Field Trip: Marin's $2,849 Rift Zone Is An XC Bike at Heart

 Sounds like a good mountain bike for when you don't have mountains. Like most of the country.

 Interesting to see how Pinbike and Vital review products. On the one hand, they almost always do the same kind of testing. Vital has just released a "field trip" of their own. Whenever I see a bike review on PB, 2hours later it is on Vital's Youtube channel. And so on.

On the other hand, their thoughts are quite different. Vital reviewed Rift Zone Carbon last year and they said it was one the best bikes with a very planted feel (the only con was that it wasnt poppy or something). PB rated Norco Optic as bike of the year, Vital said it wasnt good enough.

I am not saying the methodologies are right or wrong, but we cant blindly trust what the reviewers are saying. Ideally, we should all test bikes before buying. Unfortunately, thats not the reality... Ranch over.

 65.5° head angle with 130mm up front & 125mm in the rear is a nervous descender? LoL Is this like a new defacto complaint for reviews? This must be a joke. Geometry & travel like that would be more than enough for at least 75% of MTBers.

 Sooo, it's the kind of bike a very large percentage of riders(to include me) would be just fine with for the type of riding they do.

 Would love to see a bike between the rift zone and the alpine trail. The rift zone is missing juste a little bit of travel for proper AM riding in my taste, but I feel like the alpine trail is too extreme and too long for my use.

 I have the Carbon RZ, and it's awesome. I ride on the east coast, rough and rocky for sure, hit some of the bike parks. As someone coming from a bmx background I love the short stays and it's flickable nature. It's certainly got me out of more trouble than in it that's for sure. I don't have the ability to ride a full enduro sled to it's max, but I would say that keeping up with friends on bigger bikes and watching how they ride and then learning how to take my 130mm bike through those same trails, even if a little slower, has been an awesome learning curve. This is not an xc bike, it's a damn good trail bike that you can really push hard on.

Of course there are places where it's outgunned.. but it's also kind of neat when someone says 'you just rode down that.. on that?'

 I own this bike. It rips up and down the trail. I’d say it’s great value for 90% of riders, most aren’t good enough to need more suspension than this, especially when considering that a 29 inch wheel adds effectively an inch of travel. Have never felt “nervous”.. maybe the reviewers need more time on short travel or hard tail bikes to improve their skills?

 I feel like this bike wasn't reviewed for what it is-- an affordable downcountry bike (surprised mike didn't catch on to that). I don't think it was necessarily designed to compete with the plush polygon/giant, and while it can work in "middle America" I think its intent was long days on the mountain and fast trails. I own one and after a little bit of suspension tweaking and a tire swap its incredibly fast on everything but super rough/ chattery descents, and fun even on longer, 30-40 mile type rides. IMO its rare to find a bike in this price point that can actually accomplish both those things, while a plush, heavy bruiser like the Giant is fairly common.

 Yeah, 65.5 degree head angle, 130mm travel and 15kgs. Hard to imagine that being a nervous descender on most trails. My mate has one and it feels like a monster truck compared to my XC bike, so I dont know how it is an "XC bike at heart".

 I remember looking at this bike. had SLX components but a cheap sun race cassette with a HG hub. This means I have to replace the driver (if possible) in order to use a proper Shimano cassette - fail

 It seems like a few years back we were looking for trail bikes that didn't bob so much, now when bikes have less pedal bob it becomes a con on challenging sections. I assume that the more active bikes are still fairly efficient, but I wonder how fitness plays a part in these tests. I only push 2watts/kg so I spend longer on the ups than Mike and Sarah. It makes sense that I'll value pedalling efficiency more than they would. Going to try a Troy deore this year, so maybe a better platform will open my eyes, but so far I've been pretty happy with the efficient horst link on my GT.

 Interesting that Mike Levy - who usually rides a large with the saddle forward - is riding mediums and describing them as nervous descenders. I assume it's so the bikes fit Sarah?

 My son and I have the 27.5 version. The stock Vee were terrible. We put 2.5DHF front and 2.4 DHR rear with new wheelset. He has Hunt Wheels and I run custom Chromag/Hope Pro 4 combo. Huge difference and we go on some gnarly trails with them. My biggest gripe is that they still use a Sunrace boat anchor. In order to replace it, you need a new cassette which requires new wheels to do it correct. The SLX cassette is so much better. Still we love the bikes and will use them for at least a few more seasons.

 Lots of Marin hater I see. Why? They seem like a perfectly good brand to me, although they don't have many expensive dentist bikes.

 I'm a very happy owner of the previous version: cheap, great geometry, 31lbs. in my large custom build: Large RZ 2 frame, SR Suntoir Aion, Box 2 drivetrain, custom economy Hope/Sun Ringlé and SLX/XM421 wheelset.

 This bike is a real nice platform but the 1700 dollar model is a load of crap, the suspension would leave you off better with a 1700 dollar hard tail.

 I just got the rift zone 27,5 1 and I must say that I love the thing. Must say having nothing but a beaten up hardtail to compare it to, makes that a pretty easy task for the Marin.

 I can't believe how much better that Shimano derailleur does on the huck to flat.

 Perfect bike for most of the Midwest. Not my jam but if your local trails are twisty and winding but not chunky and full or drops and gaps this is a solid spec.

 Interesting to see so many bikes tested that come out of the box w/o any (or minimal) chain stay and/or down tube protection from the factory. Seems like a low cost addition that would have a high payoff value...especially if it helps frame warranties. Any reason for this?

