Review: 2019 Marin Alpine Trail 7 - Good Performance, Great Value

here, but Marin's tried-and-true frame configuration trades complexity for value and durability, and it frees up a lot of storage space in the front triangle while keeping the heavy bits low in the chassis.

We expect value-priced performance bikes to brandish a handful of name brands in key places. Marin gives the Alpine Trail 7 a capable, 160-millimeter-travel RockShox Yari RC fork, paired with an X-Fusion O2 Pro RXC shock (the 150mm dropper post is also by X-Fusion). The transmission is a well-chosen mixture of very familiar items: 11-speed Shimano SLX shifting, an FSA Comet 30t crankset, and out back, e*Thirteen's wide-range 9 x 46-tooth cassette. Two items that were new on my radar were its four-piston Tektro Orion brakes and very aggressive looking Vee Flow Snap tires. All said, the $2,749 Alpine Trail 7 has all the ingredients of a good all-mountain / enduro bike, and it looks the part too.

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Construction and Features

Marin's PR tells us that the Alpine Trail 7 features its top-level aluminum frame, with heavily manipulated tubes, internal hose and cable routing, and a robust, two-piece forged rocker link that is designed to be stiff enough to eliminate the traditional seat stay bridge. Without the confines of a bridge, the Trail 7 benefits doubly, with much more tire clearance (2.6-inch tires are standard fare) and more importantly, more room at full compression for a 29-inch wheel. That tidbit, in addition to Marin's curved seat tube, provides just enough wiggle room for 150-millimeters of rear wheel travel, with short, 430-millimeter chainstays.


General fabrication is well executed, with two-pass welds creating smooth transitions at each joint. Large bearings and rigid, clevis type pivots ensure longevity and should help the bike track well. It's refreshing to see that Marin has joined smarter bike designers who have finally sealed up the "Shimano front derailleur cave" and opted to center the seat tube and widen the bearing spacing at the critical swingarm pivot. Other niceties are its internal cables, threaded bottom bracket cups and ISCG 05 guide mounts.

Geometry & Sizing

Suspension Design

There has been a lot of smack talk about single-pivot rear suspension in past decades. Much of that centered around braking performance, but if you learned to ride on a BMX or a hardtail mountain bike, then you'd never notice the impaired suspension action that most single pivot suspensions exhibit under hard braking. The sensation feels exactly like riding a hardtail and can be moderated as such. There's more to the equation than that, but it's a rare single-pivot that bucks the braking physics and still pedals well.

On a more positive note, one-by drivetrains put single-pivots back in the game. Focusing the chain line at one location in relationship with the chainring reduces the dramatic variations in anti-squat and suspension rise that were imposed on rear suspension by multiple chainrings during the evil front derailleur era. Also, unlike the predominant short-link four-bar designs, which are plagued by reversing leverage curves, single-pivot suspensions can be easily manipulated to produce predictable rising rate curves that produce more consistent shock damping and make tuning your suspension easy as pie. It's a win for simplicity - and for affordable trail bikes.


Standout Components

Marin spec'd some components that we don't see often, but that may change soon. Tektro Orion brakes, for instance, have four-pot calipers, a firm, very positive engagement feel, and their all aluminum lever/master cylinders are more substantially built than competing Shimano or SRAM brakes. If you can live with two-finger levers, they are definitely a step up. This is the first bike I've ridden with FSA's new modular crankset. The Comet shares FSA's new direct-mount chainring, which (like Race Face) will make switching or replacing chainrings a five-minute operation. Looks great too.



Out back, a Shimano SLX changer shifts a lightweight, wide-range e*Thirteen cassette - which solves an issue that I have with Shimano drivetrains. Shimano's smallest cog is an 11, which forces its owner to choose either an adequate climbing gear at the risk of spinning out in the 11, or a larger chainring that punishes climbing at the expense of top speed. E*Thirteen's 9 by 46-tooth spread handily solves the problem in both directions.

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Getting Started

Dialing in the Alpine Trail 7 was pretty easy. Its wheels are furnished with tubeless strips in place. My test bike was already inflated with sealant, so all I had to do was get the sag set at 20 percent up front and 30 percent in the shock. Initially, the X-Fusion air-sprung shock developed a hiss on the rebound stroke, which reappeared now and then throughout the review period, but didn't seem to adversely affect performance. The Marin's long feeling wheelbase and dependable handling allowed me to run the rebound a little faster than I'd normally choose, and after my initial shakedown ride, where I upped the shock pressure from 167 to 178psi, I never felt the need to mess with the suspension.

