marin or merlin frame..titanium apparently? roll a dice

[pete_mcc]

here's a nice example of one of the rarest and nicest vintage titanium bikes available:

I would have this bike in a heartbeat over any modern On-one or Moots with those 'wet your pants' welds

 

[sylus]

Why ti at all? it does the same as the bike from halfords..it has two wheels and goes stops. some get caught up is this forget the quality..if it's taking my money it has to have history and quality and the amount spent as it rises..needs to be met by an equal match of history and quality

you pay more for the quality all round and not just because someone used good quality materials but put them together in a less than quality way.

this ideaology that because someone got to crap weld before some other dudes got it right so it must be important is one I know some hold dear too..and some like myself..do not

Back to the frame in question..have we established yet if it is ti or not and a marin or not?

 

[pete_mcc]

Back to the frame in question..have we established yet if it is ti or not and a marin or not?

what more proof do you need?

benandemu has more knowledge on and more versions of the Marin Ti than anyone on here, any need to quetion it?

 

[NAILTRAIL96]

I believe it's confirmed as an early ti marin.
The evidence is all there.

 

[Benandemu]

The dropouts were changed on the Titanium frames in 1990 to match the new afterburner rear stays of the steel Marin range, and this dropout was carried through to the mid 90's.

At no point did Marin use 4 digit numbers on a dropout to stamp their steel frames, that was only the Lynskey bros. at Litespeed who did that.

Steel (with the eyelet)...

I've already posted a 1990/1 picture


I don't have a 1992/3 picture to hand, but they are different again.


pre 1990...

1994 to 1996 (really poor picture)...

1999 (now made by Ti Sports)...

It's worth noting that I was once told that Litespeed would often use whatever dropouts they had to hand in order to finish a batch, so it is not uncommon for some old dropouts to be used up on later models, hence the haziness on identifying exact model years from the dropout alone.

The headset size increases from 1 inch to 1 1/8th in 1991 also, which is a better means of identifying them from this period.

 

[sylus]

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/mai ... emId=12560

 

[Coleman]

pre 1990...

I'd love one of those!

 

[greenstiles]

Looks like a very cheap Ti frame from Europe........

 

[559er]

Don't be put off by the way the welding looks,yes it's taiwanese ti and the quality of tubing not as good as the US makes of it's day,overpriced in it's day perhaps but you got what you paid for,I once had what I thought was an Indian fire trail awful welds but that's the difference you get between US and Asian finish

 

[taffy]

As with a fiar few others that looks like a genuine Marin Ti

Don't be put off by the way the welding looks,yes it's taiwanese ti and the quality of tubing not as good as the US makes of it's day,overpriced in it's day perhaps but you got what you paid for,I once had what I thought was an Indian fire trail awful welds but that's the difference you get between US and Asian finish

All i can say to that is lol