The Marin Four Corners is all things to all people, an adventure, gravel, road and commuter bike. It’s made of steel, it’s got ‘biometric geometry’ (we’ll explain later) and a massive amount of room on the frame for all your bikepacking gear.
The Four Corners adventure bike from Marin isn’t new but it has had some pretty important updated for 2018. We knew we had to get one in for test after seeing Veronique Sandler and Nikki Whiles razz their’s round the trails of Malaga, it was delivered yesterday and we aren’t disappointed!
The Four Corners can be a gravel bike, an adventure bike, a roadie or a commuter bike, but its clear from Marin’s website that they see this bike as a bike packing mule. Updates for 2018 make it all the more useful for big adventures, including the ability to put a third bottle cage inside the frame as well as more mounts on the down tube too. In addition, there are also bottle bosses on the forks, you won’t be going thirsty that’s for sure!

The other interesting update to this bike for 2018 is the use of what Marin calls ‘biometric fit data’, this is essential to do with frame and rider size. There are five different frame sizes from XS to XL, the smaller two (XS and S) use 650B wheels whilst the larger sizes (M-XL) all roll on 700C wheels and tyres.
Where last year, some parts of the bike were the same across the range (chainstays, head angle, fork offset), they are now size specific. The inclusion of five sizes means that Marin had free rein to calculate the best seat tube lengths, top tube and reach figures making for bikes which are quite radically different from last year. It should be easier to find a size that fits you too.


The head tube of the Four Corners has also grown for 2018, with the equivalent medium sized frame extending from 175mm to 198mm. This extra height gives rise to the additional room in the frame we alluded to above – there’s no shortage of space in that front triangle for kit! A taller head tube also gives a more upright riding position meaning single track can be ridden more confidently and all day or multi-day rides are more comfortable too.

The bike is also one of the longer gravel bikes we’ve seen with the wheelbase of the small size coming in at 1141mm, a length we’ve only seen elsewhere recently on our medium sized Sonder Camino test bike.


If you like the sound of the Four Corners then it will cost you just £850 and there is just one spec level so no difficult decisions to be made in that ‘do I spec up?’ department for you. For your dosh you get a CroMo steel frame and fork, a 3 x9 Shimano Sora drivetrain, Tektro Spyre-C Mechanical Disc with 160mm rotors, a threaded bottom bracket, Marin wheels, WTB Resolute tyres (all frame/wheel sizes) and an all Marin finishing kit. The only thing we haven’t mentioned is the fender mounts and weight – yes there are all the mounts you’d need and it weighs 13.2kg – a little on the hefty side but then it does cost well under a grand.


We’re looking forward to getting on this, shame it won’t be in Malaga like the Marin team riders but we reckon it might be quite fun anyway!

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