Marin

Marin Pine Mountain Series

Marin Pine Mountain 2

Okay, so it turns out that these “adventure” mountain bikes with their big tires are a lot of fun.

We were originally pretty skeptical, thinking that the wide tires looked an awful lot like what comes on snow bikes and that they might be pretty slow. It turns out that 29″ x 2.6″ tires feel pretty fast. They’re also reasonably light and roll over roots and rocks that normally would stop your bike dead in its tracks. With these tires, the Pine Mountain is as capable as a full-suspension bike with skinnier tires (and if you forego rear suspension your bike can be lighter and less expensive).

The steel frame and all of the attachment points for bottle cages, racks and frame bags? They seem like design attributes that you wouldn‘t need short of a bike-packing trip through the Cascades. Maybe so but here’s the thing about under-utilized features: If your bike is going to be overbuilt, it might as well be extra comfortable, extra tough, and have the ability to haul extra stuff.

Pine Mountain 1

One more thing: A purple Pine Mountain 2 is the bike I ride, and I love everything about it. It’s more fun than the carbon-fiber full suspension bike I had previously (and that one had all of the bells and whistles), and it’s just the right amount of trail-capable, comfortable and efficient for riding at Port Gamble and the Grand Forest.

Marin Headlands gravel bike

Marin Headlands 2

Gravel!

Or asphalt or grass or dirt…

Ride a new Marin Headlands carbon fiber gravel bike anywhere you want. They’re light and fast, so keeping up with friends on a road ride wont be a problem. They’re stable and come with pretty wide tires so tame mountain-bike trails wont cause you or the Headlands much stress.
They come with plenty of rack and pack attachment points so a gear-intensive tour, on or off-road, will come together easily.

Also available as a customizable frame

There are two complete versions, both equipped with Shimano’s excellent GRX gear, the Headlands 1 coming with a GRX600 brakes and derailleur while the headlands 2 upgrades to the GRX810 parts with an FSA Gossamer Pro crankset and a Tranzx dropper seatpost.

Two great complete versions available as well as frames that you can purchase and customize as you see fit.

Marin Rift Zone 27.5 series

Rift Zone 1 (27.5 wheels)

If you’re looking for a fun and capable trail bike that won’t break your budget, look at these Marins.

The first one is Marin’s Rift Zone 1 full suspension trail bike. It’s a gas to ride, comes with some pretty great parts and is all yours for under $1800.

So what do you get for your money? You get a playful and tough design that you’ll love to take on twisty and technical singletrack trails. You get a trail bike with 120mm of suspension travel (front and back). You get the RockShox Recon RL air-sprung fork with adjustable spring rate, rebound and a lock-out switch. A bike that rolls on 27.5″ wheels shod with Vee Flow Snap tires and a Shimano Deore 1 x 11 drivetrain. There’s Shimano hydraulic disc brakes and cartridge sealed bearings in the headset, bottom bracket, frame pivots and wheels.

Marin Rift Zone 2

If you’ve been looking for a full suspension bike under $2000 you’ve probably found a lot of heavy bikes out there with at least one component or design element that looks a little suspect. Maybe you’ve found used full suspension bikes that were a whole bunch of worn-out parts rolling around on ten-year old suspension designs. Worse than those, you probably found new bikes that were basically down-spec’d race bikes that were no fun to play around on and too heavy to actually race.

This Marin will beat all of those “options” with great handling, fresh design, outstanding components and light weight (the medium size bike weighs 29lbs).

Rift Zone with 26” wheels

As for the second option, if you’d like a dropper seatpost and a few more component upgrades, consider the Rift Zone 2, it has some nice extras and still comes in around $2300.

If you happen to be under 5’ tall or want a full-suspension trail bike for your kids, check out the Rift Zone jr., which is available with 24” or 26” wheels…

Stop looking for your next trail bike. You’ve just found the ones you’ll like best.

Marin Wildcat Trail Series

Marin Wildcat 3

Marin’s Wildcat series are tough and capable 27.5″ trail bikes with dimensions that fit shorter riders just right. With similar components and prices to the Bobcat trail models, the main difference will be shorter reach to the handlebars, lower standover heights and different colors.

The Wildcat Trail 2 and 3 are great mid-level mountain bikes that will work well for the off-road beginner and occasional rider. They are built around 27.5″ wheels that have tremendous traction and roll over larger obstacles without a second thought.

The Wildcat Trail 3 is a fast and durable bike that will stand up to the rain and mud for many seasons. You get awesome tires, hydraulic disc brakes, a Shimano Altus drivetrain (with cables that have housing that runs uninterrupted from the lever to the derailleur, a nice touch), and a 120mm-travel Suntour suspension fork with a lock-out switch.

Marin DSX

The Marin DSX family of ~~hybrid~~ gravel bikes are loads of fun. With wide (45mm) knobby tires these bikes roll really nicely on dirt paths and gravel roads but still cruise fairly effortlessly on paved roads.

Evolving mountain bike designs have opened up a gap that bikes like a DSX can fill. Thirty years ago people would buy a new mountain bike and ride it wherever they wanted to go. Nowadays, a mountain bike typically comes with 4-6 pounds of aggressive off-road treaded tires, 5 inches of suspension travel and 3 inches of dropper seatpost. Those numbers add up to a lot of inefficiency for anything but the most rugged of dirt trails.

Marin DSX 1

This explains how gravel bikes can fill a need that mountain bikes don’t serve anymore, but how are these DSX models different from a typical hybrid bike?

Well, they come with simple single-ring drivetrains (only one shifter to deal with!) , tires that handle loose gravel and dirt better than the typical hybrid, and spirited handling that’s less sleepy than what you get with a hybrid or touring bike.

There are four DSX versions to choose from between $900 and $1700, and none of them will put you to sleep.

Marin Rift Zone 29’er

Rift Zone 1

Let’s say that you’re looking for a new Full suspension bike that runs less than $3k. You’ve already checked out Marin’s Rift Zones with their 27.5″ tires and are pretty impressed. But you want bigger wheels.

There are options! Marin does 29’er versions of their Rift Zone trail bikes. All of the 29’er versions closely match the smaller-wheeled bikes in components and price, with the frame geometry modified to handle the bigger treads.

These are great sporty bikes that do a lot of things well. They’re fast enough to race, they’re stable (and tough enough) to handle the more advanced trails at Whistler bike park, and they’re comfortable enough to leisurely roll through the Grand Forest as you follow your 10-year-old around the park.

Marin Nicasio

Steel is real.

That’s what everybody says, steel is real. Really comfortable, really affordable, really smooth riding and classic looking.

The Marin Nicasio, Nicasio 2 and Nicasio + have steel frames and forks. They’re smooth and tough and may soon be your next favorite bike. The base Nicasio is outfitted with Shimano Claris drivetrain parts, Promax mechanical disc brakes, durable 32-spoke wheels and 30mm puncture resistant (but still nice riding) tires. The Nicasio 2 upgrades to Shimano Tiagra parts, hydraulic disc brakes and thru-axle hubs for secure and fiddle-free removal and replacement of the wheels.

Nicasio +

The Nicasio + is your affordable gravel bike option. It comes with fat 650b wheels, ideal for soft trails and hard tours where you carry a lot of stuff in your bags. The Nicasio + has a 1X microshift drivetrain, an ideal system for rough use and simplified maintainence.

The Nicasio family of bikes all have a familiar smooth ride that reminds us of road bikes from the 1980’s. And actually, the prices remind us of the ’80’s too. They all come in under $1800.

Marin Lombard

Marin Lombard 1

You can call it a gravel bike if you want. I’d say that with 700 x 40c tires the surface upon which you travel is almost irrelevant. Gravel, cobblestones, asphalt, wood chips, whatever you happen to find, just ride on it.

So there’s the 40mm-wide tires. You also get a lightweight aluminum frame and fork, Shimano Sora drivetrain components (that are very precise and reliable) and Tektro mechanical disc brakes (powerful, as well as precise and reliable). The drop bars are wide, so your steering control is really good on sketchy terrain. The saddle was pretty comfortable while test riding in jeans, so I’d have to imagine it’s fantastic when paired with cycling shorts.

So this is an all-condition road/gravel/commuter bike with good parts and a pretty reasonable price around $1200.

Marin Fairfax hybrids

Marin Fairfax 2

Classic Cycle stocks a lot of hybrid and flat-handlebar road bikes. Why did we add these Marins to an already fairly crowded showroom?
A lot of little reasons.

