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TECH NEWS
Marin Gestalt gravel/adventure bike revealed with three models starting at £800
Marin has unveiled the new Gestalt, its take on the increasingly popular gravel and adventure trend, with a disc-equipped aluminium bike packing some really smart details. We were at Marin’s UK launch this week to take a first look at this key new bike for the US brand that celebrates its 30th birthday next year.
The Gestalt features an aluminium frame with geometry pegged somewhere between a road and cyclocross bike, a bit more relaxed and upright at the front and the lower bottom bracket from a road bike, to provide good handling. With 415mm chainstays the Gestalt should provide reasonably sprightly behaviour, making it a versatile all-round choice, from commuting to sportives, bikepacking and venturing off-road.
The frame is bristling with nice details. There are mudguard and rack mounts of course, with a smart mount incorporated into the seat tube just below the seat collar. All cables are internally routed for clean lines. It has a tapered head tube, and an external bottom bracket.
It boasts tyre big tyre clearance - The range-topping Gestalt will ship with 30mm Schwalbe G-One tubeless tyres on tubeless-ready rims across the range, the rest of the range have the same tubeless wheels but not tubeless-ready tyres.
For the range-topping Gestalt, Marin has ditched conventional quick release axles and adopted thru-axles front and rear. They’re not regular thru-axles borrowed from mountain bikes though, instead Marin has worked with a US company called Naild which has developed an ingeniously simple thru-axle.
The Naild thru-axle is pushed into the dropouts, rotated 90 degrees, and the lever closed. A small tab helps locate the axle in the dropout. The company has cleverly built in a safety device to prevent the lever accidentally opened - there’s a smaller lever that has to be depressed before the main lever can be opened.
It’s very easy to use. Yes, it takes a couple of goes to get used to it, but once you’ve got the action down, it’s remarkably quick. Quicker than other thru-axle systems and much quicker than a conventional quick release system.
Marin is using a 15mm thru-axle at the front along with a 142x12mm rear. The hints we've had from other bike manufacturers regarding the future of disc brakes on road bikes is that many will eventually use a 12mm front thru-axle, because it's a bit lighter than the 15mm axles that are currently being used by some, but 15mm is the current front axle standard.
The fork is interesting. Marin has apparently done a load of its own testing with disc brakes, examining the heat produced by the disc brake and how the carbon fork copes with this heat. To avoid any potential issues with heat buildup, it has developed a heat sink integrated into the dropout and caliper mount, to help dissipate heat. It’ll be interesting to test this out on the road. Apart from Shimano’s IceTech finned brake pads, I can’t recall seeing any similar solutions put forward by other manufacturers.
Marin UK will offer the new Gestalt in three builds, starting at £800 for the Gestalt 1 with a Shimano Sora drivetrain and TRP mechanical disc brakes, and Marin’s own tubeless wheelset with Schwalbe G-One 30mm tubeless tyres.
Next up is the Gestalt 2 which is bang on £1,000 and will definitely appeal to the cycle to work market. It’s arguably the smartest paint job in the range as well, and is specced with a SRAM 1x10 single ring drivetrain and mechanical disc brakes. It’s pictured here with mudguards and a rear rack, the bike isn't sold with these accessories, this is simply to demonstrate the versatility of the bike.
And this is the top-of-the-range Gestalt 3. It costs £1,750 and again uses a SRAM groupset, this time Rival 1 with a 42t single ring and huge-range 10-42t cassette, which provides a huge slab of gear ratios that should be suitable for most situations and differint terrain. The brakes are hydraulic discs.
This bike comes with a Marin wheelset, with tubeless-ready rims and fitted with Schwalbe's new G-One 30mm tyres, with a novel tread pattern.
Like GT’s Grade the bikes come with slightly flared drop handlebars to provide a bit more control when riding over unpredictable terrain in the drops.
We're hoping to get one of these bikes in for a review very soon so watch out for that. More soon at www.marinbikes.com/gb
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
Latest Comments
- james-o 6 min 56 sec ago
"if we’ve got to fly there we’re not going" *applause from over here*
- KDee 7 min 55 sec ago
"Strumpjumper"...sounds like a euphemism for something else 🤔
- andystow 24 min 40 sec ago
The new RH tubes claim to solve that issue, but price and availability is a problem. I tried to get some to try out, but they went out of stock on...
- brooksby 49 min ago
Cough - cough - Clevedon seafront! - cough cough
- eburtthebike 1 hour 6 min ago
Thanks for the tip. I didn't realise the Forest of Dean was inside the M25.
- Adam Sutton 1 hour 11 min ago
Chances are you live in London or somehwere where you have decent public transport, to make such a dumb comment
- Secret_squirrel 4 hours 19 min ago
Those calipers arent the prettiest. Makes them look like Post-mount.
