b 17 marin 100 quid bin

Is it that good a deal? I mean, it looks like Judy TTs at front? And chain looks bad for the rest of the drivetrain (i.e. rusty?).

Frame themselves sell for £70-80 so you wont really lose out, but complete bikes in good condition only really make £200, with a nice groupset and decent forks.

Would like to see it on here though, good bikes if a bit pogo-y!

Gordie":2qehurv9 said:

retrocomeback":2qehurv9 said:

Could be a bargain as B17's only had shockworks branded shocks and this one has apparently been upgraded to a fox unit,

Click to expand...

Not all 98 B-17's came with Shockworks rear suspension, the early ones (and most of the ones used for magazine tests) came with Fox Vanilla RX.

Click to expand...

my brother had a b17 that year new ,they did come with Shockworks rear shock ,but that shock was so bad(very Bouncy) that many got thrown away and replaced for the Fox Vanilla .

mrpedigree":1zx530n1 said:

Gordie":1zx530n1 said:

retrocomeback":1zx530n1 said:

Could be a bargain as B17's only had shockworks branded shocks and this one has apparently been upgraded to a fox unit,

Click to expand...

Not all 98 B-17's came with Shockworks rear suspension, the early ones (and most of the ones used for magazine tests) came with Fox Vanilla RX.

Click to expand...

my brother had a b17 that year new ,they did come with Shockworks rear shock ,but that shock was so bad(very Bouncy) that many got thrown away and replaced for the Fox Vanilla .

Click to expand...

I had a 1998 B-17 from new that came with a Shockworks shock also - 100% some early ones did come with Vanilla RX - even the Marin brochure has the B-17 fitted with an RX and the MBUK review bike also had an RX fitted.

Confirmation of another retrobike member here: http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=258466

"With 6" of plush rear travel, if you were lucky enough to get the very early spec'd Fox Vanilla RX instead of the rubbish Shock Works later rear shock."

Here you can just about make out on the catalogue image the fox rear

Gordie":3hdpttu8 said:

mrpedigree":3hdpttu8 said:

Gordie":3hdpttu8 said:

retrocomeback":3hdpttu8 said:

Could be a bargain as B17's only had shockworks branded shocks and this one has apparently been upgraded to a fox unit,

Click to expand...

Not all 98 B-17's came with Shockworks rear suspension, the early ones (and most of the ones used for magazine tests) came with Fox Vanilla RX.

Click to expand...

my brother had a b17 that year new ,they did come with Shockworks rear shock ,but that shock was so bad(very Bouncy) that many got thrown away and replaced for the Fox Vanilla .

Click to expand...

I had a 1998 B-17 from new that came with a Shockworks shock also - 100% some early ones did come with Vanilla RX - even the Marin brochure has the B-17 fitted with an RX and the MBUK review bike also had an RX fitted.

Confirmation of another retrobike member here: http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=258466

"With 6" of plush rear travel, if you were lucky enough to get the very early spec'd Fox Vanilla RX instead of the rubbish Shock Works later rear shock."

Here you can just about make out on the catalogue image the fox rear

Click to expand...

I was richer than my kid brother ,i had the Team DH that had 7inches at the front and 6 and a half at the back + it had the fcuking lot on spec wise

I just bought another after all these years for the sake of nostalgia,its funny how good memories do that to ya

I loved mine too, shame the frames were made out of chocolate. I snapped the rear swingarm and the bb casing off mine.

Gordie":2960ot2m said:

I loved mine too, shame the frames were made out of chocolate. I snapped the rear swingarm and the bb casing off mine.

Click to expand...

My brother beat/raced the shitt out of his downhill for 5 year or more ,that bike and my own got hammered and never broke once.
Unlike this thing below i owned before my Team Downhill,my GT below was the worst bike i eva owned from new for breaking,shocks wields the fcukng lot went under warranty,bloody awful its was .

Probably broke due to the shockworks rear to be honest as that spring was not progressive at all so it bottomed out quite a lot.

Here was mine:



Note 1999 main frame as Marin replaced the 98 with that and generic swingarm as they didn't have any 98 red ones left.

Gordie":q38oe4wt said:

Probably broke due to the shockworks rear to be honest as that spring was not progressive at all so it bottomed out quite a lot.
Note 1999 main frame as Marin replaced the 98 with that and generic swingarm as they didn't have any 98 red ones left.

Click to expand...

Your right ,my bother replaced his shockworks rear shock more or less as soon as he got it because it was just to bouncy and like you said bottomed out far to quick .
Like yours he eventually also replaced the RST Hi 5 front forks ,cant remember now but I think the RST forks was better than the shockworks rubbish tho