Rime of the ancient Marin[er]

I picked this up this morning, after spending years looking for a large frame here in Italy. This is, I believe a 21" frame (54cm seattube and 60cm toptube) but the tubing I'm not 100% sure on. It has these strange 'grooves' running along the length of the tubes, and is very light.

I am not sure about the year - I would guess mid 90's but it has a 1 1/8 headtube (Ritchey Fuzzy Logic) and the logos look like the later ones. It's in remarkably good condition, I think the previous owner really looked after it. I've stripped it down, removed the forks (I want to put some Kona P2 forks on it) but other than that, I'm not sure what the best course of action is. I've already got two 26" rigid mountain bikes, albeit in aluminium, so I had considered using this as a kind of... gravel bike by setting it up singlespeed with some medium tyres, maybe even (shudder) disc brakes, perhaps in the front only.

If anyone has any info about it, I'd really appreciate it as it'll help me to make sure the parts I get are (relatively) period correct. Any suggestions for a decent 26" wheelset? Was thinking silver parts for this. Apparently the BB is 68mm and the seatpost 27.2mm, so I should have a few spare bits I can use for the time being.

Image seemed to have disappeared. More to follow!

Amazing. That’s also got to be the biggest mtb frame I’ve ever seen. Good effort finding that.

Just to say I love the thread title and the nod to the band Iron Maiden

Coleridge no?

Looks like a respray, pretty sure that colour scheme is not original and the seat tube decal would not have been there. It is either a Team Marin or Team Issue frame from mid 90s - when both were available I think they used the same frame. Cable stops on the headtube was only those 2 models. Would have been Tange Prestige tubing with some maybe other words such as Superlite / Ultralight / Ultimate. Very good frame anyway.
Hard to tell the year from pics - not from 1991 as that had top tube rear mech routing, but 92-97 all looked similar. Probably 98 too. What is the serial number on bb shell?

Also regarding respray, the TT "Team Marin" decal is from 1996 - only year to use that weird font (attached catalogue image) but the DT decal is not and looks more like early 90s style or recent modern when Marin went for a retro look. The last year to use headtube cable stops on these frames was 1997. I have a 1995 Team Marin with original kit.

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Nice frame. Love the idea of turning it into a grvl bk.

More about ‘that weird font’
https://www.emigre.com/Fonts/Lunatix

(whether ^this^ is a direct use of - or a modified version - it’s what drew me to those Marins back then!)

Getting a Team Marin is a dream of mine, really looking forward seeing this built up!

Tricky to tell exactly what the bb shell serial is but it looks like MJ2HA0189.

There is also D3 stamped into the inner rear dropouts. @Egghead I think you are right, this colourway is completely different to all the others I've seen (since doing a bit of research), but it seems to have been done well (the frame is chromed beneath the red). Thanks for all the information, it has made me much more interested in the history of this particular frame.

That's what I was going with, but in my ignorance misspelt the title. It'll probably end-up being about the same length.

Anyone have any suggestions for a replacement headset? I always ask this question and I always buy a Cane Creek 40, so I don't know why I'm even asking, but I'd rather not drop €50 on a headset if there is another half-decent alternative I'm not thinking of. Why don't bike companies make components in silver any more? This is just like hi-fi, suddenly someone in the 80's decided everything had to be black. Take a look at a Pioneer SA-9800 and tell me that that decision was progress.

Tange Seiki J-27? Silver, shiny

Ritchey Classic (installed in August to Brother Kepler) is also decent silver headset, but to me it felt very similar as Tange (installed in May to Kona Fire Mountain).

Cheers, I think I'm going with the Tange.

I've just realised something (these things never go smoothly). The Marin has a very long head tube at 180mm. I've received the Kona fork today, which has 220mm of steerer (which would usually be considered pretty generous) however this means 40mm total free space for the headset and stem. The Tange has a stack height of ~26mm... am I in trouble here?

Yes. Stem stack heights are usually 40mm (Thomson x2 is 35mm iirc, Ragley stubbing stem is 30mm).

I had the same problem with a Dynatech frame with a 170mm headtube. I solved it by [muffled static +++ Paul Motolites +++ 700c fork +++ NO CARRIER

But surely the average fork supplied with this frame would have been a Manitou or RockShox or similar, with ~200mm of steerer? The headset supplied with the frame was an old Ritchey Logic, which has a greater stack height than the Tange. It's definitely been ridden and was originally setup with the Manitou forks in the top image...

Sure, but uncut steerers are what? 260-300mm in length?

Your Kona has been trimmed to fit a bike with a shorter headtube.

Sigh. Of course it has. Well that's pissed on my chips.

Just measured - the original cro-mo fork I took off the Dynatech has 238mm of steerer. You need something around 250mm.

Sorry dude : /

Could get an extension welded on? It’s a steel steerer. Up the dental insurance at the same time maybe.

Well luckily I wanted to replace the horrendous suspension forks on my other 26" bike, but this does now mean I have this Marin frame and no sign of any forks to use on it. It took me months to find these Kona forks too. I'm not so keen on the welding option.

I had the same issue with Kona P2 fork (wanted to change from threaded to threadless) and a friend luckily could weld few cm of extension.

I’d guess that the walls on the Kona’s steerer are too thin to support cutting threads into?
I’d wondered if you could get a threaded headset and use a fancy-schmancy Ti quill stem (as seen in a recent sales thread here).

The only issue is, these Kona forks are getting rarer and rarer, so the fewer modifications I make to them, the better, especially as these are like new. I have a few other options that I'm yet to exhaust, including buying another fork (aiya) but it's good to know that welding is less of a risky option than I'd previously thought. If I were in the UK I could resolve this relatively easily, but here in Italy parts and so on are ridiculously expensive, due to their scarcity.

Brief update: I've put the Kona P2s on my MAGA mtb and ordered yet another set of rigid forks, this time some triple butted aluminium ones. These have a 260mm steerer tube and axle-to-crown length of 420mm, so I pray will be suitable. Thinking about using some Shimano XT cranks (M751 octalink) and then removing the inner and middle rings, and using a Middleburn, Blackspire, Wolftooth etc big ring at the front, and a Surly (or similar) single speed adapter at the rear.

On the lookout for some wheels, but have found a saddle (Flite titanium) and seatpost (NOS Shogun).

Glad to read this is forging ahead and you’re fapping that [BUY!] button to get it all progressed. It’s exactly what I would do : )

Didn’t realise this was a single speed build (?)