Should You Buy the Marin San Quentin 1 2022 Mountain Bike – All You Need to Know

What is it?

The Marin San Quentin 1 is a dirt jump mountain bike ready for taking on downhill trails and catching air.

With a 120mm suspension fork to take the edge off of big hits, this bike gives you all the confidence you need to send it hard into some dirt.

The highlights include:

• 120mm Suntour XCM suspension fork
• 1×9 MicroShift clutched rear derailleur
• Massive standover

The greater standover allows you more room to manoeuvre around the bike, a great benefit when jumping on the bike and during hard cornering.

Clutched derailleurs reduce chain slapping against the frame significantly and prevent the chain from dropping off.

Marin San Quentin 1 Size Chart

What is it Meant for?

Designed around dirt jump style bikes, this is a mountain bike that wants to hit the dirt jumps, pump tracks or trails that provide plenty of opportunity for air.

Small details have all been considered, providing you a great experience jumping the San Quentin. This includes the clutched derailleur to keep chain on during big hits and reduce the noise.

Additionally the large stand over design means the bike won’t get in your way at the worst of times, allowing you as much room as possible to manoeuvre around the bike as you toss it around giving you a feeling of being in total control.

Another clue about what this bike is meant for are the Vee Tire Co, Flow Snap 27.5 x 2.6”tires. These are suitable for some of the more meaty trails out there. Their purpose is to seek out as much grip as possible in all pockets of dirt that gives you reassurance to send the bike at speed into everything, from smooth to rough.

Who is it Meant for?

Good if you want:

• Fast charging bike downhill
• Super grip for looser dirt or muddy terrain
• Soft feeling bike result of combination of 120mm fork and wider tires for extra cushioning

Bad if you want:

• Long climbing days on bike
• Super fast race bike 

Your after a bike that you can hit the rough stuff right away without fear of the tires or fork holding you back. You may already know what type of riding you love to do. It it is pure downhill, freestyle, jumps then at this price point its hard to beat the San Quentin 1.

The geometry with slack head angle is a clear indicator that you’ll be able to get your weight behind the bars on the steep. The riser bars and slack angle give you the feeling of being supported behind the bike as you send it downhill.

If you love downhill the confidence gained from this positioning just reinforces taking new challenges and quickly find an improvement to your riding ability as trust in the bike and grip soars.

The 2.6” tires will be slightly slower on flats and uphill’s due to the extra grip losses and weight, but you’ll soon forget about it as they charge through the trails finding massive amounts of grip where a standard 2.2 – 2.3′ tire could only dream of doing so.

The extra cushion you get from this as a form of suspension with lower tire pressures possible just reinforces the feeling that you can jump off higher places and charge harder and still feel completely stable with full control of the bike.

How Does it Compare to the Competition?

PRO: 120mm Suspension Travel

The 120mm fork sets this bike apart from other brands at this price point. The extra 20mm of fork suspension travel let’s you tackle greater jumps and drops. With this you can ride more aggressively with little worry of running out of travel.

PRO: Easily upgradeable frame

The thru-axle frame standard and the tapered head tube mean you have a wider choice of forks should you choose to upgrade.

It is a modern geometry frame, constructed with the boost 141mm width rear hub standard. You won’t find yourself short of parts to upgrade to, from new wheels to new drivetrains.

CON: Only a 1×9 drivetrain spec

You may expect a 1×10 drivetrain at this price range as you get on the competition such as the Trek Roscoe 6 bike. While a 1×9 is only one gear less, the difference in gear ratio between the cog changes can be irritating when trying to find the ideal pedalling frequency, especially uphill.

This may not bother most riders, however if you are used to riding a bike with far more gears then it can take a period of adjustment to get used to.

Things to Consider Before you Buy

Warranty on the bike

The original retail purchaser will receive a lifetime warranty on the frame of their bike.

The complete bicycle is warranted for one year (from date of purchase), including all original parts on the bicycle except tires, tubes, chains and other wear & tear items.

Paint and decals are covered under this warranty.

Don’t regret your purchase

Think carefully about what type of riding you’ll likely be doing. If you think you’ll be doing long journeys in the city the majority of the time then this bike may not be for you.

In conclusions you should purchase based on the riding you’ll be doing 90% of the time and not the 10% where you may need something lighter, something quicker or something more robust.

Cool factors

The Marin brand is synonymous with great mountain bikes. The Marin El Roy and the Team Marin being examples of some fantastic mountain bikes in the Marin range. Having this name on your bike immediately makes the statement that your riding a capable shredding machine.

You can’t go wrong with the gloss grey/black colour or teal/pink, both looking great in all lighting conditions.

All the cables here are internally routed with rubber grommets to help guide the cables, giving the bike a clean look all the way around.

Marin San Quentin 1 Specifications