 I have this bike - I like this bike. I am not a professional and you probably aren't either. You would probably like this bike at this price.

 Love these Dental Hygienist bike reviews. Keep 'em coming!

 I own a RZ carbon 2 and this bike is a blast. I don't usually comment on PB, but their description as a "nervous" descender is totally misguided in my opinion. Sure it's not going to descend like a DH or enduro bike, but I swill ride the exact same trails. Have yet to reach a trail I don't feel comfortable riding on it.

 Good bikes but im so tired of receiving Marins with over dampened suspension. I wish they would step the damping back to a mid or light setup on both compression and rebound. Give the bikes a chance at absorbing fast succession hits.

 This bike seems to receive such different reviews depending on who writes them. "jibby", "basic", "playful", "bargin", "aggressive", "cross country"... it's like a Rorschach test.

 I own this bike. My purchasing decision was influenced by the efficiency claims in the pinkbike review. I'm pretty happy with this as a "trail bike" for riding in the Colorado Front Range, but I've encountered a few issues that are worth noting to potential purchasers.

First the good. I don't think that this bike is a nervous descender, but I also don't have the privilege of comparing it to other current model full suspensions. I suspect that most riders will find the descending performance acceptable if upgrading from a hardtail or a 10+ year old full suspension, even if you are riding in the mountains. For me, this bike would be overkill for Midwest USA riding. The brakes are great so far - four piston calipers and 180/200 rotors is more enduro than downcountry.

Then the OK. Efficient pedaling means different things to different people. Again, I wasn't comparing this to the current crop of budget full suspensions. The suspension is more active than I was expecting based on the review. It is more efficient pedaling than the last full suspension I spent significant time on (2012 Specialized Camber 29), but the review made it sound like it is tuned to ride like a firm xc race bike (e.g., Specialized Epic). It definitely does not make me want to get out of the saddle to pedal hard. I spend a lot more time in the saddle spinning up climbs in a low gear that I would normally be mashing up in a big gear on my hardtail. The plus of the more active suspension is great traction.

Now, some of the bad.

Unlike most reviews, I had a rough time dialing in the fork. I'm 125 lbs, so I probably fall outside the target weight for the stock spring and damper configurations. It was initially difficult for me to get anywhere close to full travel at the recommended settings and the fork performance degraded quickly after a few rides in dusty conditions. A big issue that any purchaser should be aware of is that Marzocchi left the foam rings out of the Z2 on initial assembly. They don't admit to this, but I suspect it was a supply chain issue. In my opinion, this led to suboptimal lubrication causing unacceptable stiction and creaking. After 60 miles of riding, I did a lower service and installed aftermarket foam rings. This solved my stiction issues. I still find that the fork is more supportive than I'd like, so I may experiment with removing the one air spring volume spacer it comes with.

This bike does not feel very "downcountry" due to the very heavy wheels and tires. I plan to upgrade both to make the bike better suited for longer days in the saddle. The stock tires do have amazing grip, but the rolling resistance is more than I prefer. The spec of an HG compatible SunRace cassette means that I may also be purchasing a new cassette with the wheel upgrade since microspline seems to be killing the market for HG compatible boost hubs. Oddly, the lower spec Rift Zone 2 gets a microspline rear hub and cassette.

My freehub developed an unacceptable amount of play in the first 100 miles of riding. There was an audible clunk when bouncing the rear wheel and the wobble was bad enough that it affected the shifting towards the low end of the cassette. Marin sent me a warranty replacement freehub. The jury is out on whether it will be a long term fix, or if it will also go bad quickly. In case anyone is wondering, the hub is a rebadged Formula CL-1248, which has no instructions available online, so your on your own for service.

This is the "lowest" bike I've every ridden. We have lots of rocks here in Colorado, so I put a taco bash guard on it to protect my chain and chainring. I hit my guard every other ride, so you should probably invest in similar protection if the trails you ride are rocky.

Why did the lower spec Rift Zone 2 get a sweet chain stay protector while the higher spec Rift Zone 3 received a glued on strip of rubber? I added more protection at my own expense, but I would prefer the Marin integrated protector. Stock downtube protection would also be a plus to keep up with the newest crop of aluminum trail bikes.

Conclusions. With the stock components, this is a solidly a "trail bike" that can suit many riders well. I'm not sure what to make of the contrast between the heavy weight and efficient-ish suspension. I'm hoping that it feels a bit quicker when I upgrade to lighter wheels and tires.

 4.9 kg missing I would say.

 Yeah but can you fufanu a tree stump on it?

 Loving these value bike reviews, keep up the good work!

 I have the smaller wheeled version and just so people know, the smaller one doesn't have the same geo. Still love it though

 fun facts: this bike use exactly the same chainstay unit as polygon siskiu d7. well,they both came out from the same factory after all..

 Anyone know what type of hubs it has? Not really worth it if you can't get a microspline freehub.

 Marin - Rift Zone 3 2020 Bike - REAL WEIGHT FOR SIZE XL

youtu.be/6RNDWA94jTM

 How would this platform do with a rear coil set up? It sounds like that would unlock some of its down capability.

 Looks like an XC bike on the outside as well.

 So it's a down-country bike? @mikelevy you've created a monster.

 So many comments about noisy bikes in review notes.

 are we not going to talk about the crack in the weld in the seat post???

 dude theyre killing it lately. great bike for the money all around.