• Marin Mount Vision
• £2,095
• Marin
• 01424 753566

Marin’s Mount Vision is something of a modern classic. It’s no exaggeration to say that this is the bike that popularised full suspension in the UK. The original incarnation was simple, effective and affordable and it’s been tweaked and refined ever since. The 2003 model had a significant change from a single-pivot swingarm to the Jon Whyte-designed Quad Link system, and there are a couple of other modifications for 2004.

Frame

At a glance, the Mount Vision frame looks the same as last year’s. It still manages to look like the old single-pivot bike despite having clever linkages about the place, it’s still grey and it’s still made from 6061 aluminium in a semi-monococque style (the main tubes are formed as left and right halves and welded along their length). No complaints there – it all works.

The changes are subtle to the point of invisibility. The most important is that the head tube’s been raised a bit to better accomodate a longer fork. Plenty of people have been running around with 100mm forks on their Mount Visions for ages, of course, but in the past they’ve tended to get a wee bit choppery. The new incarnation’s intended to keep the handling good and sharp with more bounce up front.

The Quad-Link suspension at the other end is unchanged from 2003. Despite having four times as many bearings in it as the pre-2003 bikes, it looks like it holds up pretty well. There have been plenty of 2003 Quad-Link bikes out there for the past year and we haven’t heard any horror stories. All the bearings are the same as those used in the single pivots, and they’re a proven reliable choice.

The rear shock is a tried-and-tested Fox Float R. Interestingly Marin have opted for the regular Float rather than the new Pro-Pedal anti-bob version, preferring to let the suspension design take care of things.

The Mount Vision’s certainly got a purposeful air about it. It’s not ostentatious or particularly eye-catching – it talks softly, but does it carry a big stick?

Components

Having tweaked the frame to take a 100mm travel fork, it’d be a surprise not to find one on there. And we can think of few better choices than Fox’s Float 100RLC. To be honest, we’d be happy with an R – we rarely seem to find a use for lockout and compression adjusters tend to stay firmly open. But we’re not going to complain about extra bonus features.

The 3.5k Mount Vision Pro packs a full XTR group, but this more real-world model combines an XT transmission with Hope Mini brakes to good effect. The brake on the test bike were regular Minis (165 front, bijou 145 rear) but bikes in the shops will have the new Mono Minis. The choice of brakes means that Hope levers adorn the bars, leaving XT RF+ to cover shifting duties via conventionally-sprung XT mechs. We can’t see anyone objecting too much to that…

That leaves the Hollowtech II crank as the only representative of new-for-2004 XT on the bike. This was the first time we’d encountered the crank, and we weren’t disappointed. They’re essentially the same design as the ’03 XTR unit, with a large-diameter hollow spindle permanently attached to the drive-side crankarm and passing through big bearings running slightly outboard of the BB shell in oversized alu cups. The left crank arm is secured by twin opposing pinch bolts. The whole setup is stiff as you like and didn’t give any problems at all.

Wheels feature Hope hubs laced to Mavic X223 disc-specific rims and shod with IRC Mythos tyres. They claim to be 2.1s but they’re the narrowest 2.1s we’ve seen for a while. Marin has also included its favourite wafer-thin inner tubes – very light but a tad puncture prone. You’ll probably want to run something a bit thicker if you’re in a thorny area.

Finishing kit is a grab-bag of FSA stem, WTB headset and saddle, Easton bars and a Marin-branded seatpost. It all sits quite happily together, though, and gave no cause for complaint. The bars are perhaps a tad wide for some tastes, but we’d rather have too wide than too narrow…

Ride

The Mount Vision’s always been an XC bike, but this latest incarnation is XC in a fairly broad sense. The longer, stouter fork won’t do it much harm round a race course but it certainly extends the bike’s capabilities out in the hills. It’s a lot closer to how previous Mount Visions have ended up in the past once their owners have customised the spec a bit. The first thing we did with the test bike was ride it around Morocco’s Atlas mountains for six days and it felt very much at home. Sure, we’d have appreciated bigger tyres in the rocks but there was plenty of grip.

When the Quad-Link system first appeared we noted that it was insanely plush over the little stuff but stiffened up considerably towards the end of the travel. That made a lot of sense in its short-forked incarnation, making it essentially a short-travel bike with some emergency travel reserves for the big stuff. We were surprised at how well balanced the ’04 bike felt with the legendarily plush Fox fork up front, though. It seems to be impossible to bottom the Quad-Link out, and we were occasionally distracted by the marked transition between the plush bit early in the stroke and the rapidly-stiffening bit at the end, but it does so many other things well that we’re loath to harp on about it.

In particular, that small-bump plushness translates into deeply impressive traction on loose climbs. Anywhere where a hardtail starts spinning out and spitting rocks, the MV’ll cruise serenely by. Just keep your weight centred, spin the medals and let the magic happen. Despite the riser bars (and us leaving all the spacers under the stem) the riding position is still quite heads-down, making it easy to keep the front down and the power on. It actually almost felt like cheating a couple of times.

It’s also very stable under pedalling. Part of that plushness is down to a slightly rearwards axle path in the early part of the stroke, which also reduces the effect of any vertical weight shifts like your legs bouncing up and down. The only time we used the lockout during the test was on a 10km Tarmac climb and really we don’t think it would have been any slower with the suspension turned on…

Downhill the MV is an entirely competent if not earth-shattering performer. Occasionally you’ll hit stuff that over-taxes the back end and if you get deep into the ramping zone it can kick back a little, but it’s never worrisome. And on 90% of bumps its ability to let you keep the power on is a huge boon. Handling-wise the bike feels very well balanced and the extra fork travel gives it an extra dose of confidence on the descents. It’s still very agile, though, making quick line changes a snap. It’s not a point-and-shoot bike but it responds to rider inputs with panache, which suits us.

Positives: Light, taut, fast all-rounder

Negatives: Slight lack of big-hit ability

With the Quad-Link system finding its way, in a more linear form, onto Marin’s long-travel TARA bikes for 2004, it’s a bit unfair to level serious criticism at the Mount Vision’s big hit performance. The MV is an all-rounder with a bias towards climbing and fairly level trails, and deliberately so. If your preferences are more towards descents then get a TARA. And it’s not like the Vision can’t descend. It’s light, it’s agile, it’s one of the best-climbing bikes we’ve ever ridden and it’s happy out in the hills all day. Lovely.

Performance: 5/5
Value: 5/5
Overall: 5/5