I did have a small issue with the dropper post, however. The bent seat tube did not allow me to insert the seatpost far enough. I was left ten millimeters higher than my maximum pedaling height with the stock 150-millimeter dropper. As luck would have it, I measured a number of saddles and discovered that SQlab saddles were about 14 millimeters lower over the rails than Marin's. I switched out the seats and had room to spare - without having to switch to a shorter stroke dropper post. Note to self...

Climbing

The Trail 7 feels very deliberate under saddle. There is enough firmness built into the suspension to climb steep pitches without soft pedaling. That's a good thing, because the Marin weighs almost 33 pounds, and a measure of that heft in its wheels and tires. No, it doesn't accelerate with anything that resembles spunk, but it's gearing is low enough to find a good zone, and it's surprisingly efficient as long as you keep the power steady. I always made it to the summit with enough left to keep my downhill game sharp.

On the paved roll to the trailhead, its spiky, 2.6-inch Vee tires feel slower than the baseline Maxxis Minions do, but they come alive once they meet the dirt. I've noticed this trait with other aggressive tires that boast sticky rubber compounds.

Technically, the bike's tail end is short enough to keep that big tire digging for traction while you make your way up some crazy stuff. I used the Alpine Trail to practice on a string of technical switchbacks with solid results. I was impressed that such a big feeling chassis could be maneuvered in such tight quarters. I attribute some of that goodness to the bike's 76-degree seat tube angle in addition to its compact chainstays.

I used the "climb switch" on the X-fusion shock for most of the longer uphills. Once the trail was at least fifty percent downhill, however, there was no point in using it. The suspension waffles a little under power, but it remains firm enough to ignore the band-aid lever most of the time.

Descending

Half of my time aboard the Marin was a celebration of moist hero dirt which led me to the dangerous conclusion that the bike could do not wrong in the turns. If I had stopped and written the review then, I probably would have raved about the tenacity of its Vee Flow Snap tires... the evil rubber daemons who made repeated attempts to murder me after the trails dried up a month later. How could a front wheel, shod with such a capable looking tread push so badly when pressed into a turn? How could such manly looking edging blocks awkwardly slip down off-camber sections that worn out Minions could dance on?

While the Marin was running well on tacky terrain, I was able to ride the bike with abandon, as I imagined its designers intended it to be enjoyed. It's easy to jump and landings, good or bad, almost always feel composed. The '7 likes to glide around corners, and it has a balanced, predictable drift when pushed harder than available traction. It tracked a little wide unless I leaned it slightly deeper than I first anticipated I'd need to. Once you get a feel for that, though, cornering will be predictable and playful - which is probably why I was caught out when the trails became slippery. The fix was better rubber - then it was back to game on.



I enjoyed the Marin most while descending technical pitches, especially rocky ones, where I discovered that I could huck the bike in a pinch, or trust it to roll out of awful line choices. Onlookers might be fooled that I had purposely hit the scary line, but the credit goes to good geometry and big wheels. Its RockShox Yari fork was more capable and planted than I would have predicted, and although the X-Fusion shock was no match for it, I never felt a harsh bottom out, and beyond its occasional heavy breathing, it still works fine. The surprise performer in the technical realm were its Tektro brakes. With good modulation, strong stopping and a predictable bite point, they are proving to be a step above Shimano and SRAM's entry-level fare.

How does it compare?

Searching for an apt match for this contemporary and very capable trail bike led me to the Diamondback's Release 3, one of my all-time favorite budget rippers. The Release has less travel - 130 millimeters, compared to the 150-millimeter Trail 7, and has smaller wheels. The Diamondback's components, especially its RockShox Pike fork and Monarch Plus reservoir shock are a cut above the Marin's in every corner.


Both designs were intended to bring pro-level handling to the masses and do a great job of it. The strength of this comparison is that, for its time, the Release 3 set the bar for a needs-nothing aggressive trail bike with an affordable $3,000 USD price tag. That said, it left test riders curious for larger wheels, a little bit more suspension travel and a steeper seat tube angle. Well, here it is, only the head badge says "Marin."

Technical Report

Pinkbike's Take

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