That said, Marin is sold on hydraulic discs and specs them on a wide variety of machines, from the sub-$1,000 Pine Mountain 1 hardtail to kids’ bikes. 7. If it ain’t broke, as the fella says. Fork: Butted chromoly, fender and rack eyelets, low-ride mounts, Naild thru-axle dropout, disc mount. Marin uses biometric fit data based on statistics of people’s body proportions to develop the proper fit and weight distribution on each size of the Four Corners. SRAM Apex 1 1×11 Speed The neutral gray steel frame gives the bike a timeless look, while disc brakes, wide tire clearance and an upright riding position keep pace with cyclists’ expectations for adventure touring and bikepacking. See the video review here or below. By entering your details, you are agreeing to BikeRadar terms and conditions and privacy policy. Sign up and get new stories and inspiration delivered right to you. The topic ‘New Bike – Marin Four Corners Elite’ is closed to new replies. Patrick O’Grady has written and cartooned about cycling since 1989 for VeloNews, Bicycle Retailer & Industry News, and a variety of other publications. This was my first experience with hydro brakes, and I see why people like them — big power, light touch, plenty of modulation — but I’m not a great mechanic, so I doubt my ability to solve any mechanical puzzles far from the friendly neighborhood bike shop. In January, I had just wrapped up a review of the Salsa Marrakesh, which is a more traditional touring bike — a big, burly, globetrotting beast of a machine, and probably too much bike for the casual sort of outing I prefer (see the April issue for that review). I normally run 38mm tires at 40 psi or thereabouts, but even at the higher pressure the Columbus frameset didn’t beat me up on trails abraded by an unusually wet winter, perhaps thanks in part to a rear triangle whose svelte seat stays — not much thicker than the pens I use to draw cartoons — start 50mm down the seat tube from where you might expect to find them. That means you’ll need to drop tyre pressure to avoid a punishing pogo experience on rougher trails. 13. 11. DERAILLEUR FRONT — SHIFT LEVER. It doesn’t soak up effort like some steel frames can, though, and once you have got it rolling you can top up speed and maintain momentum pretty well. These come with both rack and mudguard mounts and are particularly neat. If there’s a downside to the new more-upright geometry of the bike it’s that it may not suit those who are seeking that fast, sporty riding position. Marin marinbikes.com. The use of QR’s front and rear is a little old fashioned but no doubt help keep costs under control. Adventure can mean different things to do different riders. Trek odlehčil a zrychlil svou závodní Émondu. On the downside, it's heavier than similarly priced … From the top of the roof to the bottom line: the Four Corners Elite is a nimble all-terrain vehicle — plus a real eye-grabber with its battleship gray tubes accented with orange fork, stem, and decals — and my reservations about hydraulic brakes aside, I don’t believe I’d change a thing about it. Frame: Columbus Thron, butted and formed chromoly. You should think of the 2018 Marin Four Corners as a bike that will happily putt along all day. The 700c x 38mm Schwalbe G-One tires roll well on asphalt and provide plenty of grip in loose conditions, even on climbs, and I ran them at 50 psi, five pounds above the recommended minimum. Its sheer versatility also makes the fact it’s slightly pricier than some of its peers more forgivable. The Naild thru-axles at front and rear gave me a moment’s concern too. Crank spindle height above ground: 283mm. But it yields a low gear of 40x42 (26 gear inches), which is just a half-inch taller than the low end served up by another fast and light steel bike with a compact double, the Elephant Bikes National Forest Explorer (see the February issue). And while an unloaded Four Corners Elite is a delight when going long, anyone who hauls gear will be pleased to see most of the usual attachment options for fully loaded touring. Three sets of bottle bosses, rack and fender mounts (front low rider mounts not pictured), disc brake mounts, internally routed cables, extra down tube bosses for optional front derailer cable, Naild thru-axle droupout. Despite its Utilitour designation, the Four Corners doesn’t have the sit up and beg geometry that you normally find on many touring rigs.My medium test bike featured a 57.5 cm effective top tube, and a stack and reach of 61.7 cm and 39.2 cm, respectively. View on www.marinbikes.com TIRES. But make no mistake, this bike is intended for adventures, not just for a few hot laps on the racecourse. Turns out they’re for routing cable housing for customers who’d prefer a front derailer and double or triple crankset to the stock 1x11 setup. This year is Marin Bikes ’ 30th anniversary, and it marks the introduction of an all-new “utilitour” model, the Four Corners. Fitting mudguards, or slightly bigger tyres shouldn’t give you any problems. Sign in to manage your newsletter preferences. Also, the WTB Resolute 42mm tires are a nice touch. ‘Hurry’ isn’t a word you’ll often associate with the stately Four Corners. Adventure Cycling Association inspires, empowers and connects people to travel by bicycle. Riders who plan to spend a lot of time off pavement can fit tires up to 29 x 2.1in. We’re rapidly becoming big fans of Schwalbe’s G-One tyres, thanks to their fast-rolling, gravel-gripping tread and robust carcass; WTB’s i21 rims add width, stability and tubeless compatibility. I was taking my inaugural ride on the