1989 & 1992 Marin Bear Valley, 1990 Team Issue

Due to the arrival of a baby, a house move and promotion nothing happened to the 1989 at all.

I stripped it down to just the frame, and it then sat under cover until a couple of weeks ago.

In the meantime, since moving somewhere with good access to bridleways, I fancied another bike. Something to just enjoy while I rebuild the '89.

1992 Bear Valley, a four hour round trip to Poole from Herts to collect it, but worth it.







It was already fitted with a set of Mag21's, and since buying it I've fitted a set of MO71 shifters as I couldn't get on with the longer brake lever fitted as standard.

I have the original recipt, rockshox warranty and pump and tyres stored away.

2 very nice bikes there.

Picked up a straddle rod from here, love it, makes adjusting the brakes a doddle. Just need one for the back now.



Also picked up a cheap X-Lite seat post, as the Marin one was knackered.



Fitted the chopped down bars from the '89 and another Girvin Flexstem (1 1/8 steerer on this one), note the quality bar cutting .



Also fitted a pair of Tioga lever tamers that were gathering dust from about 20 years ago at my parents.



I'm quite liking this one now, weighs a tonne but is fun to ride.

Recently fitted:

1994 Flite Ti Transalp
Purple ano bars
Purple ano Sintesi skewers
Tioga bottle and cage
Dia Compe 987 in purple
Raceface grips
Black Tioga pedals
Purple Tioga clips with straps and Hot tips.

Was good to get out for the first time this year, going to refit the rigid forks for a while and see how it rides.

Loving the Ribena in the water bottle to complete the look. Looks nice mate. Wouldn't mind that seatpost myself

Cheers, I hadn't considered the ribena until I looked at the photo afterwards

Set of Magura HS33 racelines arrived in the post this week, so thought I would prepare the bike for fitting.

As the Mag21 brace has a brake cable mount, I picked up a spare and modified it for use with the Maguras.






Now just need to source some shifters to replace the ST-M071's.

1989 Marin

Hi, I have the spec for the Marin.
Smallest had a U-brake, everything larger a rear canti.
I really like the 1980's Marin Bear Valley, I have 2 X 1989 and 4 X 1988

Cheers, the 1988/9 BV has a lot of memories for me.

In 1990 I took one on holiday to Switzerland for a month. I was resting about halfway up one particular mountain and was caught by another Marin rider. Their bike was stunning, I can remember being surprised that even the quick release wheel skewers had holes drilled in them (thanks to this forum I now know they were Ringle). Anyway he stopped and chatted, turned out he was a Dutch rider with team Marin, and had never seen a black BV with the gold stickers. We ended up swapping bikes for five minutes, and I’ll never forget how light his bike seemed compared to mine.

My original 89 was written off by a Volvo driver in 1992. Thankfully I did ok out of the crash, the driver (drunk) was a doctor and made the mistake of giving me his practice details. I visited him the following day and suggested it wouldn’t be in his practice’s interests to have a GP publicised for drunk driving. He agreed and gave me an amount of cash to be quiet.

Recently fitted a Vetta C16 computer and Odyssey seat bolt. Was looking for an Avocet cyclometer, but keep missing out on ebay and this popped up boxed for a fiver.

Some NOS Magura flouro yellow raceline boosters arrived today, so just need to get the hose sorted and can get on with fitting them.



This keeps looking at me from the other side of the garage too, must start stockpiling parts for it.



It's a weird spec Marin frame, from 1990. Details here: http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... highlight=