Marino Custom Single Pivot Build

[@thinkpadBentnoseTheBlind]

That bike is awesome ! I'm rebuilding a newly acquired old GT LTS 4000 and it is all 4130 cromoly am interested in how it will feel. New subscriber here. cheers from Nova Scotia , Canada !

[@A_Life_Behind_Bars]

My buddy had a carbon LTS many years ago and I remember it being a pretty good suspension design despite how crazy it looks compared to typical modern frame designs. Are you planning on restoring full retro or are you putting modern parts on it?

[@thinkpadBentnoseTheBlind]

@@A_Life_Behind_Bars that is a great question, thank you. i will be swapping the front fork[ RS Iny C LT] for a black girven Chubby 5 LT and making it from STX shimano to perhaps an LX/XT mix and of course a wide ass riser bar. lol

[@MikeesTexas]

Curious why you opted for a 15mm bb/seat tube offset as opposed to the standard 35mm offset? Bike looks gorgeous!!!! What color is that?

[@A_Life_Behind_Bars]

I went with a 15mm offset due to the steepness of the seat tube angle to try to keep a more natural pedal position while seated. A nice side effect, theoretically at least, is that it moves the chain ring axis closer to the main pivot resulting in less antisquat/chain growth.

[@MikeesTexas]

@ very interesting, and how about that color?

[@A_Life_Behind_Bars]

I'm not really sure what the color name is, but it was option #25 from Marino's color palette.

[@MikeesTexas]

So gorgeous! thanks, loving the blue/purple ano accents… im curious about how bikes like these marino/starling perform with coil shocks? Is this not a fairly linear curve? Do they not clack at bottom left and right?

[@A_Life_Behind_Bars]

@@MikeesTexas Yeah I definitely pondered the same thing when I had my first frame made and opted for a float x full of volume reducers but I ended up slowly removing the tokens as I was never bottoming out even at 33% sag. I then moved to an X2 with no tokens and very little high speed damping and was still rarely bottoming out on big hits. I now have the same shock my wife runs, the DHX, but with a 550lb spring and honestly it rides better than it did with either of the air shocks. I am going to do a video on both the frames I had made for myself and I will address coil vs. air in it.

[@TRG36]

What's the weight?

[@A_Life_Behind_Bars]

I just went out an weighed it and it's 35.5lbs. or 16.1kg.

[@TRG36]

@@A_Life_Behind_Bars Great looking bike. I don't think i'm man enough to pedal it. We don't have much climbing but lots of punchy stuff. Can still tell as lot of difference in under 30lbs