There’s the Fairfax 2, a nearly perfect rig for local commuting. The burgundy color stands out against grey asphalt (and sometimes even grayer skies). It comes with hydraulic disc brakes, reliable Shimano components and all of the attachment points needed for fenders and racks.

Fairfax 3

Fairfax 1

The Fairfax 1 gets you on a reliable new commuter bike with disc brakes for around $600.

The bikes are put together really nicely. They feature Shimano & Tektro parts, Schwalbe tires and WTB saddles. There aren’t a lot of “house brand” parts on them, just good brand names.

Marin Team mountain bike

Marin Team 1

Marin made this bike for you.

The Marin Team 1 and 2 are race bikes that are plenty capable and tough enough to pilot on really technical trails. They’re light (but not too light), they have fast-rolling tires (that still have decent bite in slimy mud) great suspension forks and precise Shimano 1 x 12 drivetrains.

Marin built two bikes with the high-school mountain bike league in mind. Kids that grow out of their starter mountain bikes are going to want something fun and fast, and while a $5000 carbon fiber hardtail would be nice, it can be a bit much for the budget (especially if the rider is still growing). These bikes have msrps of only $1600 and $2600.

Marin Team 2

Other options in this price range typically include ten-year-old full suspension bikes (that have obsolete wheel sizes and worn-out parts) and used carbon fiber hardtails (that probably have the same drawbacks). Pick the right bike. Pick fresh equipment and a versatile design.

If you’re looking at the Budu race series this year and want a faster bike consider the Team. Gear Grinder club rides will be more fun on this super capable bike. Add a dropper post for only $120.

By the way, for every four of these bikes sold by their dealers Marin donates one of these bikes to the high school mountain bike league.

Marin Gestalt

In case you’re not familiar with the term, Gestalt is a whole that is more than the sum of its parts.

Marin named these bikes quite well. These are great bikes that give you more than the component list (or the prices) would suggest.

The Gestalt series aluminum frame is smooth and light (actually a bit lighter and springier than the steel Marin Nicasio or Surly’s Straggler frame). All Gestalts come with a fender and front-rack ready carbon fork. The Gestalt versions that have mechanical (as opposed to hydraulic) brakes rely on the powerful Tekro Spyre models.

Gestalt 1

All of these bikes feature internal cable runs and the gravel-ready 32mm WTB Exposure tires. In order to keep the prices reasonable, the Gestalt 1 comes with Shimano Sora and Microshift components. The Gestalt 2 is equipped with a Shimano Tiagra drivetrain and the Gestalt 3 upgrades to hydraulic disc brakes.

Marin Four Corners

“Four Corners” as in the middle of the American west where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada come together. Buy this bike and plan a tour there yourself. It’s a versatile touring bike, and I’d bet a tour of that length would be enjoyable whether you rode along the paved shoulders of secondary highways, along the Great Divide trail or rumbling down gravel roads.

This is a great bike for century rides on the pavement, gran Fondos and gravel rides, long commutes, and just regular road or off-road rides with your friends.

This is a bike designed perfectly for the vast majority of Pacific Northwest riders.

If you can get over your whole “I might need a bike for a triathlon someday” delusion, this is the bike for you. Fenders, bags and cromoly tubing may not be very aerodynamic, but they sure make your bike ride a pleasant experience.

This bike has loaded-touring frame geometry with a slightly longer wheelbase and slack front end geometry, meaning that it’s a gravel bike with touring geometry that has been tweaked just a bit. The bike is comfortable for really long rides, and it will carry all of your gear without being too squirrely. The tires are 700c x 42mm wide and 650b x 57mm (2.1” mountain bike tires) will fit if you’re planning on even more rugged use. The frame is made out of cromoly steel, which delivers a springy, compliant ride quality.

Marin Four Corners 1

The Four Corners has everything you want. It comes with mounts for 5 water bottles as well as racks & fenders, it has a triple crankset (pretty awesome in an era with so many single front chainring bikes), a WTB Volt saddle, Shimano Sora components (with a triple crankset for really low low gears) and TRP cable-actuated disc brakes. All for around $1000.

Marin Donkey Jr.

