And yeah this Marin is ace, went very quickly from 'hmm will give 26 a shot' to 'I'm selling my gravel bike coz hyros and tubeless is lame af' hah.

Had a stroll through your builds - lot's of fun things. Do you still have that orange forked Marin? And yeah this ATT or whatever it is looks sooo sick. Def good upgrade. As much as I love this Bear Valley I was always obsessed with pink framed Marin Eldridge Grade, so if I ever find a frameset for swaps you will be the first one to receive the news about Bear going!

Thanks, his stuff seems really well made I'm very happy. Forks and two handlebars shipped were just shy of 230 dollars which is kinda nuts. he's got the prices listed on his instagram (somehere) so you can use that to work out the shipping and customs costs, don't remember the exact splits.

very quickly from 'hmm will give 26 a shot' to 'I'm selling my gravel bike coz hyros and tubeless is lame af' hah.

Welcome to the club. Its one of the best.

The bike above is a K2 bikes a77 - Alu is lighter but def rides totally different to the steel marin!

Do you still have that orange forked Marin?

Oh yes I do - Ill never get rid of that. It is too much fun to ride.

correct conclusion in your research on gravel bikes, passes peer review

Salute to that. Your bike thread played a big part in developing my interest in all things atb/26 so thank you!

Someone please advice against going on a train to rugby (20£ return) to get this pictured frame (10£) with a seized seat post to frame swap with bear valley. I always liked these pink ones and I have a blue headset laying around (assuming the seat post gets unstuck).

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I'll pay for that frame if it means it'll free up the bear valley x

@Josh no no no I need an UNBIASED opinion :)))))

£30 for some fresh air and a good few hours tinkering seems a better value proposition than what equates to 3 pints and a fish and chips

You can even come to Birmingham and use my workshop ;)

being a non-drinker this is my favorite excuse to buy stuff! and yeah fish and chips got really expensive everywhere it seems, some lovely pink cromo pipes is what I might just need in my life instead

Great bike but the pink one is a good choice! Also interesting find, having a look right now but I said no bike parts in the next months