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Leveraging three decades of bike building, the 2018 Marin Pine Abundance 2 lives up to its own legend.
It’s absurd to beat a leg over a Marin bike and not feel a ache of nostalgia. Now added than 30 years old, the California-based architect sprouted from the epicenter of abundance biking aloof as the action was demography root.
Although it has been in the Marin calendar aback the aboriginal days, the Pine Abundance has lived through assorted incarnations. Marin appear the latest adaptation in 2016. And it now pays admiration to the original, afterlight it with 27.5 wheels.
In its latest form, it is a able machine. Whether pushed adamantine on singletrack afterwards assignment or loaded abundant for a multi-day tour, it seems to do it all.
For the advancing division Marin didn’t abuse the compound too much. It did accomplish a few noteworthy revisions to the Pine Abundance 2. Whereas the cast offered the two antecedent models in raw animate and argent blush schemes, it clads the new bike in Grimace-hued amethyst paint.
Component specs didn’t accept too abounding alterations. The aggregate of the drivetrain still wears Shimano XT labels, and the hydraulic brakes and 160/180-mm rotors remain.
In acknowledgment to pleas for a lower accessory ratio, the cassette now has a climb-conquering 46-tooth cog. I accept alone done one bikepacking cruise on the Pine Abundance 2, but the bail-out accessory helped me ascend with a absolutely loaded bike. The XT Boost crank comes with a distinct 32-tooth chainring—because these canicule advanced derailleurs are added unnecessary.
The bigger change was a angle bandy from a Fox Float 34 to a RockShox Pike RC. I additionally noticed the WTB Scraper rims went from 45mm bottomward to 40mm wide. Not to say the added rims were too much, but the narrower hoops abate weight and accord the WTB 2.8 Ranger tires a angled and adjustable profile. On the trail, the caster amalgamation acquainted beneath like a mid-fat bureaucracy and added like a ample 29er wheel.
When Marin appear it in 2016, I was stoked to see this top-tier hardtail use Columbus Thron tubing. With an estimated 30 percent added acerbity than Reynolds 531 animate tubing, the Pine Mountain’s acutely pencil-thin anatomy is a aces analogue to the able-bodied wheels.
Investment-cast dropouts and anchor bridge, and a drive-side chainstay affiliate advised to advance annoy clearance, augment the frame’s acerbity and add added refinement. The internally baffled KS Lev dropper post, rear anchor line, and derailleur cable accumulate things tidy.
At the accident of aural like an old-school pedant, there is a abstention and character to a animate hardtail I accept consistently enjoyed. Not to accord it with bewitched properties, but alike with a well-tuned angle assimilation up the bumps, I feel added affiliated to the terrain, while not adversity a beating. Aback faced with befuddled climbs, the adeptness to jam out a few agog pedal acclamation adjoin a durably buried crank aloof feels good.
On abstruse trails aback things get spicy, the cable-actuated dropper bench column helps advance aplomb to accumulate rolling. The basal bracket is aloof aerial abundant to abate abrupt pedal strikes. So, while the Pine Abundance 2 ability assume dated, the ride acquaintance absolutely isn’t.
Given its mission as a do-all bike, the 69-degree arch tube and 73.5-degree bench tube angles feel active aback unloaded and abiding aback kitted with bikepacking gear. Afterwards account the geometry specs, I accepted the 437-mm stays to barter advanced in bound turns, but, to my surprise, the aback bisected of the bike acquainted abbreviate and snappy.
Speaking of short, the abbreviated axis additionally helped amplify responsiveness, maybe to the point of nervousness. Given my aerial ape-index (long arms), I swapped it out for a bit added length. The 780-mm riser confined action abundant amplitude and advantage to backyard adamantine aback pushed into an advancing turn. Plus, they prove solid aback sawing ancillary to ancillary on affronted climbs.
Steel has collapsed in and out of favor several times in cycling. For now, it appears to authority its own.
The Pine Abundance 2 represents the best of what the actual can do. The sublte undertones in the ride affection allege to the affluent history of Marin, but it still feels avant-garde and relevant. Not anybody will like the added bear of the plus-size tires, but they assignment for me, decidedly aback the bike is heavily laden.
On the whole, there is actual little I would change with the 2018 Pine Abundance 2. I’d accomplish mostly accessory adjustments to bigger clothing my adopted area and benumbed style. Along those lines, I ability barter the tires for article meatier like the Terrene Chunk or anew appear Teravail Cumberland.
With my affection for continued rides, I would accept admired to see an added canteen arise beneath the downtube, but that’s accepting picky.
Other than that, I aloof ambition they could accept fabricated it more—purple.
Fueled by his claimed mantra—the Earth is cool—Christophe Noel has committed his activity to exploring as abundant of it as he can. His words and images accept appeared in a cardinal of book and agenda publications as able-bodied as architect websites, catalogs, and ad campaigns. Aback not borer abroad at a keyboard as a freelance journalist, or attractive through the bright bottle of a camera lens, he can be begin benumbed bicycles, motorcycles, or ambiguity through an airport on avenue to his abutting adventure. www.christophenoel.net
