1995 Marin Team project

Since sticking most of the 1995 Marin catalogue to my walls when i was 13 I've always wanted a Marin so when the option to buy a mountain bike for the winter arose i thought "why not buy the bike you've always wanted?".
So i bought a great 1995 Marin Team from cybernck on retrobike and have started dismantling it. I'm keen to keep it original where i can but am happy to replace with new where necessary/safer.
This is my first refurb so any/all advice welcome.

Re:

Totally rad.

I have the same bike/frame size too.

From the image, its original down to the tyres. I would change chain/cassette and bottom bracket. Even if its to clean up the bb shell. The axle needs to be 107mm.

Them stem plugs are lost too easy. In the past I've replaced them with cheap suspension fork stantion plugs ( whittled down to fit).

Let us know how the stripdown goes and what you discover.
The butted tubes can be prone to denting so don't over tighten front mech.

Marc.

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Nice bike!

Ha ha, I also lost the stem plug during my first ride on the 1995 Pine Mountain.

I think it is a good idea to check the headset. The ones fitted from factory were quite rubbish (water ingress).

First update

So i thought I'd better strip the bike down and clean up all of the components. Below are the results.
Initial assessment shows the following problems:
1) Stuck freehub
2) stuck shifters
3) Frame rust
4) Alu nipples corroded and snapping
5) Spokes missing on both wheels
6) Corrosion on Marin Lite stem (cap missing)
7) All cables need replacing
Grips are nasty foam

The freehub is a Deore LX m565 which i took apart, cleaned and regreased. The cups are a little worn but the cones and bearings are fine so i just regreased them and put them back together. It's running nice and smoothly, if a little noisy.

The front hub is running fine after a clean and regrease.

The shifters eased up with some WD40 and repeated clicks. The cover bolt housing had sheared through the interior gear housing so i had to remove the back cover and indicator hinge to loosen the bolt.

I removed the rust from the seat post using the tin foil trick, looks great.

Everything cleaned up pretty well. Bought some replacement spokes and nipples so next stage is lacing the wheels.

Re: Re:

Thanks for the info. I bought a silver Planet X expandable stem cap that I'm hoping will fit. Can't find any info on the original and doubt I'll get hold of one.
Bottom bracket shell had a worrying amount of rust but BB itself cleaned up well and painted it with Kurust. Didn't take the BB apart.
My main concern at the moment is the surface rust on and under the paint on the frame as well as in the seat tube (prob inside whole frame). Torn between complete strip and respray and keeping original paint and decals. Think I'll rebuild to make it ridable in winter and revisit frame in the summer.

marc two tone":1voi2e4e said:

Totally rad.

I have the same bike/frame size too.

From the image, its original down to the tyres. I would change chain/cassette and bottom bracket. Even if its to clean up the bb shell. The axle needs to be 107mm.

Them stem plugs are lost too easy. In the past I've replaced them with cheap suspension fork stantion plugs ( whittled down to fit).

Let us know how the stripdown goes and what you discover.
The butted tubes can be prone to denting so don't over tighten front mech.

Marc.

Click to expand...

Wheel update

Wheel lacing: Requires the patience of a saint.
The original Marin wheels were laced with Whelsmith XL 15-17g double butted spokes on alloy nipples. However this is a really unusual size/brand of spoke and the light guage and age concerned me. The alloy nipples were all on their way out and several had snapped. So i decided to relace the wheels with new spokes and nipples.
I bought double butted 14-16g spokes with brass nipples from Jake's Bikes in Bristol. The guy was really helpful and had some really good advice about building wheels.
I used videos on YT to work out the technique. I finished the front wheel at 3am and, in my excitement, put the tube and tyre on it only to realise that it was laced it all wrong (over, over, under, SKIP A HOLE!).
The rear wheel was a little easier having already done the first but as the rim wasn't completely true i struggled to get some spokes to stretch to the nipple. The rims are the original Mavic 230 SBP with Quake 7.0/7.1 tyres. I wanted to keep the originals but suspect that 21 years is perhaps a greater life expectancy than rubber should ever have as it's looking like it's starting to atrophy.
I think lacing 8 spokes on one side then the other, then the cross spokes works better than lacing up all one side then the other.
Truing wheels is a nightmare and, i suspect, where the real skill is in wheel-making. I've done my best but there is still a little wobble on each wheel as i only eyeballed it. I'll prob take them into Jake's Bikes again to get them checked and trued.
Next up: Gotta tackle that rust.

Re:

Yup - lotsa patience.

I recently laced my first pair of wheels, only to learn that I had failed to pay attention to the rear wheel's dishing feature (never knew I had to do that), and so must now disassemble the rear wheel completely, and re-lace it with the correct length spokes on the requisite side of the rim/wheel.

sigh.

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Didn't know that!
I matched spoke length to the ones on the original wheel but didn't use a dishing tool so the wheel is almost certainly not centred.
I'll add this to the list of things that needy checking at LBS.

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I think you should not worry too much about the rust. Just as long as you do not discover any pitting. It looks quite superficial and can easily be cleaned with e.g. white spirit. There are plenty of holes to drain the frame After cleaning treat the interior of the tubing with some light oil or equivalent.

By the way... I think the seat post is not original. Normally the '95 models have a Titec seatpost installed.

Re:

Thanks for the tips.
Yeah not gonna worry too much about the rust but tackled the seat tube (see below). Like those Titec seatposts, will keep an eye out.