Marin Full Suspension with Alien Kit

[Stumpi]

Its been on my wish list since I started Ebiking to add a kit to my Marin but the design of a full suspension MTB make it a little challenging. I’ve run a Gents Special for 3 years without issue(the battery is now on the way out but fair wear and tear IMO) and in the summer I fitted an Alien kit to my wife’s bike. I’ve been impressed with the quality of the kit and the service I received from Jim at Alien. So after a chat with Roy their chief tech he agreed to have ago at fitting my Marin with a kit. I wanted to be able to tackle some reasonable single track but I’m unlikely to be doing mega drop offs etc. To keep it simple theres no pedalec and the battery will be in a back pack which suits me fine as I’m only ever likely to use the bike for off road fun leaving commuting to my Wisper/Cytronex

I’ve just had an Email from Alien to say the bikes ready and I’ll pop over and collect next week.


Here a couple of pics and I post more details once I’ve got the bike home

 

[Deleted member 4366]

In case you find the battery in the backpack a bit annoying. You can change it like this. You get a £5.99 football boot bag from a sports shop; cut a piece of thin plywood the same size as the inside base and then bolt through the rack with 5mm bolts. You can put the controller and the battery in, which is very stealthy and tidy. This one is quite large because it has 25aH of battery plus a toolkit and spares:

 

[Stumpi]

In case you find the battery in the backpack a bit annoying. You can change it like this. You get a £5.99 football boot bag from a sports shop; cut a piece of thin plywood the same size as the inside base and then bolt through the rack with 5mm bolts. You can put the controller and the battery in, which is very stealthy and tidy. This one is quite large because it has 25aH of battery plus a toolkit and spares:

Looks Good

How do you find the bag copes with off road ?

 

[banbury frank]

Hi we offer a conversion kit for full suspension bikes with the battery in back pack

1,500 watt rear motor 48 volt 15 ah soft pack battery weight 4.5 kilos

for off road USE 30 MPH on road electronically restricted to 15MPH

we will be selling the bike in the link below on our web site to the above spec £3800


Diamondback - Mission 1

Frank

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Looks Good

How do you find the bag copes with off road ?

It copes perfectly - even with all that weight on the rack. The motor in this one is a bit heavier, which helps balance it. You need a rack with a steel clamp and support bar rather than the more expensive aluminium ones, which aren't as strong.

 

[NRG]

Hi we offer a conversion kit for full suspension bikes with the battery in back pack

1,500 watt rear motor 48 volt 15 ah soft pack battery weight 4.5 kilos

for off road USE 30 MPH on road electronically restricted to 15MPH

we will be selling the bike in the link below on our web site to the above spec £3800


Diamondback - Mission 1

Frank

For heavens sake how much more of this spam do we have to take on the forum. £3800 quid you really have go to be taking the p**s

On another note its good that Alien are still looking after their customers, well done Jim and the team!

 

[johnc461165]

I totally agree NRG.

 

[banbury frank]

Hi NRG and johnc461165


I am sorry if the thought off taking a NEW £2000 Diamondback misson bike Offends you so much

Our customers don't think that


I think that Marin bike in this thread was over £3,000 when NEW

The new 2012 marin is £2500

Frank

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Hi Frank, I dont think NRG is knocking the price, I imagine he is getting a little fed up with the selling techniques you are using. I fell foul of this a couple of years ago, it is so very tempting to try and sell your gear here. I think it may be advantageous to keep your posts focused on news etc? Of course the news can be about your product!

All the best

David

 

[jerrysimon]

Yes I agree with David all that is needed is a little bit of balance with bringing news and trying to sell stuff. There is always PM if you think a poster would be interested in your product or the for sale section.

On another note its good that Alien are still looking after their customers, well done Jim and the team!

NRG my first kit was an Alien and its good to give praise where it is due. Jim operates an excellent business in term of after sales support and I am glad I went down that route when I purchased my first kit rather than importing from China. I had a few problems and he replaced parts without question. Subsequently I have never hesitated in recommending him to other people new to DIY ebiking

Now that I understand more about the issues from ordering overseas and the risk involved I am prepared to do it when required.

Regards

Jerry

 

[eTim]

I think there already a couple of forum areas where traders can peddle their wares without hijacking others threads, so I agree that it is spam.

