Marin Eldridge Grade 1995

I recently bought this bike for £30..frame is great albeit it was pretty grubby and had a lot of heli-tape and it’s residual gunge on it! The previous owner was a lady, who had fitted a terrys lady saddle, high rise stem with a quill-ahead converter. XT v brakes had been retro fitted with travel agents.

The drive train is LX with White Industries crank. The Rear lx shifter had ceased working so a grip shift had been added alongside it as the brake lever and rapid fire shifter are combined!

Pics of frame stripped and cleaned and the cranks....more to follow.

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Great stuff, look forward to updates

I’m hoping my next one will be a 95 or 96 Eldridge/PM but in a 17.5” frame size!

Ace frame..

Tidy
30 smackers a steal

Re:Marin Eldridge grade 1995 - more pics

Few more pics...more or less finished for now. I have some before pics on my laptop which I’ll upload later!

Lots of the bits were ok. I had to take apart and clean out the rear shifter to get it working properly. The original cantis had gone and were replaced with XT v brakes and ‘travel agents’ which looked a mess and didn’t work that well...I managed to selll them for £30, which paid for new tektro cr720, which look and work brilliantly. Tyres are 2 inch Schwalbe land cruisers which look ok and work really well on tarmac and gravel. I fitted new wheel bearings and got my lbs to sort a rear wheel wobble, which resulted in 2 spokes snapping as the spokes were seized in the nipples...so I can expect some future maintenance there!! Pedals were the ones which came with the bike and are period for its age.

It’s lovely and light despite the hefty tyres!

Costs to date:

Purchase price. £30
2 Schwalbe land cruiser tyres £20
New gear and brake cable sets £8
F and R Wheel bearings £3
Tektro CR720 cantis £32
KMC 8 speed Chain £6
LBS labour - true rear wheel + 2 new spokes plus check/adjust front and rear wheel bearings..£25

Total..£124

Less sale of XT V brakes and travel agents ..£30

Grand total...£94.00

Seat and stem old ones from parts box

Quite chuffed with this as I was trying to build a tidy useable bike for less than a hundred quid!

very nice these nice and light too

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Looks great for under £100, some nice parts on it too.
Always nice to turn a bargain bike around into something more usable.

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It’s so mucky around here that I have fitted mudguards.. 20 mile Christmas card ride just done in filthy conditions! ‘Damp proof course’ mudflaps kept everything clean !

Nice happy with it?

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Thanks, very happy! it rides really well and everything works as it should. I also have a 95 Hawk Hill with a butted cromo frame, yet the Eldridge’s frame is so much nicer. It feels much lighter and livelier. Both frames are 15.5” which is perfect for my size(5’ 7 1/2 “) so are really comfortable as a result...sometimes you find a bike fit which is just right- and so it is with 15.5 Marins and me!