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.