Blue outer space theme

Donky 24 in black

Donky 24 in blue

Is your 8 year old kind of picky? The Marin Donkey Jr. might be the bike to get. Kids (both boys and girls) seem to like the colors, the ride quality and the way the parts work.

These bikes were originally meant for bike shops in Japan, but when supplies of kids’ bikes ran low back in 2020, Marin diverted some of these great little bikes and sent them to the U.S.

The Donkey model is the next step beyond 20″ coaster-brake starter bikes. Perfect for riding to school, trying out the Grand Forest trails, or commuting to work (it’s never too early!). This Marin has gears to help tame a hilly neighborhood and a light aluminum fork (suspension adds 3 pounds to most kids’ bikes) so little kids can manage their bikes better on the trails. The wheels have quick-release axles so loading the bike into the car will be a snap.

Family rides will be more fun, as these light-weight geared bikes are designed so that your kids can lead the way, not struggle behind.

Made with aluminum frames and components, this bike can fit a water bottle and it comes with a quick adjust lever for the seat height.

Marin Sausalito electric

Marin Sausalito 2 Ebike

Want a fun and easy way to get to work?

Right. “Fun” way to commute. Ridiculous.

No, seriously. Commute (or run errands, or tour your neighborhood) on a well-designed electric bike and a smile will replace the harried expression that you wear while behind the wheel of your car.

This Marin Sausalito ebikes make it all possible. The Shimano electric motor system gives you a reliable boost when hills or headwinds get in your way. The gravel-bike tires and Shimano hydraulic disc brakes make for a secure and trouble-free ride.

The lower stand-over height, upright handlebar and its comfortable position all play nicely with regular clothes so you can get to your destination ready to shop or work. The electric assist motor makes it so you won’t be a sweaty mess who needs thirty minutes to undo the damage from an arduous commute.

Sausalito 1 low-step

Sausalito 1

There are two different versions of this bike. The black bike has a slightly bigger battery, a motor with more torque, and a front suspension fork. The sand-colored version has a rigid fork and slightly smaller motor system but it’s a few hundred dollars less expensive and only weighs 39 pounds.

Marin San Quentin 24

Get your little riding buddy on a fast and capable bike and you’ll get to ride faster yourself.

The Marin San Quentin is a premium quality off-road rig with better features than every other kids’ hardtail mountain bike out there. To start with, you get quick-release levers on the rear wheel and seatpost, and a thru-axle for the front wheel. You get a 1x drivetrain with 11 gears (shifting with a trigger-shifter instead of a twist-grip). Parts that are often constructed out of heavy steel on other kids’ bikes are made from light aluminum on this one. There’s a cartridge bottom bracket that’ll keep the water out of the crank area, and the control cables are fully shielded from the levers to the derailleurs which will protect the wires from rust and grit.

…And a 20” version for kids 5 to 8

This Marin has an air-sprung Rockshox suspension fork with aluminum (not heavy chromed steel) sliders and an adjustable spring rate and a lock-out switch.
Oh wait, the brakes! Did we mention that you get Shimano hydraulic disc brakes on this bike? Yep. That’s right. A kids’ bike that actually stops when they want it to stop. How about that?

Get your little buddy this Marin and she’ll be leading you down the trail instead of lagging behind.

Marin Bayview Trail 24

Bayview Trail in blue

If you are looking for a real mountain bike for your 8 to 12 year-old, look no further.

Marin’s Bayview Trail 24 puts all of the off-road technology that you would find on a good adult hardtail into this small package.

These bikes come with 80mm-travel Suntour suspension forks that are appropriately sprung for small riders, and they even have adjustable pre-load springs. The lightweight double-wall wheels come with quick release levers for easy maintenance and travel. Overall weight is reduced with high quality aluminum construction all around. The handlebars, stem, seatpost, crankset, derailleurs, brakes, and even spoke nipples utilize better materials to make the bike light and trouble free. The stem is the threadless style (not the old-fashioned quill style), which is more easily adjusted and about a half-pound lighter.

Bayview Trail in grey

There’s space for a water bottle cage. The seat height is adjustable with a quick-release lever. The cables that control the brakes and shifters run housing uninterrupted from the controls down, so if the bike is left out in the rain, the cables won’t get rusty. Even the cheap steel freewheels typically found on the back wheel of most kids bikes have been replaced by lighter and more durable 7-speed cassette-style gears.

