2024 Marin Alpine Trail
Wheel Size: 29’’ front / 27.5” (compatible w/ 29’’ rear wheel)
Travel: 160 mm rear / 170 mm front
Geometry Highlights:
- Sizes offered: S, M, L, XL
- Headtube angle: 63° (adjustable)
- Reach: 485 mm (size Large, varies slightly based on geometry settings)
- Chainstay length: 435 / 442 mm (adjustable)
Frame Material: Aluminum
Blister’s Measured Weight: 38.9 lbs / 17.6 kg (Size L)
Reviewers:
- Zack Henderson: 6’, 165 lbs / 183 cm, 74.8 kg
- David Golay: 6’, 170 lb / 183 cm, 77.1 kg
Test Locations: Washington, British Columbia
Test Duration: 5.5 months
Price:
- Frame w/ RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate Coil: $1,849
- Complete bikes: $3,199 to $5,399
Intro
The prior-generation Marin Alpine Trail was an interesting bike in a lot of ways. It blurred the line between a long-travel Trail bike and a burlier Enduro one, and while many of its geometry numbers were quite aggressive (e.g., the 63.5° headtube angle), it also had notably short chainstays (430 mm). The end result was a bike that was fairly playful, pedaled well, and was an especially good value for money in terms of the parts spec.
The new Alpine Trail looks to be more bike in a lot of respects — it’s got more suspension travel, longer and slacker geometry, and so on — but it’s still a great value on paper, and Marin has added a bunch of really interesting features and design details, too. Let’s see what they’ve been up to.
The Frame
At a quick glance, the new Alpine Trail doesn’t look that wildly different from the outgoing version, but Marin has changed a lot on the new bike. For starters, the dropout pivot has moved from the seatstay to the chainstay. Marin says that going to that new Horst link layout allowed them to reduce the amount of anti-rise on the new Alpine Trail for better suspension performance under braking, and to increase midstroke and bottom-out support. Exact kinematic details aren’t supplied, however.
The new Alpine Trail also gets a bunch of new adjustability compared to the outgoing model. A flip chip at the seatstay / rocker link pivot lets you toggle between a 27.5’’ or 29’’ rear wheel; another at the dropout pivot provides two different geometry settings (more on those in a minute), both of which are usable in either wheel-size configuration. Finally, a set of +/- 0.75° headset cups provides additional headtube angle adjustability.
Fit & Geometry
Marin offers the new Alpine Trail in the same four sizes as the outgoing version (Small, Medium, Large, and XL). The numbers for reach, headtube angle, and seat tube angle haven’t changed a ton — all four sizes get a 63° headtube angle and an effective seat tube angle just over 78° (varies a little by frame size); the Large frame’s reach comes in at 485 mm.
What Marin has changed, in a big way, is the chainstay length. The outgoing bike’s stays were notably short, at 430 mm for all four sizes; the new version now features adjustable ones, which measure 435 mm in the shorter setting and 442 mm in the longer one. Since the chainstay-length adjustment is handled by the flip chip at the dropout pivot, it also alters the bottom bracket height and headtube angle a bit; the longer chainstay setting lowers the bottom bracket and slackens the headtube angle a touch. In the longer / lower setting, the bottom bracket drop comes out to 31 mm, relative to the front wheel.
All those numbers are in Marin’s default geometry setting (low BB / long chainstays, mullet, 0° headset). Between the two flip chips and optional offset headset cups, there are a dozen total combinations possible. The full array of options is shown below.
The Builds
Marin offers the Alpine Trail in three complete builds or as a frame with a RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate Coil shock for just $1,849. As per usual for Marin, the complete builds look like they offer a lot of value for their respective prices.
We’re still waiting on a few details of the build specs from Marin, but the highlights are listed below, and we’ll update with more complete info once we get it.
