First Look: Marin Mount Vision
The Marin Mount Vision is a legendary name in the mountain biking world, and for good reason, being one of the first full suspension machines that could be used for everything from cross-country racing to trail riding. This 2019 redesign now gets the unique R3ACT - 2 Play suspension platform, plus 650b wheels and 150mm of travel on an all carbon fibre frame.
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The big talking point with the new bike is likely to be the R3ACT - 2 Play suspension platform, which it shares with Marin's Wolf Ridge. The design uses a tube-like telescoping strut as a part of the suspension in addition to a conventional linkage, which Marin claims delivers 'ground tracing performance' as well as pedalling efficiency.
The Mount Vision also gets a swing link driving the shock to improve rear end stiffness and the small/medium frame sizes get a different suspension kinematic to the large/extra large bikes too. Compared to the Wolf Ridge, the geometry is also a fair bit more progressive, despite it being the shorter travel (and smaller wheeled) of the two.
The frame and swingarm are both carbon fibre, with injection moulded composite swing links. The head angle is decently slack at 65°, while reach is also decent at 471mm for a size large. The effective seat tube angle is 75.1°, though the actual figure is 64.1° due to the very offset seat tube. Short offset forks are used on the two higher spec bikes as is a super wide 787mm bar (780mm otherwise) and dinky 30mm stems across the board.
The Mount Vision range
There will be three bikes in the range, all sharing the same grade of frame.
The Mount Vision Pro is the range topper at £8,700 with a full Shimano XTR 12spd drivetrain plus Fox Factory Float X2 shock and Factory 36 FIT GRIP 2 fork. You also get carbon E*13 rims and matching E*13 TRS tyres.
The Mount Vision 9 comes in at £6,500 with a SRAM X01 Eagle 12spd group with Fox Performance Float X2 shock and Performance Elite 36 GRIP fork, with Stan's Sentry rims and WTB Trail Boss 2.6" rubber.
The Mount Vision 8 costs £5,200 and gets a 12spd SRAM NX Eagle group, RockShox Pike RC fork and RockShox Deluxe R shock, with Stan's Sentry S1 pinned rims and the same Trail Boss rubber.
Both the Mount Vision 8 and 9 are ready to ship now, but the Pro will be available in 'late spring 2019'. For more info, head to their site: