To celebrate having completed 30 years of building bikes since 1986, Marin is getting a bit retro and bringing back one of their classic color fade paint jobs on their popular Four Corners Elite everything adventure touring bike. Rebuilt for next year with a bit lower gearing to take on more loaded trips off the beaten track, the bike also bumps up to some wider rims and bigger tires to tackle any trail surface you can find. The Rasta paint job is just for this 30th anniversary and only available in this Elite build. Take a closer look at the bike, plus an updated version of Naild’s 12-3-9 quick release thru-axles after the break…
The Rasta Four Corners Elite uses the same Columbus Thron shaped and butted Cro-moly tubeset that we saw when the top-level bike was introduced last summer. Like it did then, both frame and fork include full fender & rack mounts, 160mm post mount disc brakes, and thru-axles. It also gets enough braze-ons to bolt on pretty much anything you can think of.
The special edition Rasta paint job harkens back to the early days of Marin, but modernizes it a bit with a matte finish that should hold up well over time. The Four Corners Elite gets what Marin calls ‘Utilitour’ geometry for stable loaded touring, and equates essentially to 72° head angles 72-74° seat angles, long headtubes, 70mm of BB drop, and 450mm chainstays.
The bike’s 15mm front and 12x142mm rear thru-axles use an updated version of the Naild 12-3-9 quick release thru-axle. 12-3-9 references the clock positions of the lever to go from Open, to Engaged, to Locked in a matter of a few seconds. The new version of the easy-to-use and secure axles gets a new, more compact lever shape and a revised squared off internal axle shape.
They uses the same Locit Lever Tech with the captured nut on the opposite side of the lever for fast-moving and almost idiot-proof functionality, plus adjustable positioning of the lever. The new Naild 12-3-9 also adds a neat little ID system called quadrant code that give a quick visual confirmation of the appropriate use, warranty period, durability, and recommended service interval for the thru-axle. A full breakdown of what it means is over at: Naild.it
The Four Corners Elite gets a SRAM Rival 1 build kit that now combines a 38T chainring to the 10-42 cassette for improved hill climbing on loose and steep trails. New for 2017, WTB KOM i25 (yep that means internally 25mm wide) rims are 4mm wider than the previous spec, and tubeless ready. They now get wrapped in WTB’s new 45mm wide version of the tubeless-ready Riddler for really breaking off from the beaten path. Finishing off the bike is Marin’s own Four Corners flared drop bar, color-matched alloy stem, alloy seatpost, and WTB Volt saddle. It even comes with a nice set of thin and light platform pedals for trekking in street shoes.
European pricing for the Four Corners Elite is expected to be around 2100€, which is up a bit from the current model in euros, but in the US it will sell for $2250 which is actually cheaper than the current version.
