Scotty T
Walks the walk
Frame - 2022 Marin Muirwoods CrMo
Fork - Marin steel moto-blade (?)
Handlebars - FMFXTR 90mm riser cut from 780 to 720 (Ram Cycle Parts)
Stem - Marin generic
Headset - FSA No.8B
Grips - Marin generic
Saddle - Marin generic
Seatpost - Marin generic
Front brake - Tektro M275 180mm
Rear brake - Tektro M275 160mm
Cranks - Bafang BBS02 500w mid drive
Chain - KMC X10
Pedals - Hacked Generic Cheese
Rear derailleur - microShift Advent X
Rear shifter - microShift Advent X
Cassette - Sunrace 10sp 11-51t
Wheels - Marin generic - forged hubs, 32h double wall rims
Tyres - Schwalbe Citizen 700x42c
Total weight - One day I will borrow some scales to weigh my bikes, I'm gonna say under 20kg...
It started with me riding the sled to work trying to keep up with my Mrs after upgrading her to a Bafang mid drive unit and 3 speed hub. The tiny cranks and single speed blew my knee up after 90km over a few days, and that was it, NBD.
Jumped on bicyclesonline, after trawling Gummie and everywhere else looking for a commuter/city bike this popped up and was $999, sick I thought. Except when I went to buy it was $1258 shipped because I was looking at the US site. Oh well, it ticked the boxes, Muirwoods is a 1980's original MTB from Marin, and now it has morphed to a MTB inspired urban commuter made from CrMo and ready to rock some massive tryes if you want to get off the bitumen, with modern MTB style gemoetry to boot. XL has a 475 reach, 657 ETT, 67.5 HTA, 74 STA, low standover and looks great.
Ordered it Thursday night, received it the following Monday morning. Unreal! It came packaged with a bunch of velcro straps with foam blocks, super solid and easy to lift the whole thing out and undo to finish assembly. Very easy to put together, but I had to change the stem height and it was tricky to tension the headset and not make it too tight or loose, also I think it budged a tiny bit when riding as I'm gettng some vibration in the front under hard braking so will check that out tonight when I get home from work. No other dramas assembling, took it for a quick spin round the block and it felt really good, motor kit was due to arrive the next day.
Motor kit came, it all looked like it would be straight forward so I started pulling the cranks off to fit it. The drive side chainstay, despite having a nice indented bit, was 3mm too wide for the motor unit so I was suddenly in need of longer bolts, washers and some BB spacers, of which I only had washers. Quick trip to SpecFast, then the LBS's to see if I could get the BB spacers locally. First LBS Cycle City had a large box of ring like things which I rifled through for ten mins, to no avail. 99 Bikes didn't think they existed, so Pushys it was. I entered the shop, was attended to by a friendly fellow in about 10 seconds, who went straight out the back to get the rings, meanwhile at least two other staff asked if I was being looked after as the first guy took a few mins to locate 3 rings for me. He returned, I checked the size, and he said just have them. Yep, that happened at Pushys Fyshwick, saved my day and didn't charge me anything, legendary.
So I got the motor fitted on Tuesday night, but was still waiting for the handlebars which I ordered on Monday after testing the rig and realising as suspected the flat bars were too low. Was dicing up whether to do the cockpit setup and redo as my bars apparently weren't due until the following Wednesday (was now Friday) but fuck that, I hate dong cockpits at the best of times and it's always a bit of a saga fitting all the bits on the bars for a kit based e-bike commuter so not doing it twice.
Stoked that the bars (they're pretty solid for $55 shipped) rocked up on Saturday, so it was going to be a big day of building. The bars only just made it with existing cabling, massive relief. The fat clamp on the Cleanskin light was an absolute PITA, I had to mount it up near the brake lever because not enough room on the riser bar for the display unit and light near the stem. I was able to make some little extensions to use my previously cut to 26" guards on the front and the back just snuck on to the top pannier holes. I had to file a small groove in the pannier rack to stop the rear der cable having an even worse bend than how it came from the factory.