- Drivetrain: Shimano Deore 12-speed
- Brakes: TRP Slate Evo w/ 203 mm rotors
- Fork: Fox 36 Rhythm
- Shock: Fox Float Performance
- Wheels: TBA
- Dropper Post: TBA
- Drivetrain: SRAM GX
- Brakes: SRAM DB8 w/ 200 mm rotors
- Fork: RockShox ZEB Ultimate
- Shock: RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate Coil
- Wheels: TBA
- Dropper Post: TBA
- Drivetrain: SRAM GX Transmission
- Brakes: SRAM Code Bronze w/ 200 mm rotors
- Fork: RockShox ZEB Ultimate
- Shock: RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate Coil
- Wheels: TBA
- Dropper Post: TBA
Even without knowing the wheel and seatpost specs (we’ll update with those as soon as we get them), those builds look like they offer a lot of bang for the buck. The Alpine Trail XR is probably the best of the bunch in that regard — for less than just a Yeti SB165 frame you get top-of-the-line RockShox suspension at both ends and a solid drivetrain and brakes.
FULL REVIEW
Marin went all out in their overhaul of the Alpine Trail XR lineup earlier this year, bringing refreshed geometry to the table along with a huge amount of adjustment potential. While the prior model was notably playful at the expense of some full-throttle descending confidence, the new Alpine Trail XR looks to change that balance — so how did it all shake out during our summer of testing it? Read on to find out.
Fit & Sizing
Zack Henderson (6’, 165 lbs / 183 cm, 74.8 kg): Bike fit never comes down to a single number, but I tend to enjoy bikes with 640 mm or higher stack heights and a 480–490 mm reach. I preferred the Large Alpine Trail XR in Low mode with the longer 442 mm chainstay setting, which yielded a 647 mm stack height and 485 mm reach, along with a long-ish 628 mm effective top tube length. Given the steep 78.3° seat tube angle, I found this offered a comfortable seated position that felt upright but not cramped.
The short 430 mm seat tube was a nice feature as far as offering ample room for long dropper posts, but as David mentioned in his Flash Review, it was a little disappointing to see Marin not capitalizing on it — the stock 170 mm dropper could be raised to the right height, but had less drop than I’d like. Fortunately, David had already fitted a 200 mm one when I received the bike.
While the Marin comes with adjustable headset cups to allow for 0.75° of adjustment in either direction from the 63° neutral position, I didn’t get my hands on the adjustable cups and ended up sticking with the still rather slack 63° position. Based on my impressions of the Marin, I’d almost certainly not want to go as slack as 62.25°, but steepening to 63.75° might have helped to quicken up the steering a bit on flatter trails. Overall, and as we’ll get into below, the 63° stock setting felt about right, if maybe the slightest bit slack, for the Alpine Trail’s intentions and personality.
David Golay (6’, 165 lb / 183 cm, 74.8 kg): I got along quite well with the fit of the Large Alpine Trail, too. Like Zack, I preferred the longer chainstay setting over the shorter one, both for handling reasons (more on those in a minute) and because the longer chainstays make the Alpine Trail’s preferred weight distribution a bit more neutral. The extra length and more centered stance the longer stays favor gave me a little more room to move around on the bike, making precise body positioning less critical.
As Zack mentioned, I quickly swapped in a 200 mm travel dropper post over the stock 170 mm one, to buy more room to get lower / farther back on the bike as needed. I could get the stock 170 mm one high enough (despite the Alpine Trail’s pretty short seat tube) but I simply wanted more drop. I also swapped in a 40 mm stem and a bar with less backsweep, which my wrists just happen to like better. That’s 100% personal preference, though.
Zack: Like David, my only holdups with the fit of the Alpine Trail were more down to preference relating to the stock stem length and handlebar shape. I ended up swapping to my preferred Deity BF800 bars and a 40 mm stem, which helped make the handling more familiar compared to the short 35 mm stem that Marin includes from stock.
Climbing
Zack Henderson: The Alpine Trail’s fairly spacious cockpit and steep seat tube angle offer a pleasant climbing position, but there’s no mistaking the Alpine Trail for some sprightly Trail bike. Most of that is down to weight — the aluminum-framed Alpine Trail is adorned with many reliable but beefy parts, bringing the weight to 38.9 lbs / 17.6 kg. As a result, it’s a rather comfortable if somewhat plodding climber in the stock guise.
The frame itself seems to pedal fairly efficiently, and the suspension does a nice job of resisting excess bobbing. The wheels and tires don’t offer much help on the way up, though — the 27.5’’ rear wheel comes with a DoubleDown Assegai tire in Maxxis’ stickiest MaxxGrip compound, and I’d rank it among the slowest rolling rear tires that money can buy. I swapped the rear wheel to a slightly lighter 29’’ one with a much faster rolling Vittoria Mazza Enduro rear tire during testing, which together significantly reduced my suffering on the way up the hill.
