Interbike 2008 - Marin Wolf Trail 6.8 with Shaums March

Sep 26, 2008 at 0:21
by Tyler Maine  
Marin bikes of Novato California lives next door to the birth place of mountain biking; Mount Tam. This is the breading grounds for 3 decades of evolution in their bikes which today has a span of 73 different bikes. The Wolf Ridge 6.8 is part of their Quad Trail series of All Mountain machines with 140mm of rear travel. We ran into Shaums March and had a chat about the Wolf Ridge 6.8 and his experience with all the Quad Link bikes from Marin.

Check out the Video, Pics and Specs inside:Marin's Quad Link 2.0 suspension system resists bottoming out on large impacts and is not affected negatively by pedaling forces. This leads to a great pedaling and enjoyable overall ride.

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Quad Link Suspension


Shaums has been with Marin now for 3 seasons and has piloted their longer travel Quad Link platforms to 2 World Championships and one second place finish last month in Master's Expert category. We were able to corner him in the desert and listen what he had to say about the new Marin Wolf Ridge 6.8.

The Wolf Ridge Series are 5.5" travel trail bikes with slack head and seat tube angles that really allow you to get aggressive on the downs on your local trails. The 6.8 is the middle of this series and the one we are looking at today.

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FrameMarin Wolf Ridge 6.8(Bubba Green)
•140mm of travel
•Sizes S, M and L
Rear ShockFox Float RP3
ForkRockShox Pike 426 U turn
•20 mm MAXLE
•110-140mm Travel
•Rebound and Motion Control adjustments
HeadsetTH Sealed
CrankarmsGravity Gap MegaExo
ChainringsFSA 22/32/44T
Bottom BracketMegaExo, 68/73mm
PedalsShimano M424 Clipless
ChainSRAM PC-951
Cassette•Sram PG-970 11-34 T, 9 Speed
Front DerailleurShimano Deore
Rear DerailleurShimano Shadow XT
Shifter Cable/HousingStock
Shifter PodsShimano SLX, 9 speed
HandlebarSyncros AM - Low rise(31.8mm)
StemSyncros AM(31.8mm)
GripsMarin Lock On
BrakesHayes Stroker Trail, 7" rear and 6" front rotors
Front WheelRingle Jumping Flea 20mm front hub laced to Mavic EN-321 rim
Rear WheelRingle Jumping Flea 150x12 mm hub laced to Mavic EN-321 rim - MAXLE option
TiresKenda Nevegal, 2.35, Stick-e Rubber w/Kevlar Bead
TubesStock
SaddleWTB Pure V Comp
SeatpostSyncros Derived 30.9 x 400mm

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Please visit www.marinbikes.com to learn more about the whole line up of Marin products.