Shifting and braking effort is nice and easy for small hands with quality Shimano Altus derailleurs and smooth Tektro V-brakes.

Okay, the bike is clearly higher quality than what you get from Specialized, Diamondback, Giant or Trek. How much more does it set you back? It runs about $30 more than most of those brands, which is about what it would cost you to replace the stock bolt-on front wheel axle from one of those bikes with a quick-release version.

Marin San Rafael

Marin San Rafael 1

So you’re indecisive. Or not.

You want a mountain bike for riding on trails in the Grand Forest. No. You want a road bike so you can ride Seattle-to-Portland. No, that’s not right either. You plan on bike commuting to work during the week, and doing some touring and camping on the weekend. On gravel roads. Or maybe you’ll start doing triathlons.
You just want a bike. Is that so hard?

If you can’t make up your mind, and want just one bike to handle everything, Marin has you covered with their San Rafael and San Anselmo series of bikes. Staring around $500 with the San Rafael 1 (Diamond frame style) or San Anselmo 1 (low step-over frame) models, with versions going up to around $900, Marin gives you a broad range of bikes that do nothing exceptionally well but aren’t too bad at anything either.

San Anselmo 2

Aboard Dual Sport bikes like these you’ll likely get dropped by road bikers and mountain bikers alike, but you’ll probably still have more fun than they will while trying to keep up.

The thing to remember is that you can quickly ride on the roads to the gravel trailhead (while your mountain biker friends will probably opt to drive there) and your road-bike riding friends won’t be able to follow you onto the dirt.

Marin Presidio series

Marin Presidio 2

Let’s say that you’re looking for a bike for your commute. If one of the features that you’d like is an internal hub shifter, your choices are a little limited.
There are a fair number of new bike brands that pop up every day (mostly via Kickstarter campaigns) that will incorporate internal gear hubs. This is mostly because these brands are started by people who have no idea how to design a practical bike, and derailleurs merely offend their design sensibilities by disturbing the “lines” of their sleek modern creations. These internet-only bikes wouldn’t stand up to test rides or dollar-for-dollar comparisons if we had them in the store.
What we do have is a line of well designed urban bikes made by a 30 year old bike brand. With Marin you can choose among four models that offer internal gear hubs (some with belt drives). Not only will you get a bike that looks elegant and simple, you’ll get a bike that handles right, has attachment points for fenders and racks (in the correct spots), brakes that work, saddles that are comfortable, and seven sizes for the right fit.

Marin Hidden Canyon 20″

Hidden Canyon in silver

This Marin is a real mountain bike for your 6 to 8 year old.

The Hidden Canyon moves your child past the training wheels and coaster-brake starter bikes and into a geared bike with hand brakes. If your neighborhood is hilly, it means junior can ride instead of walking up hills. You can go further together than if the little guy or gal were struggling to keep up on a single-speed.

These Marins come with hand brakes (discs even!), a lightweight aluminum fork, chain guards, and 7 gears with a twist-grip style shifter. They are built to the same quality standards as our adult bikes. Most of the parts are made out of aluminum instead of steel, so the bike is rust-resistant and the overall weight is a whole lot less than a typical kids bike.

Hidden Canyon in blue

There’s a quick-release seat post clamp for height adjustments and sealed cartridge bearing headsets and bottom brackets for extra durability (and a lighter weight bike).
By the way, you get quick-release hubs on the wheels so you can easily remove a wheel to fit the bike in the car.

These bikes aren’t disposable junk. When your kid outgrows his or her Marin, these bikes will still be viable, ride-able bikes that can be traded in or passed on to the next child (and the next after that one).

Marin Bobcat Trail series

Bobcat Trail 4

Marin makes a bunch of premium-level bikes that seem to be missing the premium price.

