Marin’s venerable Mount Vision will go down in history as one of the most popular XC full suspension bikes. But as fashion changes and trends come and go, so the Mount Vision’s focus has changed: what started out as a finely focused 100mm XC bike is now a 140mm all-mountain trail bike.
This change left a gap in Marin’s range, and for a company founded with its roots firmly in XC riding and racing, it was a gap that needed filling. So this year it has filled that vacant spot with the all-new Rift Zone.
The Rift Zone is another model name that has been in the company’s lineup for a good few years, but for 2011 gets a major facelift. The bike now has a more determined focus with less travel and a less swoopy frame than the 2007 model ushered in. It gets 100mm (4in) of travel, is lighter than its predecessor and, as these photos show, looks fantastic.
The top tube is now straight and the downtube has a gentle curve where it leaves the headtube, and both tubes are square in profile. And while the Quad Link 2.0 suspension system remains essentially unchanged, it’s been repackaged in a more compact and slim swingarm and downtube assembly. The Quad linkages are now ‘Y’ shaped which reduces weight but more importantly keeps everything narrower meaning there’s more clearance for those who pedal with their knees slightly inwards.
The shock still lives inside the linkage arrangement keeping it clear of mud splattered up by the wheels. Talking of mud clearance, there’s ample around the swingarm and with less metal in the new swingarm there’s less for the mud to cling too. All cables are routed on the underside of the downtube and there’s a bottle cage mount and a full-length seat tube.
Marin says the Rift Zone has been engineered for speed. And this certainly turned out to be the case when I first rode it. On paper it’s an ideal bike fast XC blasts, leisurely rides or enduro racing, and on the trail it is all of those things.
Before I could ride the Marin I had to make one change. I often sit between sizes, sometimes finding a medium the perfect fit and other times a large is better. With the Rift Zone I tried a large, which has a 24.25in top tube. The 100mm stem came straight off and on went a 60mm stem replacing the longer stock one, the fit turned out to be just perfect. A good stretch in the upper body but with the short stem combining with the 69 degree head angle to keep handling sharp for good agility through the trees. Perfect.
On the trail suspension performance is impressive. I’ve always liked Marin’s Quad design. It has a rising rate so it ramps up towards the end of the suspension stroke quite a lot, but I still got full travel as noticed by the position of the O-ring at the end of my first ride. The progressive feel gives great confidence, and it offers up tons of traction, the bike managing to scrabble up loose rocky climbs that would normally unsettle other bikes.
It’s a delight to thread through narrow singletrack, the front wheel easily hopped over rocks and the sprightly feeling endowing the rider with a sense of confidence few bikes can match. It’ll appeal to the rider wanting a surefooted lightweight XC bike with the durability that bikes in this travel category can often fail to match.
The Quad Link suspension doesn’t squat down nor get too wallowy, staying firm and responsive and never gets flustered with more demanding situations. While the Fox RP23 shock has a ProPedal lever I found the bike coped just fine with it switched to open most of the time, evidence of just how balanced the Quad Link is that it doesn’t need to rely on fancy shock tuning to make it ride well.
As full suspension trail bikes are increasingly getting bigger and slacker, it’s nice to see Marin offering up a bike for those who want a light, fast short travel bike that will endow them with extra confidence on the rougher stuff without slowing them down everywhere else.
Taking the Rift Zone back to 100mm of travel and revising the frame has been a worthwhile project for Marin. It’s a fast and very capable bike.
This is the top of the range Rift Zone XC8 (from a range of three bikes) and costs £2499, which gets you a bike equipped with a Fox 32 100RL, SUNRingle wheels, Maxxis Aspen tyres, SRAM X9 groupset, Formula RX brakes and FSA/Easton finishing parts. More soon as we put more riding time into the Rift Zone…
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