What year....RE Marin, and spec recommendations.

[carnell]

Hello
Does anyone know which year Marin ceased to use 1 inch headsets? I have got a team marin build coming which needs 1inch / stem, headset and forks, any suggestions? Looking to keep the weight down as much as possible and wanted a non-suspension option....but all Marin Rockstars seem to be 1 1/8 in size

 

[Lhatch4]

I don't know what year they changed. Are you looking for new or used parts? Ritchey still makes 1" headsets. There is loads of used stuff out there.

 

[carnell]

Thanks for the reply, I'm happy for used, albeit good condition. I think the Team had Ritchey forks in 1990, so they would suffice, but not seen any around at the moment.

 

[gtturbo]

Marin went 1 1/8 on the Team model from 1990 onwards. Therefore if it is a 1989 which you have then the original headset would have been a 1" Deore XT. The original forks on a 1989 Team are Spinner. In fact I think they used the same fork, and bars and stem, across most, if not all, the range that year which is a little strange that a Team model had the same forks as say a Bear Valley.

 

[carnell]

Ah interesting, so Spinner and Rockstar are two different forks? There I was thinking that spinner mean't it indicated which end things are suppose to spin from.....

 

[hamster]

Spinner make forks, Rockstar is Marin's fork branding. Most Rockstar forks were made by Spinner I think.
As for headsets, assuming you are running threaded, the best is probably Campagnolo Record road, plenty around for £50 new. The older ones also have grease ports in the lower race. There is also Tange, the default choice of road headset, available in alloy or steel, polished silver or black. The steel ones are bombproof and never rust or tarnish. Ritchey are painted steel, are OK but always seem to have poor seals in my experience.

 

[Tootyred]

Mostly 89, but there are some exceptions where marin ran 1" into 1990....

An 89 team frame will be 1" with the non cast dropouts at the rear and the seat stays welded on lower down the seat tube.

The original forks were indeed tange double butted made by spinner, with spinner stamped dropouts. However they dont tend to carry their logo on the steerer. You can tell them from the lower models as they have wider / thicker crown profile. Also the dropouts are not flat slotted in, they are cast.

Plus, just to add to your thinking, 89 teams are a JIS frame amd fork...not ISO. So headsets will be very limited.

I tend to run the fork crowns down from 27.0 to 26.4 and ream the headtubes 0.2mm from 30.0 to 30.2. You can force an iso cup into the frame, but your not doing a nice frame (or the headset) any favours!

 

[Tootyred]

They were pretty light too. These are out of an xl 20.5 team 89 and weigh 865g. Much lighter than later rockstars, which although advertised at 750g, were only that in 15 ".

By the time you got to 20.5 they were over 1kg.