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| The '92 Marin Catalogue page for the Palisades Trail |
I didn't take any pictures of it, as I didn't realise I was going to get so into bikes, but here's the original picture from the eBay listing:
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| The original eBay picture |
I specifically remember the ride back home from the train station, laughing to myself at how walking was for chumps.
The bike itself was OK for the me back then; it started; it stopped; it turned; it was all I needed. Over the last two years I've become such a snob that I'd probably have to adjust and oil everything before I sat on it.
The tyres were rotting away so they were the first thing to be replaced, and then the crappy plastic cantilever brakes. Then one of the crappy plastic pedals split down the spindle and I replaced them with huge FireEye platform pedals.
As you can see from the above picture the saddle was torn up, so that and the seatpost got replaced next with a swish San Marco Rolls saddle; the brass trim couldn't have looked more out of place on a luminous green and matte grey mountain bike frame, but by then I had some ideas forming about what I wanted this bike to be.
Then came the pannier rack so I didn't have to carry my shopping back home in a hiking rucksack (Godsend).
The gears never really worked properly and were always skipping so I used it more like a single speed. Something in the left gear shifter had snapped so I never changed the front rings anyway.
I remember the sad, sorry night a month or two after I bought it, when my housemate borrowed the bike to nip to the shops. I'd forgotten to tell him to be careful changing gear, and a few minutes later he dragged the bike back in the house. He'd tried changing down gears, and the 'low stop' on the rear derailleur had been way off. The derailleur had gone into the wheel, and the spokes had pulled it all the way round. I was back to walking around like a chump for a few days...
I ordered a cheap Shimano Alivio derailleur, and fit it to the bike to the instruction. It never worked quite right in the mid to high gears, but at least the stops were set!
So I started getting a taste for replacing parts, and generally speaking, bike messinaboutin'.
By summer, I'd decided to radically change the bike; It was a work bike I used on some relatively flat roads. I had no use for such low gears, and as I'd got fitter I started getting a bit addicted to the speed I could put out. My saddle was getting higher and higher and I was constantly grinding away in my top gear, but I was still on a crappy old mountain bike. I needed to be faster and lower and cooler and better.
At around the same time, I was going to custom motorbike mags and sites for inspiration. Fridays after work were set aside for beer and BSH. I've always loved the old-style custom bobber look on a motorbike, but it'd have me sat a little too comfortable if I wanted any speed out of a bicycle. There was the cafe racer look, but it was a little too clean for me. Then I came across pictures of old boardtrack racers from the 20's.
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| Boardtrackers were used to race round a track ... made of boards |
It was perfect. It was bloody perfect. The stance was low down enough that I could really stretch out and have a proper go pedalling; and it was from a time when motorbikes actually resembled bicycles. I got to work sorting out parts.
I'm obviously not the first person to try this (Rat Rod Bikes can attest to that), so parts were easy to come by once I knew where to look.
The main change in the shape of the bike was the handlebars; they almost look like shallow, splayed out dropbars. I found out through blogs like Lovely Bicycle! that the best way to do this was to get some normal old cruiser handlebars and turn them upside down.
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| A mock up of the bars I'd bought; these to be precise |
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| The cables weren't long enough for the brake levers to bit on the bars, so my trial run around the garden was "interesting"... |
I was on my way, but still needed to sort out the colour. The matte grey was great, but the luminous green had to go; I stripped the paint with a wire wheel, and primed and repainted the forks, handlebars and stem with black 'truck bed paint', a hard wearing paint that has a gritty matte texture.
Next the wheels; I wanted this bike to be aggressive but also bombproof, so I bought some 32mm wide DMR Dee-Vee rims, and Shimano SLX hubs. Before I laced the wheels up, I'd decided to repaint the rims. These being for rim brakes and not disc brakes, I'd heard that you shouldn't paint the braking surface as it becomes too slippy. So I decided that I needed to take the black anodized layer off, before masking them up to be primed and painted.
Looking back now, why I wasted so much time and effort wet-sanding off a perfectly good (and new) anodized layer is beyond me; by rubbing away at the braking surface, I've drastically reduced the lifespan of the rims.
Anyway, you live and learn. I repainted the main rim body cherry red before lacing up the wheels, and wrapping them in some 2.125 inch whitewalls I'd found on a German custom bike site called Classic Cycle (the same site I'd got the bars from).
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| Heavy as shit but byooootiful |
Like I said before, I had no use for a mountain bike's gear range, so I decided to just forgo the triple chainring and keep the bike on a single chainring setup. To give myself more variation, I went for a 10 speed, 11-36t cassette, with a Shimano Zee shifter and Deore rear derailleur.
So I was more or less ready to go, I just had to buy some grips (black, old school BMX style 'Toad Stool's), some brake levers (Shimano V-Brake), cabling, and a thinner Shimano Deore 10 speed chain (even though it's worked fine for 2 years, I regret this; Shimano use their patented "Hollowtech" chain pins which you're not supposed to remove, and you can only connect the chain up with their one-time-use solid pins. My next chain will be a KMC, because at least with their quick links, you can remove the chain without a chaintool, and don't need extra bits).
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| Mighty Martha II: The greatest workhorse around |
After 6 hours of fiddling and swearing, I got the bike built.
I switched the big and medium chainrings around so the biggest was more central, and kept the disconnected front derailleur as a chain guide (just moved the 'low stop' way up).
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| About an hour old in this picture, and already the whitewalls are smudged... |
Riding it to work the next day was incredible. I'd had hardly any sleep the night before (I think I went to sleep at 4 in the morning), and it was the Friday work closed for Christmas. 21st December 2012; the day the world was supposed to end. At least I'd have gone out in style!
I named her Mighty Martha II. The first Martha was an inflatable whale I'd taken camping up at lake Coniston, who dissappeared one night never to return...
Anyway, I intended on having some vinyl cut, so I could lay the name on the top tube. The local signage company I contacted didn't seem too interested in such a small job, and I forgot/lost interest. Maybe someday.
I rode Martha around for all of 2013, and she is AMAZING. Heavy as hell thanks to the steel frame and tyres, but pretty fast if I say so myself. The fat tyres also mean it's very stable taking corners with a lean on, which makes it so fun to ride.
As for the position, I find it the most comfortable bike I've ever ridden (on short journeys). It's aggressive enough that a lot of weight rests on your hands, but the bars are wide enough that I can pull at them when I want to get going.
Saying that; 10 miles or so of being slumped over does give me some back ache, so I try to keep it to short journeys, and use my roadie for anything over 10.
The original paint job has taken a battering though (23 years old!), as did my (poorly) painted forks and handlebars. This being a steel bike, rust is a problem, so this last winter I've upgraded the whole thing, including powder coating the frame. That's Mighty Martha II v2 though, and a post for another time.
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