Recent content by hawkhill97

I am very lucky, live just South of Bristol and have loads of good mixed terrain riding, with the Mendip Hills within riding distance if I'm making a big day out of it 😁 plus Forest of Dean, Cwmcarn, Bike Park Wales all within an easy drive.

Managed to get out for another couple of local rides, this time a nice mix of bridleways, back roads, and a couple of "proper MTB" steep rocky bits. The bike rides beautifully in it's latest build. I don't know if it's just because I learnt to ride a bike on similar (though less nice!) frames...

One of the best back handed compliments I've had about one of my builds was that this bike "looked exactly like the most perfect, awesome bike my ten year old self could have thought of" 😂 Pretty on the nose!

Now up on eBay (and regrettably, also FB marketplace, not quite sure why I bothered with the latter).

Should probably also have said, it's a size M frame, 19" CTT seat tube or about 17.5" CTC (as Marin would have measured it for their sizing). I'm 5'9" with long legs and a short torso and it fits well for me. Pics are with the fork wound down to 85mm travel for road use, the bars go up a...

Looking to move on this monstrosity at the moment, which I think fits quite well here! https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/2010-marin-hawk-hill-monstercross-mtb-gravel-monstrosity-%C2%A3250-ono.496112/

Errr, and that's about it! Brakes, gears, bearings etc all nice and smooth and sharp, fork has just had new seals and a lowers oil change prior to sale. Can throw in a pair of narrower road slicks if desired. Been riding this for the past 5 years around Somerset and it's been great fun...

Ritchey Venturemax trendy flared drop bars, which are really nice off road when in the drops. Fresh bar tape.

100mm dropper post - yes it's a cheapy hand actuated one, but works just as it should and has lasted several years with no issues - I think the rear mudguard really helps with this.

Rockshox Tora coil sprung fork with 85mm - 130mm adjustable travel. Works really nicely on this bike, 85mm for road, get to the interesting bits and add as much travel as you need.

Avid BB7 road pull cable disc brakes, which are really good

Drivetrain is 3x8 Shimano STX, with Sora brifters

Looking to sell my 2010 Marin Hawk Hill monstercross conversion, thought I'd pop it up on here to see if there's any interest.

Oh, and the swap over to disc brakes continues to be brilliant, really glad I did this. 99% of the time I don't think about or notice the brakes at all, but on wet muddy mixed terrain rides, that's actually a very good thing, whereas on rim brakes I found myself thinking about braking...

Here she is in her most recent guise. If anyone else is hankering after a nice short travel modern-ish fork for their retro ride, I can definitely recommend the mods carried out above.