Marin Bear Valley

[Splatter Paint]

Just won this on eBay, needs a new cassette, chain and chainrings :roll: I have a vague desire to race it! According to the catalogue it says suspension-corrected geometry, what sort of length fork could I get away with? I'm guessing a pair of Fox F80s will be way too long? The catalogue lists Rock Shox Judy XCs - 420 a/c approximately?

SP

 

[coomber]

I would guess Fox has an axle crown of around 460mm when this would probably take 430mm as a max.

Sure somebody will be able to tell you for certain, but I think you'd be better off on some more period correct, early bombers had 65mm travel and were excellent.

Looks nice rigid with the marin forks on it. Nice looking bike.

 

[Splatter Paint]

Yeah, the F80 is a much longer fork 450mm. I'll ask Mojo about dropping the travel further to 60mm. Failing that I'll liberate the Marzocchi Z2s that are gathering dust in my Dad's garage. Skanky lime green colour though

SP

 

[Splatter Paint]

I collected the Bear Valley last night it is definitely a 1995 model, but the axle-crown height it 395mm, the same as my 1989 Kona which definitely isn't suspension corrected :? I'm confused.

The bike isn't too bad, I cleaned everything up, fitted a spare cassette I got from the tip and a used XTR 9 speed chain and voila, one fully functioning Bear Valley. The riding position is super long and low, so I'll invest in a shorter higher-rise stem.

SP

 

[hamster]

I agree with your thinking.

If it's like my Pine Mtn of the same year, they seemed to have the shorter forks in spite of the geometry change. It made the steering too nervous in my experience.

Mine was transformed by 63mm Bomber Z3's, and also by some 420a-c P2's.

So I'd try a 63-75mm fork. 80mm with a bit of sag would probably work OK too.

 

[knobby]

Nice find, is it a 15.5" or 17"? I really like the Marin frames of this era, nice detailing, the afterburner stays look great. You might find a buyer for the forks if you decide to swap them (I wouldn't) as they're lovely springy 750g items.

 

[highlandsflyer]

750g??????


I had a few of these bikes that I rented to cycle delivery peeps in Denmark, they were fairly heavy bikes so I would be surprised if the forks were so light.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Don't know what you call fairly heavy back in 1995, but this would have been in the normal weight range for back then between 26 to 26.5 lb.

I have (well my old man has) the SE version of it feel pretty light, I'd say 24.5 to 25lb range. Of course I'm going to have to go weigh it now. I need to change the cables as all the outers has perished.

You would need to check the normal Bear Valleys forks as they used plain gauge forks iirc, not the lighter butted forks of the SE and higher.

 

[knobby]

My Bear Valley (which I loved and was stollen) had Marin Rockstar forks. They were so proud of the light weight that they stated it with a decal. I never took them off to weigh them, but I've no reason to think they were lying

 

[THEFALLGUY]

I had a 1995 pine mountain and had the judy downhills on it for a while with 80mm of travel but it was a bit too wobbly , also had it with a 415 P2 which was OK but the rigid 395 fork was sharpest in the end

hope that helps