I have just routed the cables and not shortened or tidied them up properly yet as it's good to run it a bit while still having easy access to cables before you stick them all in conduit to make it look tidier, but I did wrap the bottom bundle and have it looking OK. I also used a skateboard truck bushing to space the motor and allow clearance for the underneath cable routing.
The 250w version of the motor is good for about 35km/h on the highest setting on flat pedalling with it, this 500w is good for 45km/h. It felt very similar to the 750w units I've ridden before. We both rode to work this morning, 15km in 35 minutes on >95% bike path, Mrs is on level 5 and I'm between 2 and 3 on mine to stick with her.
AdventX is impressive, smooth shifting, solid feel, and the gear sensor which a lot of kit builders overlook is really great as you just shift when you like and it cuts power momentarily. The frame is really nice and has the compliant steel feel, more so than the other steel bikes I have had.
The only bad thing about the bike is the cheese pedals, which would be fine for most people in dry conditions but I hate slippery platforms esp when wet. While I was doing the build I came across some spare pedal pins and had a bright idea. I drilled some holes and screwed the pins in with threadlock, two per side on the outside of the platform, I didn't want full on big pin platforms riding in work shoes and this worked brilliantly, I hope they are strong enough to stay in. I'll also get a stand as it has the proper mounting for a bolt on one.
I'll snap a few more detail pics later, but it needs a name, so far suggestions are:
Slamsterdam
Black Steel
Murly - mate and both agree this is a poor person's Surly
I also wrote a letter to my local MP about e-bike legislation and how it is a barrier to commuting. This poor bugger today was on his $5k+ e-MTB pushing into the wind at about 24km/h while Mrs and I rode past at about 32km/h effortlessly, and actually only using about 200w to maintain the speed, the display now has a watt meter so you can see what you're using at any time.
Total build cost excluding labour and old parts was just over $2300. Should be paid off in fuel savings late next year.
Fork - Marin steel moto-blade (?)
Handlebars - FMFXTR 90mm riser cut from 780 to 720 (Ram Cycle Parts)
Stem - Marin generic
Headset - FSA No.8B
Grips - Marin generic
Saddle - Marin generic
Seatpost - Marin generic
Front brake - Tektro M275 180mm
Rear brake - Tektro M275 160mm
Cranks - Bafang BBS02 500w mid drive
Chain - KMC X10
Pedals - Hacked Generic Cheese
Rear derailleur - microShift Advent X
Rear shifter - microShift Advent X
Cassette - Sunrace 10sp 11-51t
Wheels - Marin generic - forged hubs, 32h double wall rims
Tyres - Schwalbe Citizen 700x42c
Total weight - One day I will borrow some scales to weigh my bikes, I'm gonna say under 20kg...
It started with me riding the sled to work trying to keep up with my Mrs after upgrading her to a Bafang mid drive unit and 3 speed hub. The tiny cranks and single speed blew my knee up after 90km over a few days, and that was it, NBD.
Jumped on bicyclesonline, after trawling Gummie and everywhere else looking for a commuter/city bike this popped up and was $999, sick I thought. Except when I went to buy it was $1258 shipped because I was looking at the US site. Oh well, it ticked the boxes, Muirwoods is a 1980's original MTB from Marin, and now it has morphed to a MTB inspired urban commuter made from CrMo and ready to rock some massive tryes if you want to get off the bitumen, with modern MTB style gemoetry to boot. XL has a 475 reach, 657 ETT, 67.5 HTA, 74 STA, low standover and looks great.
Ordered it Thursday night, received it the following Monday morning. Unreal! It came packaged with a bunch of velcro straps with foam blocks, super solid and easy to lift the whole thing out and undo to finish assembly. Very easy to put together, but I had to change the stem height and it was tricky to tension the headset and not make it too tight or loose, also I think it budged a tiny bit when riding as I'm gettng some vibration in the front under hard braking so will check that out tonight when I get home from work. No other dramas assembling, took it for a quick spin round the block and it felt really good, motor kit was due to arrive the next day.