- Dnnnnnn 5 hours 2 min ago
I'm all for a much more socialist approach to the sorts of things you mention, where there are clear market failures and a need for decent...
- David9694 5 hours 2 min ago
Zorbing balls - if it saves just one life
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25 comments
Whoa, what's going on with the rack mounting on the middle one? It's not mounted onto the frame directly but on what appears to be an unnecessary bracket. Is there something going on with the brake clearance we should know about? Not much good for 20Kg of shopping that I would expect to be able to lug home in between adventures/gravel racing etc... Also, it does not look like they have mounted on the seatpost where their "smart mount" is. Or is that just my deteriorating eyesight?
Nope, don't think it's your eyesight. Looks like a lovely bendy strip of steel/ally...
Maybe, they've yet to develop the rack for their optional rack and mudguard option! Or maybe the "smart mount" is only to be found on the top of the range model, which will be less likely to be used with a rack.
Still not decided whether this type of bike is for me. I like the idea. Then, I get back on my flat bar fixie and think, mneh, this is good. If I wanted to go off road, I could either fit me some fatter, knobblier tyres or get a MTB. But, since I mostly ride on road, I may just keep my ££ in my pocket.
The top of the headtube compared to the seat position would be great for altitude training; it's bloody enormous. Have people become unable to bend in the middle?
I'd fancy this but only of I could get a dynamo hub to match the disc set up/ through bolt thingy.
Exactly, look at the TCR set-ups. They are mostly running dynamo hubs, this would rule out any bike using a through-axle.
Why not design the drop-outs to prevent wheel ejection and add lawyer lips?
Both SON/Schmidt and SP offer dynamos with 15mm thru-axles. Easy enough to convert to 12mm.
^ As above, Shutter Precision / SP make a really good 15mm dynamo hub with a QR step-down reducer axle available so you can swap the wheel between bikes. I expect they'll have a 12mm version soon, or a simple sleeve adapter for the 15mm hub.
These really do look to be a really good all round option. I was also pleasantly surprised to see the price of the first 2 coming under a grand. Also good to see manufacturers offering the 1x11 on mid range models.
Time to stop calling them _dropouts_ really.
Nice looking bikes.
I wonder if road hydro will ever become truly cheap given that there will always be a need to integrate the shifter/brake interface.
FWIW, I've just converted one of my commuter bikes to flat bar. Shifters were £35 the pair. Deore hydro brakes £55 the pair. £90 for shifting and braking.
I've contemplated just fitting MTB hydraulic brake levers onto bullhorns with the shift levers at the top facing down.
I sort of think it would work (although it will be pretty ugly), one of these days I'm going to bite the bullet!
I guess I like boring...the black looks best to me...I'd buy that for a dollar!
For value these look to be one of the best entries yet.
Go away thru axles. Let alone a completely bespoke setup.
Even though this is a really clever and simple thru-axle solution that is easier to use than current thru-axles?
Go away with you and your progress - you'll have us living in covered shelters and covering our bodies with cloth next !
It's not progress. It's an explosion of misery and confusion in the industry. Early adopters such as yours truly are in the quick release camp. Don't want to be buying even more disc wheels with thru axles or converting them (although I have to admit my Hunt Mason wheels have made a very nice job of future proofing themselves). It's bad enough having bikes with rim brakes, disc brakes, 10 speed, 11 speed etc etc.
I'm buying a Penny Farthing...
Are there any of these CX style bikes out there that have hydraulic brakes that hit the £1000 C2W scheme price point or is that just asking too much for the money?
You're not the only one wondering this. The only one I've seen to date is Planet X's London Road which is available with a SRAM Rival hydraulic set up for the magic £999.
Given that mtb hydraulics are pretty affordable nowadays, you can expect road hydraulics to come down in price over time once the novelty has worn off.
The 105 hydro groupset launching later in the year might see some more bikes squeezing under £1k.
No much chance. Technology is too new/expensive at the moment.
The problem is that in the mtb world, because the brake and gear levers are separate there is more scope to mix and match components to hit a price (£1k mtb regularly have slx or XT shifters, but rarely if ever XT or slx brakes to match) and there is scope for third parties to produce cheaper brakes, whereas in the road world the levers are integrated, basically ruling out cheaper third part options and much less me scope to mix and match.
Due to the extra expense of hydraulic disc brakes, it will be a while before they trickle down to a point where you regularly get them on £1k bikes - I'd expect a couple of years at least. Basically not till shimano bring out a tiagra level hydraulic brake.
Nice features but boring looking machines IMHO.
"More at www.marinbikes.com/gb"
Sure? I can't find anything.
No you're right, there's nothing on there about 2016 bikes yet is there. I assumed wrong