Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
This week’s Reader’s Rig comes from Ilya in Ukraine, who shares the beautifully oxidized Marin Pine Mountain he picked up second-hand and completely rebuilt into a dreamy do-it-all adventure bike. Meet Ilya and find a superb set of images here…
Words by Ilya Khrushchov, photos by Karol Gajewski
Hi! My name is Ilya. I come from Ukraine, but I’ve lived in Poland for six years. I work as a bike mechanic and have 10 years of experience. I first got into cycling because it gave me a sense of freedom. Shortly, after I became fascinated by bike mechanics.
In the town I lived in during my youth, no one had even heard about “bike mechanic” as a profession, and I needed to keep my bikes well maintained. The fact that I could choose all of the components by myself and configure the bike the way I wanted to got me so excited that I made the decision to start my career in wrenching on bikes.
The story of this particular bike began five years ago when, after using a full-suspension bike with 200mm of travel for a while, I started looking for something faster yet equally comfortable. I found an online auction for Marin Pine Mountain equipped with a 140 mm suspension fork. Damn, I was stoked on the 27.5 x 2.8 tires! After talking with the seller, it turned out that he also has the original rigid fork and compatible front wheel. I thought, “I’ll take both, why not?! Maybe I’ll try the rigid fork in the future.”
At first, I was using the Pine Mountain as a regular mountain bike. After some time, I tried to adapt it into an adventure bike. I was using it for both purposes (about a 50/50 ratio) for a while. Finally, decided to get a dedicated mountain bike and turn Pine Mountain into a proper adventure beast! Since then, the only thing left is the frameset!
The frame was designed for 141 x 9mm QR Boost hub standard, but I managed to fit a 142 x 12mm hub using a QR adapter. I used a regular QR axle for 135 mm hubs; it’s a steel frame, so the dropouts are quite thin. The only thing I needed to do was add 2mm spacers for the rear brake adapter.
- Frame/Fork: Marin Pine Mountain
- Rims: Dartmoor Aircraft
- Hubs: Dartmoor/Novatec
- Tires: Schwalbe G-One 27.5 x 2.8
- Handlebars: Surly Corner Bar
- Headset: FSA
- Crankset: SRAM with Garbaruk 34T
- Pedals: LOOK X-Track EN-Rage
- Cassette: Shimano Deore CS-M5100
- Derailleur(s): Sram GX with Garbaruk cage
- Brakes: Shimano MT506
- Shifter(s): Sram GX
- Saddle: Brooks Cambuim C19
- Seatpost: Titanium 27.2 x 410mm
- Stem: Giant 90mm
- Front bags: BabyLegs ChildSize Kibosh
- Frame bags: Pathfinder Gear custom
- Accessory bags: Masey Bikepack top tube and feed bags
- Lighting: Magicshine ALLTY 1500S (front) / Magicshine SEEME 200 (rear)
- Other accessories: Ortlieb Fork Packs, Fidlock bottle mounts, multi-tool on seatpost
Recently, the frame cracked and was welded and reinforced. I’m a tall person (190 cm) and I prefer smaller bikes due to better maneuverability, so I went for the size large, which is slightly smaller in this model. Because of that, the seat is set very high, and the seatpost is quite extended. I’m using big saddlebags for travels, and this caused two aluminum seatposts to bend. I switched to a titanium 410mm seatpost, and this caused the frame to break. Luckily, my buddy welded it well and made me a custom rear rack designed for this bike. For the rack, I also got some cool dry bags from Baby Legs. The Surly Corner Bar is, in my opinion, the only handlebar that fits the whole concept of this bike. The Redshift Cruise Control Drop Bar Grips work really well and add extra grip.
About the looks: after using the bike for a few years, I got bored of the original paint, and I didn’t really like the orange accents. Re-painting the frame would be very costly, and I’d be pissed after scratching it! I saw the alternative method on my buddy’s bike. Tobis used a method called oxidizing. I bought the coating for 50 zł ($12) and did it myself!
All the mounting points and attachments, such as the rivnuts on the top tube, the front light mount, and the mounts for the Fidlock bottle cages and Ortlieb bags on the forks were done by me.
You can follow along with Ilya on Instagram.
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