• Marin Rocky Ridge £975
• Marin Wildcat Trail £755
• Marin

Marin’s “trail hardtail” range is something of a rarity amongst mainstream manufacturers. The vast majority of hardtails on the market are still, deep down, XC race bikes. They might have 100mm travel forks, riser bars and big tyres but under the accoutrements they’re still “classic” XC bikes. Marin makes some of those too, but the trail hardtails are different, giving you a chuckable, long-forked package of the sort that’s generally the preserve of the niche manufacturer.

There’s a four-bike range of these bikes, with the Rocky Ridge and Wildcat Trail sitting at top and second within it. We’ve been riding both of them and they’ve very similar (they share the same frame), so we’re doing a two-for-one bike test special…

Frame

The Rocky Ridge and Wildcat Trail share the same feature-laden 7005 aluminium frame – the only difference is paint and graphics. The frame is designed around a long (120-130mm travel) fork but is intended to be compact and manouevrable. Marrying those two goals gives the frame a distinctive profile, with one of the slopiest sloping top tubes in the business.

One of the advantages that big manufacturers have over little ones is that they’re working with larger volumes, which makes buying tooling for interesting frame fixtures and tubing manipulation a viable proposition. Marin has really gone to town on these frames. The main tubes have a multi-faceted cross-section, sort of septagonal but with a mostly rounded underside. The rear stays carry the “Tri-Burner” moniker, and as you might expect they have a triangular cross-section. They present a flat face to the tyre, which helps with mud clearance. They also wiggle in and out to navigate between seat tube and dropout while leaving maximum space for tyre, heels and cranks.

Up front the head tube has reinforced ends and neat little open-ended gussets reinforce the top and down tube junctions. Chain- and seatstay bridges are neat little machined items. How much difference all of this tube manipulation makes is open to debate, but it’s certainly distinctive and the attention to detail is impressive.

Cable routing is good old under-the-bottom-bracket, and we’ve got no problems with that – it’s still the most direct cable route. The rear brake hose runs along the underneath of the top tube, offset to the left and held in place with cradle-and-clip guides. There’s only one set of bottle bosses (there’s not enough room in the compact main triangle for more) but that’s at least as many as we’re used to in this age of weirdly-shaped FS bikes. We’d prefer to see the seat clamp slot at the front of the seat tube, but we’re into the realms of niggles there.

The “tribal” graphics of the 2004 bikes have gone, replaced with a rather more traditional design. Both bikes are pleasingly understated, with the Rocky Ridge’s black-on-gunmetal being particularly subtle. Both test bikes shed a considerable degree of paint from heel-rub on the chainstays, but these were pre-production samples ridden in especially gritty conditions – we’d expect the bikes in the shops to be better.

They’re both great-looking bikes. The teeny frame triangles, big forks and chunky tyres serve up a ready-for-anything stance and may stir fond memories of that BMX you had when you were younger…

Components

Despite these two bikes being built up around the same frame, the Rocky Ridge costs £220 more than the Wildcat Trail. So what’s the extra cash getting you? The most obvious upgrade is the fork. The front of the Wildcat is held up by a 120mm Marzocchi EXR Pro coil fork, which is perfectly competent but very much in the budget category – the damping is fairly unsophisticated and the only adjustment is spring preload. It works well enough, though, and it won’t give you any trouble.

The Rocky packs a classic Fox Vanilla R, now with 130mm of travel for 2005. There’s no real geometry consequence of the extra 10mm of travel over the cheaper bike – Marzocchis tend to be long for their travel and Foxes fairly short, so handling differences are barely detectable. The better performance of the Vanilla is clear, though. The coil-sprung fork is one of the plushest out there, the damping is well controlled in all circumstances and you get the adjustments you really need and none of the ones that you don’t.

Wheel packages on both bikes feature reliable if unexciting Shimano six-bolt disc hubs. The Wildcat runs Alex DP-20 rims while the Rocky gets an upgrade to Mavic XM-317s. These are both quite narrow rims, although the WTB tyres (Moto Raptor 2.24in both ends on the Wildcat, with the front swapped for a 2.3in Timberwolf on the Rocky) don’t seem to mind. Some tyres of this size prefer to run on slightly wider rims, though. Hayes HFX-9 brakes with 185mm front rotors appear on both bikes – no complaints there.