Four Corners Elite when I realized I had no idea how to release a wheel if I punctured, which I do frequently thanks to Albuquerque’s ubiquitous goat-head thorns. These include not just internal control routing, but threaded holes for P-clips if you’d rather keep the cabling and brake hoses external for ease of servicing – the best of both worlds. Thanks! Stem: Marin 3D forged alloy, 80mm, 31.8mm four-bolt clamp, +/- 6°, 21. “When looking at other alternative bars on the market, we have seen controls end up in funky locations,” said Holmes. I just ordered one for a friend and after having spend so much time trying to source one I've now fallen in love with the timeless design and thinking of getting one myself. Marin Four Corners Elite 2016 No wonder it was a huge hit and basically sold out from the start. Poised steel explorer successfully blends classic and contemporary. The 2019 Marin Four Corners Elite is a steel frame touring bike with mid-range components and hydraulic disc brakes. The first point of interest is the tubing. The distinctive tread pattern of Schwalbe’s gravel-friendly G-One tyre. Clearances around the supplied 42c tyres are good. Marin is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year with some interesting machines that evoke old colour schemes and classic materials – and one of these birthday bikes is the Four Corners Elite. For proper fit and bike handling sizes XS and S use 650B wheels, sizes M, L, and XL use 700C. We adventure cyclists had some doubts about that, frankly, and so did pretty much everyone else who examined the Elite’s 1x drivetrain. Unwilling to turn a rock star into a lounge act, I went minimalist, strapping on three Revelate Designs bags — Sweetroll (handlebar), Tangle (frame), and Pika (seatpost). © 1997-2020 Adventure Cycling Association, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, From the Magazine: The Year of Cycling Dangerously. Long story short: this is not your grandfather’s touring bike. WTB’s KOM i25 tubeless compatible rims are wrapped in WTB Resolute 42mm wide tires. Marin has also added a full suite of modern features. there are lots of footpaths leading all over, when looking southward, there is a lone sharp peak on the backside of the range you are climbing, the tip of that peak is your goal. The Four Corners Elite gets what Marin calls ‘Utilitour’ geometry for stable loaded touring, and equates essentially to 72° head angles 72-74° seat angles, long headtubes, 70mm of BB drop, and 450mm chainstays. And with light loads on the 25-pound Elite, I never struggled on climbs using that 26-inch low end. According to Marin, the Four Corners Elite is designed to handle fully-loaded touring, with up to four bottle mounts, rack and fender eyelets, lowrider fork mounts, and tire clearance up to 2.1”. It’s not particularly neat, and the test team were divided on whether it looked good in a raw way or just untidy, though there was much more approval for the seatstay bridge and the custom-cast, thin-walled dropouts. Frame Series 3 Double Butted and Formed CrMo, Size-Specific Wheels (XS, S = 650B, M, L, XL = 700C), Utilitour Biometric Geometry, Fender and Rack Mounts, 142x12mm Thru-Axle Dropouts, Chainstay Disc Mount These characteristics will make the bike super comfortable to ride as well as quite easy to handle. SRAM’s hydraulic lever hoods provide a useful handhold. Amazon.com : 2017 Marin Four Corners Elite Available for Order : Sports & Outdoors. The 2016 Four Corners Elite is still steel, but that’s about where the resemblance to its ancestor ends. Try Prime EN Hello, Sign in Account & Lists Sign in Account & Lists Returns & Orders Try Prime Cart. “Our pavement product manager, Aaron Abrams, recognized the resurgence in touring and those looking to explore more than just paved roads, so he took the tried-and-true touring bike and updated it based on where the market was heading, giving a bit more ‘off-roadability’ to the segment,” Holmes added. But kitchen-sink types will find eyelets and bosses for fenders, a rear rack, a low-rider front rack, a third bottle cage, and a few extra down-tube bosses that mystified me. Both irresistible force and immovable object, the Four Corners Elite rumbled without grumbles through sand, gravel, and rock piles, and when I occasionally bashed a pedal on something, the bike held doggedly to its line. Brand: Marin, Product: Four Corners Elite. But the Schwalbe tires and WTB rims are tubeless ready, and fans of that setup may suffer fewer flats than I do. 12. Sports & Outdoors. You've been subscribed to our newsletter. These have a locking catch and locating notch for foolproof security, and the system is fast to remove and install. This does a good job of keeping the rider very upright which, will certainly sacrifice speed, but will help immensely with comfort, especially for riders who plan to be in the saddle for many hours at a time. Excellent parts package for this price. Marin is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year with some interesting machines that evoke old colour schemes and classic materials – and one of these birthday bikes is the Four Corners Elite. There’s enough gear range from the 40-tooth ring and 10-42 SRAM cassette to mean you should be able to spin up most hills anyway. 