If the Alpine Trail were my personal bike, the first place I’d invest in an upgrade would be the wheelset, which is a Marin-branded combination of alloy rims and rebadged generic hubs. I didn’t weigh the wheels without tires, but they’re unquestionably heavy, and a lighter wheelset would almost certainly go a long way towards offering a more energetic ride while climbing and on flatter trails. As it is though, the Alpine Trail offers a fuss-free climbing experience so long as you aren’t in a hurry to reach the top.
David: I don’t really disagree with how Zack characterized the Alpine Trail’s climbing performance, but I want to be careful not to make it sound like an unduly plodding climber. It’s not a light bike, and the stock Maxxis Assegai Double Down / MaxxGrip rear tire is notably slow rolling, but the Alpine Trail pedals reasonably well from a suspension efficiency standpoint, and the pedaling position feels well-sorted for a relatively winch-and-plummet sort of Enduro bike.
I swapped in a faster rolling rear tire for a lot of my time on the Alpine Trail (a Maxxis DHR II Double Down MaxxTerra, mostly) and spent a bit of time on the bike with a much lighter carbon wheelset swapped in to try the full 29’’ setup (more on that later), both of which made the Alpine Trail feel notably more sprightly.
For what it is — a big Enduro bike with beefy tires and a somewhat heavy wheelset — the Alpine Trail pedals just fine. Its traction under power is also pretty good, and the climb switch on the stock RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate rear shock is quite effective if you really want to firm things up. As with a lot of modern 160+ mm travel bikes, the Alpine Trail wouldn’t be my first choice if you want something to split duty between being a Trail bike on mellower trails and a more full-on Enduro one, but the Alpine Trail climbs just fine for what it is.
Descending
Zack Henderson: The prior-generation Alpine Trail that we tested had a similar reach and headtube angle to the new one, but also had one of the shortest chainstay measurements that I’ve seen in quite some time on an Enduro-focused bike. The result was a fairly demanding ride that required close attention to keeping weight on the front wheel.
Enter the new Alpine Trail. With its longer 442 mm chainstays, the updated Alpine Trail allows a far more centered riding position, reducing arm fatigue and generally allowing a more relaxed and balanced approach to descending. The front tire tracks tremendously more effectively as the trail gets steeper, and the old model’s tendency to understeer is no longer an issue with the new Alpine Trail.
Marin’s bikes all tend to prioritize a fun and lively ride, and though that might not be the first characteristic that comes to mind when you see its beefy aluminum frame and coil shock, the Alpine Trail’s playful spirit is absolutely intact. Where some modern Enduro bikes do a great job of muting the trail and unlocking maximum speed, the Alpine Trail strikes a balance of being supportive while also offering a lot of response from the rear wheel. Particularly in its stock mixed wheel guise, the Alpine Trail encourages seeking out jump lines and taking inside lines in corners, while offering a loose and slashy feel to the rear end when the trail gets particularly steep. In that way, it feels like it has more of a Freeride DNA than a race-bred Enduro bike, which makes for a lot of fun — even if its heft means it takes a bit more effort to pick up off the trail.
I took the Alpine Trail to Whistler in late August, and despite being subjected to a bunch of laps on the blown-out trails in the Garbanzo zone, the bike felt surefooted and energetic as I chased my friends around on their Downhill bikes. It was ever more in its element as the trails got flowier and more jump-riddled, really finding its groove on trails like Dirt Merchant and A-Line, where it felt eager to get airborne and solid while landing.
Back home in Bellingham, I spent some time with the Alpine Trail in a full 29’’ setup, too. The results were fairly predictable — the 29’’ wheel offers better rollover and carries speed a bit better both up and down the hill, but it’s less eager to be slapped into corners and is a bit less engaging while jumping given the added gyroscopic force coming from that bigger rear wheel. Shifting to the shorter chainstay setting helps to make the rear end feel a bit more playful with the 29’’ rear wheel, but it starts to demand a more forward body position. While the mixed wheel setup felt like it unlocked the Alpine Trail’s true personality a bit more, the 29’’ rear wheel offered a different ride and would be my choice if I were racing the Alpine Trail against the clock.
