oldmanben

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.

@HoppyUSA: My freehub also went bad in the first 100 miles of use. I experienced the same issue with shifting. Marin sent me a replacement freehub free of charge. In case anyone is wondering the hub is just a rebadged Formula CL-1248.

I'm not knocking the design - it seems like a simple and effective solution. The problem I see with it (and other solutions like the Hite Rite) is that you're going to be constantly pulling grease out with the seatpost, contaminating that grease with dirt, and then shoving it all back into the frame. That sounds like a creaking nightmare to me. Do you clean and reapply grease after every ride?