Motor kit came, it all looked like it would be straight forward so I started pulling the cranks off to fit it. The drive side chainstay, despite having a nice indented bit, was 3mm too wide for the motor unit so I was suddenly in need of longer bolts, washers and some BB spacers, of which I only had washers. Quick trip to SpecFast, then the LBS's to see if I could get the BB spacers locally. First LBS Cycle City had a large box of ring like things which I rifled through for ten mins, to no avail. 99 Bikes didn't think they existed, so Pushys it was. I entered the shop, was attended to by a friendly fellow in about 10 seconds, who went straight out the back to get the rings, meanwhile at least two other staff asked if I was being looked after as the first guy took a few mins to locate 3 rings for me. He returned, I checked the size, and he said just have them. Yep, that happened at Pushys Fyshwick, saved my day and didn't charge me anything, legendary.
So I got the motor fitted on Tuesday night, but was still waiting for the handlebars which I ordered on Monday after testing the rig and realising as suspected the flat bars were too low. Was dicing up whether to do the cockpit setup and redo as my bars apparently weren't due until the following Wednesday (was now Friday) but fuck that, I hate dong cockpits at the best of times and it's always a bit of a saga fitting all the bits on the bars for a kit based e-bike commuter so not doing it twice.
Stoked that the bars (they're pretty solid for $55 shipped) rocked up on Saturday, so it was going to be a big day of building. The bars only just made it with existing cabling, massive relief. The fat clamp on the Cleanskin light was an absolute PITA, I had to mount it up near the brake lever because not enough room on the riser bar for the display unit and light near the stem. I was able to make some little extensions to use my previously cut to 26" guards on the front and the back just snuck on to the top pannier holes. I had to file a small groove in the pannier rack to stop the rear der cable having an even worse bend than how it came from the factory.
I have just routed the cables and not shortened or tidied them up properly yet as it's good to run it a bit while still having easy access to cables before you stick them all in conduit to make it look tidier, but I did wrap the bottom bundle and have it looking OK. I also used a skateboard truck bushing to space the motor and allow clearance for the underneath cable routing.
The 250w version of the motor is good for about 35km/h on the highest setting on flat pedalling with it, this 500w is good for 45km/h. It felt very similar to the 750w units I've ridden before. We both rode to work this morning, 15km in 35 minutes on >95% bike path, Mrs is on level 5 and I'm between 2 and 3 on mine to stick with her.
AdventX is impressive, smooth shifting, solid feel, and the gear sensor which a lot of kit builders overlook is really great as you just shift when you like and it cuts power momentarily. The frame is really nice and has the compliant steel feel, more so than the other steel bikes I have had.
The only bad thing about the bike is the cheese pedals, which would be fine for most people in dry conditions but I hate slippery platforms esp when wet. While I was doing the build I came across some spare pedal pins and had a bright idea. I drilled some holes and screwed the pins in with threadlock, two per side on the outside of the platform, I didn't want full on big pin platforms riding in work shoes and this worked brilliantly, I hope they are strong enough to stay in. I'll also get a stand as it has the proper mounting for a bolt on one.
I'll snap a few more detail pics later, but it needs a name, so far suggestions are:
Slamsterdam
Black Steel
Murly - mate and both agree this is a poor person's Surly
I also wrote a letter to my local MP about e-bike legislation and how it is a barrier to commuting. This poor bugger today was on his $5k+ e-MTB pushing into the wind at about 24km/h while Mrs and I rode past at about 32km/h effortlessly, and actually only using about 200w to maintain the speed, the display now has a watt meter so you can see what you're using at any time.
Total build cost excluding labour and old parts was just over $2300. Should be paid off in fuel savings late next year.
