Is this a 1989 Marin Muirwoods?

[frkl]

I have a Marin frame (and a bucket full of parts ) that has been a bit of a puzzle to put a date on, I think because it has a continental Europe paint scheme, perhaps specs too, and so doesn't show up in catalogs I've found or google image searches for 1989 Marin Muirwoods.

Can anyone confirm that it is indeed a 1989?







Here is what I know: it's obviously a Muirwoods, with white splatter on black base coat, with green decals, now faded. It came with a mix of Exage Trail and Exage Country date stamped stamped Nx, so 1989 on the components.

The Serial number is not entirely readable, but the important bits are there: M90....6. The very helpful 1980s Marin ID thread here decodes this as Marvel 1989....Model 6 (Muirwoods).

Also through Retrobike, I found a French 1990 catalog that seems to confirm that there was a continental paint scheme:



From the component codes, i had thought mine could be a 1990 with 1989 bits, but this seems to suggest not.

Complicating matters, I have found one other Muirwoods on the interwebs with the same paint but with chainstay mounted U brakes. Mine has cantis.

https://www.mtbr.com/threads/marin-muirwoods-old-school.275986/

The serial number on this guy's frame doesn't quite make sense as posted, but maybe he just didn't see the last part. It suggests a Marvel 1989 bike.

So were there two versions of an alternative version of the Muirwoods manufactured in 1989? Can a Marin expert help me close the book on this ID? Thanks!

 

[frkl]

Got a better look at the serial number on my frame, it starts M907, so that would be July 89.

The serial number from the frame with the U brake is M903, so maybe there was a switch mid year....

 

[marc two tone]

Yes, i would concur with 1989.
The exage stuff, the decal half way down seat tube and the rear cantilever brake arch thingy just about says it all.
Never owned one but uk got the yellow one. Other continents got variations, but the same kinda level in the catalogue.

The frame will be quite heavy, and a 1" fork steerer? Glad you posted this as the 89 catalogue is rather rare/does one exist.

 

[frkl]

Heavy it is and with a 1" steerer. The fork, stem, and bars are also painted matching white splatter on black, it creates a nice continuity.

I like the way that stems and bars--and not just on Marins but some other framesets of the era-- were finished as continuations of the frame, and not as silver or black distinct components.

 

[gtturbo]

Yes, i would concur with 1989.
The exage stuff, the decal half way down seat tube and the rear cantilever brake arch thingy just about says it all.
Never owned one but uk got the yellow one. Other continents got variations, but the same kinda level in the catalogue.

The frame will be quite heavy, and a 1" fork steerer? Glad you posted this as the 89 catalogue is rather rare/does one exist.

100% there was a UK 89 catalogue as I had one. Might still have the Bear Valley page somewhere. The Muirwood in the catalogue I had was the fluro yellow one but as said it was the UK catalogue.

 

[frkl]

There are a few pages of the 1989 catalog here

Upload and request of 1989 and 1990 Marin catalogue

Here i have some pages of a 1989 and a 1990 Marin catalogue. If you have some of the missing pages please upload them on here.

www.retrobike.co.uk

 

[frkl]

Yes, i would concur with 1989.
The exage stuff, the decal half way down seat tube and the rear cantilever brake arch thingy just about says it all.
Never owned one but uk got the yellow one. Other continents got variations, but the same kinda level in the catalogue.

The frame will be quite heavy, and a 1" fork steerer? Glad you posted this as the 89 catalogue is rather rare/does one exist.

100% there was a UK 89 catalogue as I had one. Might still have the Bear Valley page somewhere. The Muirwood in the catalogue I had was the fluro yellow one but as said it was the UK catalogue.

So the mystery of the 1989 Marin catalog deepens. I found a few other pages from what were labeled as 1989 catelogs on mtb-news.de. They match the format of what @juice posted as 1989 catalog pages in the thread mentioned above.




from https://fotos.mtb-news.de/p/2100446?in=set, https://fotos.mtb-news.de/p/2100447?in=set, and https://fotos.mtb-news.de/p/2100454?page=2&in=set

The weird thing is that the specs of the Muirwood (the only bike common between both sets of page scans) match between the 1990 catalog with the yellow Muirwood and the scans labeled as 1989 with the white/purple splatter paint job. The specs are also different than what came on my bike, if we assume that was a 1989.

So maybe a) I am overthinking this and should just move on (unlikely), b) the model year distinction/manufacturing date was not 100% reliable or mutually exclusive, or c) the 1989 Marin catalog is like a unicorn, something that would be cool to see, but it doesn't exist...

 

[gtturbo]

Those Eldridge and Team pictures above are not 89 model year bikes. The easy way to tell is the 2 bikes featured have sti shifters and they didn't appear until 1990 models I think it was. In 89 it would have been thumbshifters across the range. From memory the 89 UK catalogue was Muirwood, Palisades, Bear Valley, Pine Mountain and Team Marin. We didn't have the Eldridge in the 89 UK brochure. The first Eldridge I recall in the UK was 1990 but my Marin knowledge is only from 89 onwards. As for the white splatter Muirwoods that wasn't a UK spec to the best of my knowledge. I did have one, since sold, but assumed it was a 1990 euro spec but could have been an 89 I guess. If I get a chance I will try and find any pages I may have left from the 89 UK catalogue.

 

[frkl]

Those Eldridge and Team pictures above are not 89 model year bikes. The easy way to tell is the 2 bikes featured have sti shifters and they didn't appear until 1990 models I think it was. In 89 it would have been thumbshifters across the range. From memory the 89 UK catalogue was Muirwood, Palisades, Bear Valley, Pine Mountain and Team Marin. We didn't have the Eldridge in the 89 UK brochure. The first Eldridge I recall in the UK was 1990 but my Marin knowledge is only from 89 onwards. As for the white splatter Muirwoods that wasn't a UK spec to the best of my knowledge. I did have one, since sold, but assumed it was a 1990 euro spec but could have been an 89 I guess. If I get a chance I will try and find any pages I may have left from the 89 UK catalogue.

I suspected that these pages were mislabeled 1989 but were in fact 1990!

 

[Daddy Giraffe]

I suspected that these pages were mislabeled 1989 but were in fact 1990!

The conclusion that the catalogue pages above are later than ‘89 is backed up by the ‘90 catalogue, which lists the Eldridge as a newcomer to the range, in the UK at any rate..