There are many Marin's with the Quad Tara suspension that all look very similar but come in across a wide range of prices from around £1200 upwards, so without knowing the model it's difficult to tell what the original purchase price was. My Attack Trail was £1,800 and my wife's Alpine Attack was approx £1,400 around 5 years ago. If you buy last years model in the Autumn you can pick up some impressive bargains, a friend of mine picked up a 2010 Marin Mount Vision for £1,000 at 50% discount. All the models I have mentioned looked similar to Stumpi's (depending on model release).

So the question is if you wanted a new FS mountain bike for conversion, why would you spend full price when there are bargains to be had, then get a builder to convert it for you. None of the Alien kits cost more than £800 to purchase and if you get them to fit it, I'm guessing it would come in around £1K.

So for ~2K you could have a brand new Marin FS with an Alien kit (with a choice of legal and non-legal kits), much less than Banbury frank spam £3,800 !! Or just go for a Bosch powered Haibike xDuro FS and still have £1K change in your pocket for spare battery, wheels, tyres, bling account.

Stumpi which kit did you have fitted and how much did it cost, I've been toying with a Marin conversion for a while now

 

[Stumpi]

I havn't had the full break down yet but approx

250 kit £549
extra bits £50
fitting £100-150

Just to add to the debate I bought my Marin in 2004 new for £1900, it got a lot of use until 2008 when my leg got worse then sat in the garage while I got into Ebikes. Although its been well looked after and parts renewed/replaced when needed its worth pennies now as no one wants a 7 year old MTB.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

The Marin in my photo that I helped build cost £300 for the bike in good condition, £150 for the kit and about £400 for the batteries and the rest of it - so about £850 in total, but thats with 25aH and a BPM motor.

 

[banbury frank]

Hi David ( wisper) I take your comments and others I will start a new thread

With news on New products

Not comment on others threads

Sounds Good to me

Thanks for everybody Helpful comments

Frank

 

[NRG]

I havn't had the full break down yet but approx

250 kit £549
extra bits £50
fitting £100-150

Just to add to the debate I bought my Marin in 2004 new for £1900, it got a lot of use until 2008 when my leg got worse then sat in the garage while I got into Ebikes. Although its been well looked after and parts renewed/replaced when needed its worth pennies now as no one wants a 7 year old MTB.

You can get the Marin for £1600 new some £400 less than Franks link...but that wasn't the main point. We've put up with the continued thread crapping from him for quite a while now and it's time it stopped....and I won't even mention the illegal aspect of the bikes he attempts to sell....

 

[Scottyf]

Bikes 2nd hand are a great Market. You can get quite a bike 2nd hand that someone's brought and hardly used because they've got a bit to much cash and then never get out on it.

Like d8veh said you can hunt round and get some right bargains!

 

[flecc]

Bikes 2nd hand are a great Market.

They certainly are. Around 2 million bikes are sold every year in the UK, but as the lack of cyclists on the roads show, most only get ridden a couple of times before being dumped at the back of the garage. Much UK bike buying is one of those "good idea at the time" things which changes when the first hill is encountered.

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Hi David ( wisper) I take your comments and others I will start a new thread

With news on New products

Not comment on others threads

Sounds Good to me

Thanks for everybody Helpful comments

Frank

Cheers Frank, I am sure everyone here wishes you well, and thanks for taking my comments as they were intended. I was a little worried that you would not take view them as constructive!

All the best

David

 

[Stumpi]

250 kit £549
extra bits £50
fitting £100-150

Collected the bike yesterday so I'll correct my bill. The kit was £549 + £120 fitting including the extra parts so a very reasonable £669.

Having a closer look at the bike its a very neat and robust looking install. The bracket holding the controller is secure but will give if I have an off and theres a little slack in the cables to allow it to move. With the battery tucked away in my Camelbak rucksack the bike feels very light to ride turns as well as it did pre Kit. The thumb throttle has quite a long travel which works very well off road and at slow speeds it means the power comes in a smooth progressive manner allowing a lightness of touch on the more technical tracks.

All in all I'm delighted and its just what I wanted. Many thanks to Jim and Roy at Alien I can recommend their kits, their workmanship and their customer service

 

[bigroy]

its all ways good to have good feed back.
thanks for you recommendation and have a great christmas.