2021 Marin El Roy & San Quentin Hardtails - Across the Pond Beaver
2020 is shaping up to be the year of the hardtail, and for someone who comes from the UK, it's exciting to see all these bikes coming out. Marin's new El Roy is bound to strike a chord with UK, and worldwide, metal hardtail enthusiasts, or anyone wanting to attempt the ultimate underbiking challenge.
Aggressive with a capital A, the El Roy uses a 4130 CrMo frame with double butting and formed tubes. It's based around 29" wheels with a 140mm travel fork.
Aggressive geometry all round and a gear mount on the underside of the top tube gives essential carrying options.
The 4130 CroMo frame is electro plated, which should keep corrosion at bay for a long time. Neat little cast dropouts round of the frame and use 148 x 12mm spacing.
The frame features cast 148 x 12mm dropouts and external brake routing. There's top tube storage mounts on the underside of the tube, something we're seeing more and more on all bikes and a great option for carrying spares, a tube or even strapping on an enduro banana for the longer rides.
The whole frame is electro plated with an anti-corrosion coating, meaning it should last for years to come, even in the wettest of UK winters.
Marin offers the El Roy in Regular and Grande frame sizes, with both being on the longer side of things with 480 and 510mm reach numbers respectively.
There's a 63° head angle and a 120mm long head tube that uses an integrated, or drop in, headset. Out back there's 435mm chainstay on both sizes and the frame has a 65mm BB drop with an estimated 318mm BB height.
A 78° effective seat height is nicely steep, and with only a small deviation in the actual seat angle, due to the hardtail construction, the seated position in real life should be somewhat closer to the on paper numbers. The Regular is aimed at 67 - 79.3cm seat height and Grande at 70 - 81.5cm seat height.
Both sizes come with 35mm long stems, 800mm bars and 170mm cranks. The El Roy is available in one complete build and a frameset, which includes an FSA headset, thru-axle and seat clamp.
Complete build highlights are the Marzocchi Z1 Grip fork, Shimano Deore 12-speed drivetrain, Shimano 4 piston brakes and Maxxis Assegai 2.5" Maxx Grip tyres front and rear. It retails for $2,499 USD.
There's a 63° head angle and a 120mm long head tube that uses an integrated, or drop in, headset. Out back there's 435mm chainstay on both sizes and the frame has a 65mm BB drop with an estimated 318mm BB height.
A 78° effective seat height is nicely steep, and with only a small deviation in the actual seat angle, due to the hardtail construction, the seated position in real life should be somewhat closer to the on paper numbers. The Regular is aimed at 67 - 79.3cm seat height and Grande at 70 - 81.5cm seat height.
Both sizes come with 35mm long stems, 800mm bars and 170mm cranks. The El Roy is available in one complete build and a frameset, which includes an FSA headset, thru-axle and seat clamp.
Complete build highlights are the Marzocchi Z1 Grip fork, Shimano Deore 12-speed drivetrain, Shimano 4 piston brakes and Maxxis Assegai 2.5" Maxx Grip tyres front and rear. It retails for $2,499 USD.
San Quentin
More hardtail goodness to add to the bumper crop of 2020. The San Quentin name comes from the most "rough and tumble piece of Marin County". The San Quentin is the maximum security California State Prison, and Marin's go anywhere, do anything hardtail that they developed with Matt Jones. Although there's no link between Matt and the Californian jail.
A mixture of the Alcatraz dirt jump hardtail and a more trail orientated hardtail bike, the San Quentin is intended to be taken everywhere from DH runs, pumptracks, dirt jumps, singletrails and all manner of riding that comes in between.
The aluminum frame is built around 27.5" wheels and features ISCG chain guide tabs and semi-internal cable routing.
There's neat and clean details all over the aluminum frame and the cable routing is internal in the down tube and external along the chainstays.
It's available in S to XL sizes with reaches ranging from 422mm on the S to 484mm on the XL, all with a 65° head angle.
