Marin team Ti

[Pierre]

Yes, they were lovely frames, I used to have one. If that's a 1995 bike, the stickers aren't right - my '95 had a metal headtube badge, in colour, wrapped around the headtube, not a sticker. And the rest of the stickers look like later ones - might be a '96 at earliest?

Nice bike though.

 

[scant]

were these still Litespeed built, like the early 90's ones?

Sandvik made, sir

pretty certain these were taiwanese.

 

[Pierre]

What do you know, I can't even remember the age of bikes I've owned! That's my '96 17.5" Team Ti, with canti hanger. It used to have a brazed-on seatpost clamp but one side snapped off so I removed the other one and fitted a Salsa aftermarket QR clamp.

(and I've just spotted the zip-tie holding the head tube badge on 'cos it had started coming away from the frame!)

And from what I remember of the front-of-downtube sticker it said something like "handbuilt in the USA, Sandvik Titanium" - I remember it was mostly 3/2.5 tubes with 6/4 dropouts.

...any idea why my link won't work?

 

[taffy]

the page isn't an image link per se.

my 95 had the painted tinfoil head tube badge and rear canti hanger

3 2.5 on the stays and a Manitou esque USA metal flag badge on the seat tube but no made in the usa/sandvik reference - which i wouldn't mind knowing if it was or not.

There you go

here's mine yesterday in the rain!

And a few months ago in the sun (we remember that don't we?)

Measurement wise Marin did them C to C my 17.5" is 19" to the top of the seat tube with a honking 23.5" top tube

 

[Woz]

They certainly look speed rockets, and I've had them on the "potential" list for some time. Question to those who have them:
- For a 17.5", it states a head-tube of 12cm, but the top-tube is very very long. I'm normally used to about 23" effective, but any comments on how they ride would be great. Are they a bit slow for twisty single track, but fast on the straights?
- What axel to crown measurement are the original forks, and are they 1 1/8"?
- Is the build quality good? Any known issues? The seat-clamp seems fragile.

W.

 

[taffy]

They certainly look speed rockets, and I've had them on the "potential" list for some time. Question to those who have them:
- For a 17.5", it states a head-tube of 12cm, but the top-tube is very very long. I'm normally used to about 23" effective, but any comments on how they ride would be great. Are they a bit slow for twisty single track, but fast on the straights?
- What axel to crown measurement are the original forks, and are they 1 1/8"?
- Is the build quality good? Any known issues? The seat-clamp seems fragile.

W.

Top tube is long enough to use a short stem and a long ish travel fork and still handle well. (Anthony has explained how a long tavel fork cna be used with a short stem)

As mine is set up (390 mm A- C rockstars) the steerring is pin sharp and i mean sharp! it was a tad more forgiving with a Manitou 4 fitted.

Headset is 1 -1/8th

 

[chusma]

were these still Litespeed built, like the early 90's ones?

Sandvik made, sir

pretty certain these were taiwanese.

From a 1995 Marin German catalogue:

"In unserer titanium verarbeitungsfabrik in Fairfield, Kalifornien werden alle
rahmenrohre sorgfältig von Hand ausgewählt und akribisch miteinander verschweißt"

Translation:

In our titanium processing plant in Fairfield, California, all
frame tubes carefully selected by hand and meticulously welded together

Tubing is Sandvik, welded in Fairfield.

Chus

 

[Anthony]

I think this means that the tubes were made in Fairfield. Up to 1995, including Taffy's bike, the frames were made by Litespeed in Chattanooga. After that, they switched the build contract to TST (later known as TiSport) in Washington State, which was a subsidiary of Sandvik Corp.

 

[Pierre]

Cheers taffy for the image link.

Mine was 27.2mm seatpost, 1 1/8" headtube and it did have a fairly long top tube - I vaguely remember on my 17.5" a top tube of 23.5". It was certainly a race machine, it seemed to be more comfortable the faster you went, which was dangerous! It calmed down a bit when I removed the rigid forks (400mm a-c) and fitted the Pace RC36s, but it was still built for speed and kept you pretty comfortable while doing it.

I miss that bike...

btw, I don't know of any frame issues with them as a group, my seatpost clamp snapped off possibly because I was a n00b and over-tightened it, but that was easy enough to remedy. I don't know of any cracked ones, but then I don't know of many other people who've owned one!

 

[chusma]

Marin serial number "decoder". Copy/paste from http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37430

Benandemu:

Take my frame number

M74HAB182

The M is the factory.

M is Marvel, F is Fairfield and T is Ti sports

7 is the model number. Exclude the Ti bikes and work down the list eg.

1 Team Issue
2 Team Marin
3 Pine Mountain
4 Eldridge grade
5 Bear Valley
6 Muirwoods
7 Palisades Trail
8 Bobcat Trail

4 is the year ending number. That would be 1994.

HA is month and date, but you will need the Enigma machine to decode these. Not really relevant either!

B is the size centre to centre.

A is 14 inches
B is 15.5 inches ( this makes it 17 centre to top)
C is 17 inches
D is 19 inches
E is 20 inches

182 are production numbers that are factory use only, and again require the Enigma machine.

So, from that you can calculate the year, model and place it was made.

Seems I have a 94 Palisades Trail frame and forks. The frames were all the same up to Eldridge and then they used Tange prestige or Superlight tubing.

Marin Ti's have a letter (Factory) and then a T, not a number.

Chus