Take the Bobcat Trail 4 for example: It’s a great looking hardtail with awesome parts.
The bikes come with short stems and wide bars for maximum handling and obstacle jumping fun, with 100 t0 120mm travel forks and slackened front end geometry. They are created to be more versatile and playful than your average mountain bike.
There’s a Suntour XCM fork with the hydraulic lockout switch on the top. There’s a Shimano Altus drivetrain. Regardless of the size bike that you get (with 27.5″ or 29″ size wheels) you’ll roll around on premium Schwalbe tires. The disc brakes are Tektro hydraulics which you’ll find on bikes in the $1600 range. The cables are fully shielded, with housing running from the levers all the way to the derailleurs (a nice touch that keeps your shifters running smoothly). The cockpit components are all robust, feather light and colored to match the bike.
The Bobcat Trail 4 looks and rides like an excellent $900 mountain bike. The surprising thing is that it’s about $700.

Bobcat Trail 3

Bobcat Trail 5

Bobcat Trail 4 in maroon

The Bobcat 3 will get you out of the house and onto the trails for around $600. The Bobcat 5 will get you into to a simple (and tough) Shimano Deore 1 x 10 drivetrain, Shimano hydraulic disc brakes and an adjustable Rockshox fork for under a grand.

By the way, the folks at Marin named these bikes after the Bobcat trail system near Sausalito, California. If you feel like riding your Bobcat Trail on the Bobcat Trail (in Marin County, essentially the birthplace of mountain biking), let us know and we’ll give you directions to get there.

Marin Stinson

Marin’s comfort/recreation bikes are built to just hop on and go riding.
Marin designed the Stinson so that It could be ridden comfortably in regular clothing. The seat has ample cushion, so there is no need for padded bike shorts. The grips feel right without gloves, and the chainguard keeps your pants from getting snagged in the works. An upright position and stable handling makes this bike work well for a new bike rider or someone who wants to pay attention to the scenery, not to their aching neck.

The Stinson uses bigger cruiser-sized tires (think mountain bike tires, but smoother) to give the bike a soft and stable ride.
A lot of people think that they want a beach cruiser bike for roaming around the neighborhood. A great idea, but beach cruisers are not ideal for the Puget Sound region. Beach cruisers typically have a single speed (which makes it tough to climb up hills), swept-back bars (which make the bike hard to control if you get up out of the saddle) and coaster brakes (which don’t offer enough stopping power on hilly terrain or wet streets). Don’t buy a beach cruiser. Buy this Marin.

Marin Bolinas Ridge 1 & 2

Bolinas Ridge 1

Here’s are some nice starter mountain bikes for teens and adults.

These are Marin’s Bolinas Ridge models. They’re nice entry-level hardtail mountain bikes equipped with disc brakes, Shimano drivetrains (Tourney and Acera), and Suntour suspension forks with 100mm of travel (the Bolinas Ridge 2 has a suspension lockout on it).

The Bolinas Ridge models happen to roll on top of 27.5 inch wheels. The 26” wheel size was the mountain bike standard for over 30 years but now most off-road rigs are now using 27.5” or 29” wheels for the improved traction and ability to roll over large obstacles.

Marin Bolinas Ridge 2

With these bikes you get a broad size range. With the extra small 13″ frame size rolling around on top of 27.5″ wheels you‘ll get nimble handling, good comfort and decent standover clearance for folks in the 4’9″ to 5’1″ height range. The small to medium sizes are still easy to handle for people just over 5’ tall, and can provide some room to grow up to 5’7” or so.

Bigger sizes are also available (of course) in both versions. We generally advise larger adult riders to grab the Bolinas Ridge 2 or make the step up to more expensive bike models that will provide greater long-term durability.

About our website…

Add to cart…

You may have noticed that many of the bikes on our website are lacking prices.
We also seem to be missing an “add to shopping cart” button.
These omissions are purposeful.
We like bikes. We like you. We want you to ride a bicycle that works well, fits you correctly, and is appropriate for the kinds of riding that you like to do.
We can’t make all of this happen through a website.
If you want a new bike, come in to Classic Cycle. Talk to us. Touch the bicycles. You can ride around Winslow, and see what the different models have to offer.
Come in to the shop and try out the bikes that interest you. Ask for our opinions and get some concrete facts. With us you’ll know who is behind the product review.
Sit at our bar and watch bike racing on the television or experience a bit of our little museum.
Spend some time here so Jaime can show you clothing and accessories that will resolve the little issues that nag at you while you ride.
Paul will assemble your bike with the same attention to detail that went into building bikes for two Olympic Games and countless professional racers.
Leave the UPS guy alone. He can’t help you put that mail-order bike together…