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38 Comments
  • 12 0
 Marin make what looks to be awesome bikes. I would love to see a DH specific bike and not just a Freeride. But Sick All MT. Bike!
  • 7 0
 Look up the Quad XLT, it's Shaum's old DH bike.
  • 19 18
 I no im gunna get downed but am i the only one who thinks that marin makes the ugliest bikes in the industry? just putting my opinion out there im sure they work nice but one word... uuugly.
  • 9 8
 I think they're GORGEOUS, love the look of the linkage
  • 1 3
 the yare ugly, but they look/are strong
  • 0 0
 they r making a DH specific bike...but its only a prototype right now, shaums has been testing it for the last couple years, they r gonna be made available to shaums' racing team, but im not sure who else will be able to get them
  • 0 0
 they dont look bad but its not my favorite but i have to say there sure feel good. i did a long XC ride on one in Marin CA and it was great, good climbing but still sucked stuff up on the dow hill
  • 6 0
 It's funny how many people bash the looks of this bike. Do looks REALLY matter when you're RAILING a trail. Hell...some people might say my Sunday WC looks ugly, but I'm not noticing...it melts away when the trail turns downhill!!
  • 5 0
 Some of you base your thoughts on looks? What? Hummers look like a box on wheels but that's one of the baddies vehicles on earth. Looks... PAH!!! As a shop owner, I have owned several different long travel bikes. At least 2 dozen different models. Let me tell you, the Marin is a fantastic ride. Aside from the rear shock is difficult to tune, I have zero complaints. This coming from a guy who knows a great design when I see one, someone who's been riding bikes longer than some of you have been alive. It rails like it's on tracks, climbs anything like a goat, drops are soooooo smooth and it's actually comfortable to ride. I often let people test ride my bike, everyone's always very impressed.
  • 5 2
 Why is every company focused on making such radical designs. Some of the upgrades do help with strength and stiffness but most of it is just cosmetic. I don't feel like paying an extra 100 dollars for octagonal tubes and curves BLAh!
  • 1 4
 companies need to stop reinventing the wheel
  • 1 2
 the wheel hasn't been fully invented yet
  • 2 0
 Best bikes I have ever ridden. I came into my shop about 6 months ago looking for a new frame. One of the mechanics had been trying to get me on his quake 7.2 for awhile so i finally decided to take it for a spin. I rode it for 5 minutes and ordered up a Quake 7.3. I have ridden it now for a season and absolutely love it. Bike tracks amazing, climbs well. It really does everything you could want. Even their cheaper models you will not find a better priced bike for what you get. I will be purchasing the full DH version as soon as it is available.
  • 4 1
 its seems like there would be a lot of stress on the pivots. cause it is like forcing the wheel forward. thats a pretty cool frame tho
  • 1 0
 It may seem like there would be a lot of stress but that isn't the case. The rear wheel travels somewhat rearward for the first 1/3 of travel and the pivots have the best warranty in the bike biz because they don't fail.
  • 0 0
 it also seems as if the chain would slacken up a shitload when the frame was fully compressed
  • 1 0
 Well I gotta pipe in here....like EricBirk I too was looking for a new bike this past spring and had pretty much been convinced by all my buddies that the Santa Cruz Blur LT was the way to go. Late one Saturday afternoon I dropped by one of the local shops to take a look at a Jamis as a comparison, well the shop owner really pushed me towards the Marin over the Jamis, he had one medium Wolf Ridge left and a medium and large Mount Vision, I road them all and found the Large Mount Vision to be a great fit and road better than anything I'd ridden to date. Long story short, I've been beating the hell out of it all summer in Fernie, BC and have even done some Chair Lifting at the hill, I have a hard time believing I could find a bike I like better and it has been bullet proof contrary to what some of the others have said. It is the best climber I've ever ridden and other than the steeper steering on the Mount Vision it's great as a middling DH'er too. The Quad Link is neat and no gimmick, it digs in great and feels like it has far more travel than it does...I'd buy another one.
  • 1 0
 I just noticed this thread. I own a shop. We have ditched some high profile, easy to sell brands that supposedly have good suspension designs to make more room for Marins. When we send customers out on test rides they often return with a big smile yet looking kinda puzzled because they never even knew about Marin. I ride a Wolfridge. It is my XC bike and my freeride bike. People comment about the looks of the suspension - sometimes positive, sometimes negative. People don't realize that the looks of the Quad Link are secondary - they look the way they do because they wanted the suspension to achieve a bunch of different things and placing the linkage the way they did was to achieve all the performance features they were after. I'm glad to see that people are catching on to the fact that Marin's suspension offers fully active braking, the best hill climbing AND best small bump performance while having the longest lasting pivot bearings on the market. The bikes are heavy because of the suspension design - people are also starting to realize that the number the scale shows isn't everything because the bikes feel much lighter on the trail because of the suspension characteristics. Before buying a full suspension bike, do yourself a favour and test ride a Marin.
  • 3 0
 Did any of ur mothers ever tell u if u dont have any thing nice to say dont say anything at all?????
  • 2 0
 Oh --- been talking about the Quake the whole time.
&
mine's built at 39.2lbs

would be very easy to drop another 2lbs with just a few mods.
  • 2 0
 shaums really knows how to lay it down, guy just sounds pro just talking haha
  • 2 0
 shaums is one of the classiest pro riders you will ever meet. marin should be super happy to have him on board.
  • 0 0
 I agree.
  • 2 1
 My next bike. I ride a mount vision right now, it's awesome, but not the best on the downs... Got a friend with the wolf ridge and it's sooo sick.
  • 3 2
 my buddy cracked a head tube and then his dad cracked a head tube..they look and feel nice but i'm not sure about them
  • 2 0
 Good point. From looking at the major gusset that meets at the HT, I think they got the message. That gusset is huge, you could store stuff inside that thing! Great looking bike though, Marin has leaned-out this quad link nicely.
  • 2 1
 That quadlink looks pretty interesting, and I like that green too
  • 0 0
 I'd like to see an explanation for the "slopestyle" bike in the Marin 2009 catalogue we have at work.
  • 1 0
 Shaums new rig???

www.marinbikes.com/cms/_images/DHproto10V2.jpg
  • 0 0
 It's a DH proto, shaun march is riding this bike since the master 2007. the final version gonna be really different. The head angle gonna be a lot more slack, the tubbing gonna be hydroform so they gonna shave weight and have a better look
  • 0 0
 marin deos make a dh specific
  • 5 4
 strange and ugly
  • 1 2
 looks pretty damn sexy tbh:P
  • 1 1
 Nice !
  • 1 3
 150x12mm in the rear? Doesn't that seem like overkill to anyone else?
  • 0 3
 wow 12×150 rear hub Big Grin freeride and some dh frames would be envy
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