I have been having a look at the Marin Muirwoods 2016 as a cheap tough tourer. At £446 seems a great bargain for a 9 speed cro mo framed hydrolic disk bike, as its marketed as a city bike-tourer?
http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/product ... ds-29er-16
Marin muirwoods as a tourer
Re: Marin muirwoods as a tourer
Marin used to make excellent steel frames. A friend of mine toured on one for years.
I recently rode an old Bear Valley and it still felt good.
If this bike has the necessary braze one for rack and mudguards, it could be worth considering.
My reservations:
probably poor factory built wheels, but a hand rebuild would help;
Fairly basic drivetrain, OK and can be upgraded as it wears;
Quality of disc brakes;
Availability of 29 spares in out of way places.
Otherwise it seems a good buy, I'd go for it.
I recently rode an old Bear Valley and it still felt good.
If this bike has the necessary braze one for rack and mudguards, it could be worth considering.
My reservations:
probably poor factory built wheels, but a hand rebuild would help;
Fairly basic drivetrain, OK and can be upgraded as it wears;
Quality of disc brakes;
Availability of 29 spares in out of way places.
Otherwise it seems a good buy, I'd go for it.
Re: Marin muirwoods as a tourer
i bought a couple of 1994-edition (i think) steel framed Marin Muirwoods as a way to get a cheap steel frame. replaced all the parts with new stuff.
We rode them on a 9month tour through Asia.
Frames were great... although i managed to snap one chainstay on mine halfway through the tour... though that's probably more a manufacturing defect.
Geometry-wise there's a couple of things to think about (i didnt notice either of these things until i swapped to the Surly Frame [same parts]) halfway through the tour.
* im not really sure why but the handling is quite jittery/noodly under load. particularly if you have a handlebar bag. we had decent headsets and there was no issue of headset play. put the same parts on my surly and the problem just disappeared. this wasnt really apparent when riding without pannier load.
* pedal stroking. maybe the frame was too small for me, but i feel like the seat position was too far behind the bottom bracket... so my pedal stroke was more a push forward rather than down. changing to the surly frame was a weird feeling bcos suddenly i was pushing down again. much more comfortable
* chainstay length. this was short-ish on the muirwoods and luckily i had racks that i could push the panniers an inch or so further back to avoid heel strike. even so it was a bit of problem sometimes.
totally agree with previous poster on upgrading wheels if going for a long tour as they will probably fail under touring loads/abuse.
We rode them on a 9month tour through Asia.
Frames were great... although i managed to snap one chainstay on mine halfway through the tour... though that's probably more a manufacturing defect.
Geometry-wise there's a couple of things to think about (i didnt notice either of these things until i swapped to the Surly Frame [same parts]) halfway through the tour.
* im not really sure why but the handling is quite jittery/noodly under load. particularly if you have a handlebar bag. we had decent headsets and there was no issue of headset play. put the same parts on my surly and the problem just disappeared. this wasnt really apparent when riding without pannier load.
* pedal stroking. maybe the frame was too small for me, but i feel like the seat position was too far behind the bottom bracket... so my pedal stroke was more a push forward rather than down. changing to the surly frame was a weird feeling bcos suddenly i was pushing down again. much more comfortable
* chainstay length. this was short-ish on the muirwoods and luckily i had racks that i could push the panniers an inch or so further back to avoid heel strike. even so it was a bit of problem sometimes.
totally agree with previous poster on upgrading wheels if going for a long tour as they will probably fail under touring loads/abuse.