Transmission combines Truvativ cranks and Shimano derailleurs on both bikes, with slightly posher stuff on the Rocky – Firex cranks, XT mech, Deore shifters versus FiveD cranks, Deore mech and Alivio shifters. You also only get eight sprockets at the back of the Wildcat Trail, but you get the same 11-32 range and we didn’t even notice it was a cog down until we looked at the spec sheets.

Finishing kits both combine FSA (stems, seatposts) and WTB (saddles, grips) to decent effect. Again, the Rocky gets gear a notch up from the Wildcat although whether you’ll notice a 10g lighter stem is probably moot. Both bikes get 31.8mm oversized bars, Truvative XR on the Rocky and an unbranded unit on the Wildcat.

You won’t be surprised to learn that these aren’t superlight bikes. The Wildcat Trail hits the scales at 14.6kg (just over 32lb). Your extra money lets the Rocky Ridge shed 1.1kg (2.4lb) off that, bringing it in under the magic 30lb mark.

All in all both specs are about as good as you can expect for the money. It’s clear that Marin have prioritised forks and brakes over transmission, but that’s fine by us – transmission parts wear out anyway…

Ride

There’s at least a couple of generations of riders now who’ve never owned or ridden a hardtail. That may come as a surprise to MTB veterans who cut their teeth on rigid steel bikes fifteen years ago, but it’s true. Go bike shopping with a substantial amount of money and it’s the full sussers that catch the eye. As we commented earlier, most hardtails are still fairly racy while the popular full suspension bikes tend towards a more relaxed, fun approach – smiles above speed.

Marin’s trail hardtails are hardtails for the full suspension generation. Sit on one and it feels just like sitting on an FS “trail bike” – five inch fork out front, big tyres, big bars, slightly upright riding position. It’s a very different feel to the long-forked hardtails coming out of the niche manufacturers, who tend to go for a steeper, more aggressive stance. The Marins put you high up, behind the front wheel rather than over it.

This makes them feel very familiar to longish-travel FS jockeys, but if you’re used to regular hardtails you’ll have to work a bit before you feel totally happy – you need to pull yourself forward in corners to get the front tyre to bite, rather than relying on the shape of the bike to put you in the right place. The short cockpit makes that an easy task and once you’re into it you’ll start having a blast. Short bikes are affected more by fore-aft weight shifts, which is a boon for anyone who wants to really ride a bike, not just sit on it and pedal.

They’re great fun on descents, with the geometry letting you hide behind the forks on the straights and the big bars encouraging you to haul yourself forward for the corners. It works really well, and you get a free upper-body workout into the bargain. Unlike some long-forked hardtails, neither of these give any cause for concern on steep drops – you still need to make allowances for lots of fork plunge, but the slightly relaxed geometry and short frame makes it easy to get your weight back in anticipation.

Going back up the other way is fine too. Obviously you’re not getting the climbing prowess of a race hardtail, largely thanks to a fair bit of heft, big tyres and a riding position that’s more about control than power output. But again, none of these things will surprise anyone who’s got used to full suspension bikes, and if you settle in and spin away they get the job done.

Positives: Well thought-out frame, competitive spec, a whole bundle of fun

Negatives: Not the most efficient climbers

You can approach these bikes from two angles. Either you’re a contemporary FS rider, in which case they’ll give you the simplicity and involving ride of a hardtail in a very familiar-feeling package. Or you’re a traditional hardtail type, in which case you’ll marvel at the extra capabilities of a big fork and plenty of tyre volume. Either way, you’re going to have a lot of fun. Is the Rocky Ridge worth the extra? If you’ve got the money, yes. But the Wildcat Trail is great value and has nearly all of the appeal of its pricier brother, so if you can’t stretch to the Rocky don’t feel that you’re missing out too much.

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