1997 Marin Hawk Hill

[hawkhill97]

Thought I'd share my 1997 Marin Hawk Hill, as I've just taken it out for a lovely little spin.


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It's the first MTB I've owned as an adult, and though I've been through several other bikes since then I've kept this one, both for sentimental reasons and because it rides beautifully.

It's been through many guises; started life with RST 281 sus forks, which knocked terribly so were replaced with a much nicer rigid fork after six months or so. At the time it was my only MTB and went all over Dartmoor, Exmoor and the local trail centre.

It was later repurposed as a bike packing bike with panniers & mudguards while I was lucky enough to be working on Exmoor and could wild camp after work in the Summer.

After that it was relegated from full MTB duties as I had other more capable bikes, and was pseudo single-speeded as a super simple winter bike, with mud tyres, a 42/23 main gear and 32/23 granny for steep climbs. Loved it in this configuration, was great fun for short blasts and certainly kept you on your toes on the way down the hills.

At the moment I'm enjoying riding my recently built 2000 Mount Vision so much that this bike hasn't seen any off road action for a while. It's too nice to be sat in the garage, so I've stuck on some flat bars, slicks and upped the gearing to a 42/17 road gear and 32/17 off-road gear (I've kept two of the front chain rings and the front mech). Now using it as a sort of CX bike for mixed road & light bridleway duties and loving it just as much as ever

 

[hawkhill97]

Re:

It's currently running a STX SE crankset (one of my favorite lookers), and since I'm running two chain rings to swap between on/off road gearing I'm using the STX RC mech as a tensioner (which incidentally seems to work better than other purpose built chain tensioners I've used).

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Switched from STX cantis to LX vee brakes ages ago and never looked back.

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The rest of the components are a bit of a mishmash... Ritchey bars, el cheapo seatpost & bar ends, rather nice titanium WTB saddle... The wheelset is similarly odd, a 40 spoke rear (must have been a DH thing for extra strength?) and regular 36 spoke front running on Shimano hubs.

Somehow the bike manages to ride better than the sum of its parts though, and is both comfy and responsive.

It's been a while since I threw it down a rocky trail but I do seem to remember it required a certain amount of masochism to enjoy that sort of riding to the full. Climbing smoother singletrack, however, it goes like stink!

 

[hawkhill97]

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Now it's in a somewhat more CX style build, I'm debating whether to keep the DMR V8 copies, or switch to a period correct flat pedal with toe clips.

The only thing stopping me doing this is that I like to be able to jump on the bike straight after work and I don't think my work boots will fit into toe clips!

 

[hawkhill97]

Lol, not much love on here for a ratty low-end Marin then!

Never mind, Perilous Mongoose II (for so he is called) and I had a nice little spin this afternoon in the sunshine and squeezed in a bit of cheeky singletrack on the way home

 

[Dossa]

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Well, I like it!

A 2x1 drivetrain could be handy- I’ve never tried that...

Very versatile bike that

 

[hawkhill97]

I can recommend it if you have to do a fair bit of road links to make a decent ride. 32/16 is not much fun on tarmac!

Although it doesn't really fit with the whole SS ethos, the 32/23 granny gear I ran in the previous incarnation was also great, could climb literally anything on it and the 42/23 main gear worked out around 32/17 for general use.

The current 42/17 main gear is perfect for my hilly-ish local back roads. There are a couple of local xc climbs I doubt I could make in the 32/17 low gear, but at that point I'd rather be on my geared HT or FS anyway.

Moving to Bristol soon and this bike will hopefully not be too attractive to thieves to leave locked up in town from time to time, so might see a bit more use.

For the cheap as chips prices these sort of bikes go for, they are really very nice and a heck of a lot of fun.

 

[artfulflounder]

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Looks a fun ride.

Done single speed & 1x8 but never thought about a 2x1, kills 2 birds with one stone.

Ive got a pair of tioga surefoot 6 on my marin currently and think they're a great platform pedal, wouldnt mind toe clips......never tried spd's but dont have shoes either so would be extra expense.

 

[hawkhill97]

Re:

A pedal like that would be ideal, and would look nicer too - if only my work boots would fit into toe clips! But size ten steelies aren't the best for this, so I think for convenience I'll be keeping the flats on this one.

I built a SS hardtail last Summer and in all honesty found it a bit frustrating, whereas I've really enjoyed the 2x1 set up on this bike and it does make it a bit more versatile.

Also tried out 1x8 on a Marin Shoreline Trail FS build a few years ago, but again in all honesty 3x8 is just better (every bit as good as 1x12 IMHO)!

Isn't it odd how fashion can permeate into things like bicycle drive trains?