92 Marin Bear Valley SE colours

Hi all,

getting close to painting my 92 Bear Valley SE. Does anyone know the original colour scheme? From memory it was kind of satin black with maybe the front fork being gloss. Certainly not the matt grey of some BV's. Sadly the frame is so faded etc it's difficult to tell but kind of looks like whatever it was, it was the same all over....

Thanks - Mark

Hi, nice to see a marin getting put back in to shape!

The colour just needs to be black with a low sheen/satin finish. The factory colour is hard to nail down as the frames in '92 were clear anodised or maybe powder coat, rather than left open like zolatone or run of the mill laquer.

So, some parts of the frame go dull and some stay fairly shiney. either way the paint underneath fades like any other.

For me matte, black with LOW sheen laquer ought to get it as near as damn it back to new.

I also recommend powder coating as they will do all the prep.

cheers.

Thanks for the reply, so, was it a satin finish all over? That would be my recollection.

This has been an awesome bike, I can't put my finger on it but I built a hack bike to ride in the meantime, retro of course but with LX, DX & XT components, nice but having a last ride on the Marin, creaking bottom bracket and loose head bearings and all, it just felt so right, so deserving of being brought back to life. I may replace the push-push DX shifters with push-pull of the same period (ST-M095) which were fitted to high end Marin at the time. My only regret is that I ditched the 'Marin Lite' stem in favour of an alloy adjustable replacement, I found the original to be too low....Maybe one will turn up on Ebay..

Great to hear from someone who appreciates old Marins!!!

Regards - Mark

I'm not 100% sure but i think the head, top, down and seat tubes were satin finish and the chain stays and the seat stays were gloss black.

Hey, Thanks for that, it sort of stacks up looking at the 92 Marin catalogue and also at my bike.. if you look closely!!

I'm just wondering if marin did the two-texture thing as protection to the vulnerable spots..?.. who knows?

You'll soon find a stem that'll suit that. It may not have marin logo on it as it was peeled off too easily. plenty of marin stems around with the pulley wheel, although you may have to re-coat it black to match rest of the bike. I believe a new set of decals will contain the stem decal too.

crc have ritchey headsets to suit that. good price...

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=39820

68 x 122mm bottom brackets are quite common too. crc had the UN26 in that size for £3.24 for a while, not any :roll: more though. not the greatest bb in the range but at that price you can't complain if the mileage you intend to put on the bike is moderate.

I have it that the '92 bv had 400LX components, plenty of that sort of exage stuff still around in case any of your kit is beyond all help.

Hey Marc Two Tone,

thanks for the headset link, I know this may sound ignorant but how do I tell If I need a 1" or a 1 1/8" headset? The fork tube internal diameter is 1", ie. it takes a 1" quill stem but the outside diameter (Threaded section) is about 1 1/8"!

thanks in advance..

That'll take an 1 1/8 bud.

Rich

PopsTrippin":jbpz8rtm said:

I'm not 100% sure but i think the head, top, down and seat tubes were satin finish and the chain stays and the seat stays were gloss black.

Click to expand...

that fits in with the general scheme for all the '92 bikes, check out the red on my '92 eldridge, link in sig

Thanks for the headset tip Rich!
Daugs, you're right about the colours, now I've got it stripped and washed I can see that those areas on the Eldridge that are satin black are also satin black on the BV and similarly gloss red to gloss black.
There's a beautiful sample of the satin black on the threaded fork tube usually hidden in the head, my quandry is that I'd like to clear coat over the decals (coming from Gil_M) and still retain the satin look....

Thanks for all your help and interest Guys.