There's a 75° effective seat tube angle on all sizes and a 50mm BB drop giving a BB height of around 317mm. Shorter 425mm chainstays are on all sizes.
All bikes come with 780mm bars and a 45mm long stem. S size gets 170mm cranks with the rest running 175mm cranks.
The San Quentin range starts at the top San Quentin 3 and 2, both with a 130mm fork and dropper post. The lowest priced San Quentin 1 uses a 120mm fork and a fixed post.
The San Quentin 3 retails for $1949 and is available in red. The 2 retails for $1299 and is available in a blue/green colour combo. The 3 retails for $869 and is available in either full silver or a blue and pink colour combo.
All bikes come with 780mm bars and a 45mm long stem. S size gets 170mm cranks with the rest running 175mm cranks.
The San Quentin range starts at the top San Quentin 3 and 2, both with a 130mm fork and dropper post. The lowest priced San Quentin 1 uses a 120mm fork and a fixed post.
The San Quentin 3 retails for $1949 and is available in red. The 2 retails for $1299 and is available in a blue/green colour combo. The 3 retails for $869 and is available in either full silver or a blue and pink colour combo.
San Quentin 24" and 20"
Carrying on the go everywhere, do anything mantra from the adult San Quentin, the 24" and 20" versions take that lively and fun theme and scale down the size.
Bikes feature neat details such as adjustable forks, hydraulic brakes and wide range 1x drivetrains to help out with setup and while out on the trail.
The aluminum frames use 135mm open dropouts and not only take design cues from the adult San Quentin, but geometry ideals too.
The 24" bike has a 345mm reach and the 2ß" has a 310mm, with both frames using a 65° head angle.
Short 90mm head tubes keep the stack and standover low and 75° seat tube angles give a modern seated position to the little aggro frames.
The 24" San Quentin has a 30mm BB drop and 370mm chainstay. The 20" has a 10mm BB drop and a 340mm chainstay.
Both bikes come specced with 590mm wide bars, 35mm long stems and the 24" bike has 152mm long cranks while the 20" version has shorter 140mm cranks.
The San Quentin 24" uses a RockShox Judy fork with 100mm travel, Microshift 9-speed drivetrain with an 11-46T cassette and 30T chainring, Shimano MT201 brakes with 160mm rotors and 2.6" wide Vee Tire Crown Gem tyres. It retails for $949.
The San Quentin 20 uses an SR Suntour XCM 80mm travel fork, Microshift 8-speed drivetrain with an 11-32T cassette and 28T chainring, Tektro hydraulic brakes and 2.6" wide Vee Tire Crown Gem tyres. It retails for $599.
Short 90mm head tubes keep the stack and standover low and 75° seat tube angles give a modern seated position to the little aggro frames.
The 24" San Quentin has a 30mm BB drop and 370mm chainstay. The 20" has a 10mm BB drop and a 340mm chainstay.
Both bikes come specced with 590mm wide bars, 35mm long stems and the 24" bike has 152mm long cranks while the 20" version has shorter 140mm cranks.
The San Quentin 24" uses a RockShox Judy fork with 100mm travel, Microshift 9-speed drivetrain with an 11-46T cassette and 30T chainring, Shimano MT201 brakes with 160mm rotors and 2.6" wide Vee Tire Crown Gem tyres. It retails for $949.
The San Quentin 20 uses an SR Suntour XCM 80mm travel fork, Microshift 8-speed drivetrain with an 11-32T cassette and 28T chainring, Tektro hydraulic brakes and 2.6" wide Vee Tire Crown Gem tyres. It retails for $599.
Marin San Quentin 24"
Marin San Quentin 20"
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Well, Except I always wanted a Bear Valley in the late 80s early 90s !