2020 Marin Four Corners Elite The 2020 Marin Four Corners Elite is a steel frame touring bike with mid-range components and hydraulic disc brakes. Marin have just unveiled their adventure touring bike, the 2016 Marin Four Corners… and doesn’t it look great? In the Four corners, the bike is built with a “heads-up bar position and generous braze-ons” as the Marin website describes. Tires: Schwalbe G-One Evo, 700c x 38mm, folding, tubeless ready, Contact: Marin Bikes, 265 Bel Marin Keys, Novato, CA 94949, marinbikes.com. These let me carry everything I need for a spartan night in the wilderness. At my height 5"11' Marin recommends a Large but I'm 100% sure the Medium would be a better fit. 2018 Marin Four Corners Build kit. “It was done mainly for ride compliance,” said Holmes. It was another Marin, the Gestalt, that first caught my eye as the Adventure Cyclist staff and I prowled the floor during last fall’s Interbike trade show. past the first singletrack, looking for the 1st trail to the left. The Four Corners Elite looked and felt more like the cyclocross bikes I favor as daily drivers, particularly when I took it off pavement and onto the trails crisscrossing the Sandia foothills near my Albuquerque home, and later during a week of riding singletrack in McDowell Mountain Regional Park outside Fountain Hills, Arizona. “Performance benefits far outweigh the potential for problems, proven by the adoption on virtually all levels of mountain bikes at this point,” said Holmes. This review appears in the May 2016 issue of Adventure Cyclist. I appreciate the efficiency and simplicity of the single-ring setup; my townie is a single-ring, seven-speed, steel cyclocross bike. Using this data, we created five bike sizes across two wheel sizes to fit people from 4’11” to 6’4” without compromising the ride. Handlebar Marin Four Corners flared drop, 420mm at hoods (center to center), 520mm at drops, 70mm reach, 125mm drop, 31.9mm clamp area. The 72-degree head angle and tall head tube give the Four Corners light, responsive steering but the long wheelbase and stretched top tube keep it stable at speed. The 2016 Marin Four Corners Marin's Four Corners might make the most of the current bikepacking and adventure trend to sell itself, but at heart, it's an affordable off-road tourer with planted handling and a versatile steel frame. The taut frame, with its stiff thru-axle connection to the wheel, holds lines with authority and the big flare on the lower part of the drops gives loads of confidence on descents. Brand: Marin, Product: Four Corners Elite. Already have an account with us? Fixing the flat takes a little longer, of course. Both the frame and fork get very smart, quarter-turn Naild thru-axles. “With only the drops flaring, the controls are in a similar position that you’d find on a road bike.”. “The thin tubing and frame design optimize comfort for the long haul.”. The Four Corners pays homage to Marin’s mountain bike glory years. The Marin Four Corners Elite Complete Bike is happy to take you to and from work every day, but it really shines when adventure calls. But the editors steered me toward the Four Corners Elite, and I’m glad they did. DESCRIPTION Head up the dirt road and over the gate. With a name like that, the Four Corners Elite has a lot to live up to when it comes to versatility and ability to be a go-anywhere, do-anything bike, including tackling gravel and … MARIN FOUR CORNERS BIKE 2019 WHEN THREE CORNERS ISNT ENOUGH There are riders who are obsessed with speed flying high off jumps bombing down mountains and then there are riders who are obsessed with adventure. The Four Corners is available in five frame sizes to fit riders 4’11 to 6’4” without compromise. I did find myself spinning at 100-plus rpm in the 109.3-inch top end on one long paved descent; ordinarily I’d have coasted, but it was a cold morning and I wanted to keep my legs warm for the next climb. Sending me down the trail with hydraulic brakes would be like handing Don Felder’s Gibson EDS-1275 double-neck guitar to a ukulele player and requesting “Hotel California.”. Sizes available for riders … A few short years ago, the Marin Four Corners was a fairly typical touring bike with a 4130 chromoly frame, triple crankset, nine-speed mountain bike rear derailer, bar-end shifters, and V-brakes. While it can’t match carbon or alloy in terms of strength to weight, steel is still a great option for hardworking bikes where comfort rather than stiffness is a priority. It could mean going off on a mixedterrain touring ride nothing but a sleeping bag and a tent. So I turned around, rode home, and whaddaya know? Simplicity is not a word I’d apply to the brakes: SRAM Rival hydraulics clamping 160mm rotors. The Four Corners is built for the adventure rider looking to explore deep off of the beaten path, sleep outdoors, and be ready for whatever pavement, dirt road, or light singletrack is around the next corner. SRAM Apex 1 11-Speed. The Four Corners weighs in at 13.2 kg (29.1 lbs), it’s no lightweight, but neither is it a deadweight! This Four Corners Elite comes with a SRAM Apex 1x11-speed drivetrain which includes a SRAM Apex 1x11 shifter and rear derailleur. Headset: FSA Orbit CE, sealed cartridge bearing, 30. The Four Corners has been rebooted for “adventure touring,” said Marin Brand Director Chris Holmes. And for anyone who doesn’t have the fiscal hardware or cranial software to accommodate a reboot of this magnitude, Marin still offers a close-to-classic Four Corners — a 4130 chromoly nine-speed with triple crankset, mechanical discs, and STI brake-shift levers for $1,099. By comparison, my 56 cm Salsa Vaya has a stack height of 61.9 cm, a reach of 37.1 cm (with a 56 cm effective top tube). Takes all of 26 seconds to remove and replace a wheel so equipped. Seat post: Marin alloy, 27.2mm, one-bolt clamp, 25. 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