They do have some work to do on specs - my bike came with a need for three different tools to undo rear disk ( extra long cassette tool), front disc (old school BB tool for Octalink), BB (undersized shimano tool for XT BB's)....and a cheap unbranded BB that lasted three rides combined with a crankset that has a proprietary plastic spacer that Marin don't have and you cannot find aftermarket - so after a year I had to bin perfectly good but unusable cranks.
That said, hugely fast all-rounder and great fun to ride
I rode Marin bikes from the 90s until early 2000s, and they were stellar bikes (though sometimes steep at the HT)
But defo looks like a fun bike. And I shall support your opinion that this bike would be good for you!
As a dad to 2 little rippers, I’m most excited about the smaller versions - mini full suss bikes are cool, but in the real world an aggressive hardtail is the sweet spot for kids shredding trails without shredding my wallet!
I'm not sure that I would choose this 20" over BMC Blast 20 I purchased this Summer, but 24" looks like the winner.
(Commencal became just way too expensive)
Liking hardtails for some of the simplicity, but prefer if it can run single speed without the need for derailleur-type chain tensioners. Don't find many frames with sliding or horizontal dropouts in trail bikes (there are some).
For context, I'm trying to find a quick, responsive bike that can handle some intermediate trails with rocks, roots, drops, but doesn't feel too stretched out of downhill oriented... basically a little larger, trail-capable DJ with maybe 120mm suspension and 27.5 wheels. Any reco's? Or am I going to niche with it? (Honestly would like to see more 26" bikes again with more modern geo and wider tires.)
Looked at the Big Honzo too.
Well, I’m not quite sure what you’re looking for exactly?
You’re writing off the San Quinten because you’re worried about the aggressive geometry, but you say you wish there were 26” bikes with updated (aggressive) geometry? Other than the insignificant change in wheel size, that’s basically what the San Quinten is. Why not test ride it?
To make a DJ bike trail capable, you have to add some high-speed stability, and something to take the edge off the obstacles. You can go about that in different ways.
The Honzo has had geometry not far off a long DJ bike, but jacked-up on 29er wheels. This doesn’t make it the best for actual dirt jumping, but it still feels very agile and steers like a dirt jumper, and is an excellent all-around trail bike. (With sliding dropouts!)
The San Quinten takes a different approach... It keeps its form factor low to the ground with small wheels like a DJ, but pushes the front end forwards and adds some extra suspension. This loses a bit of the classic steering feel, but feels better in rougher terrain at higher speeds, and still small and agile overall.
Two different approaches, both valid, IMO. If you really still crave the feeling of riding a conservative geometry 26” bike, why not just do that? I took my DJ bike out for a trail ride last year and had a blast.
We'll definitely be looking at the San Quentin 20 next spring.
Typical bike company - build a new bike with very progressive and out there geometry, but release a ‘safer’ bike at the same time. I expect the SAN Quentin will easy to get hold of while finding an El Roy will be like hunting for rocking horse shit.
Glad to see bigger brands willing to design and make what we want (although in true PB fashion I’d like the Seat Angle to be about 74.5/75 personally)
12, 16, 20, 24, and then F*** 27?
why kids should move from 24 directly to 27 or 29 ?
Notably they also seem to be really aiming at the UK market. Steel hardtail, how UK can you get?
Thing is heavy but he crushes it, even on some gnarly trails. But his little brother is about ready for pedals, and I think he could jump up, and would love to put him a more mtb stance. Anyone ever tried a Pello?
If weight's not a huge concern, another bike to look at is the Cleary Hedgehog. It's a more agressive stance than most kids bikes, the fit is slightly smaller, it comes with a flip flop hub for changing gearing, and it's steel framed with no weight limit (I've seen a picture of an adult tester riding the 16" Hedgehog bike). And I've had Jeff Cleary (owner/founder) call me back about a question I had. I don't own one, but I'm seriously considering one for my eldest. I can periodically find them used also as they've been around longer than Pello.
But the El Roy - why though? Why would anyone buy this?
Though not sure how the seat tube length affects my knees?