David: Zack and I are in full agreement here. The Alpine Trail feels like a playful, freeride-oriented bike first and foremost while still offering pretty good composure on steep, raw trails. It wouldn’t be my first recommendation if you’re specifically looking for a game-on, go-fast Enduro race bike, but doesn’t feel particularly out of its element if pressed into that role from time to time.
Where the Alpine Trail really shines, though, is as a bike to ride playfully and get airborne on trails that feature a mix of jumps and other features with some rougher, chunkier sections, too. It’s still a fairly stable bike and its suspension offers good compliance and composure in faster, rougher sections — a modern slopestyle bike it is not — but the Alpine Trail is surprisingly (and impressively) lively given its solid stability, substantial weight, and suspension performance in burlier terrain.
While the Alpine Trail’s suspension performance is surprisingly planted and composed at speed given how lively it can be when called upon, it’s still a bike that takes a little more precise, dynamic riding on those sorts of trails than a number of more game-on go-fast sorts of bikes in its class. It can do quite well if you aren’t asking it to simply steamroll everything in front of it with minimal rider input, and its relatively poppy suspension helps facilitate that more dynamic approach.
The Alpine Trail’s weight feels most noticeable to me in those sorts of situations — it just takes a little more work to move the bike around and pick it up than it would if it were lighter. Swapping in a lighter carbon wheelset makes a noticeable difference there. Personally, I don’t mind the slightly higher level of physical effort required much, and tend to find that bikes in this class that are in the high 30-lb range (the Alpine Trail XR included) to generally feel less prone to pinging around and deflecting off smaller bumps at speed compared to significantly lighter ones, which is often welcome, but it’s certainly a tradeoff.
Like Zack, my preferred configuration for the Alpine Trail wound up being the stock mixed wheel one, in the longer chainstay setting. The shorter chainstays make the rear end feel slashier and quicker to step out, but shift the Alpine Trail’s preferred weight balance forward and make its sweet spot in terms of body positioning feel smaller, neither of which I found to be a worthwhile tradeoff for my taste. Bumping up to a 29’’ rear wheel adds a little stability (compared to the 27.5’’ one, with a matched chainstay length setting for both) but detracted from the Alpine Trail’s playful nature more than I wanted, and felt a little bit like trying to turn it into something it’s not. Mixed wheels just feel like a more coherent package given everything that the Alpine Trail does (and doesn’t do) best.
I briefly experimented with the steeper headset cup option on the Alpine Trail but found it to raise the bottom bracket and make me feel more on top of the bike than I wanted. Dropping the fork to 160 mm travel to compensate might have helped there, but would have also steepened the headtube more — I suspect by more than I would have liked. I wasn’t ever tempted to try the slacker setting, frankly. The 63° default headtube angle is already pretty slack and especially given the Alpine Trail’s somewhat playful, freeride-oriented personality, I wasn’t interested in trying to make it more stable — particularly given my experience with the full 29’’ setup. It’s cool that Marin offers the option for folks who want to give it a whirl, but the standard neutral headset option is the right one for me.
The Build
Zack Henderson: At $4,799 USD, the Alpine Trail XR presents a truly excellent value, and Marin spent money where it counts while using less flashy bits elsewhere. The suspension is top-shelf stuff from RockShox and the mechanical GX drivetrain from SRAM works without fuss. The SRAM DB8 brakes feel quite good and have held a bleed admirably, but don’t offer quite as much stopping power as fancier models. The budget-oriented build starts to show through a bit more with the Marin-branded wheels — they are heavy with lackluster engagement from the rear hub. While the front wheel is still trucking along, the rear wheel managed to lose a bunch of tension after a weekend of riding in the Whistler Bike Park in addition to picking up a dent or two. While Whistler is very hard on wheels, especially on an Enduro bike like the Alpine Trail XR, the wheels likely won’t ever be straight and round again, and if this were my personal bike I’d be looking into a replacement.
Marin nails some of the smaller details, too. The flip chips key nicely into the frame, the silver to black fade paint job looks nice, and the tires use properly burly casings (especially for the rear tire) with sticky rubber. Marin’s house brand grips, bars, and stem are rather nicely finished too, even if they aren’t to my personal preference from a fit perspective. The Alpine Trail was very quiet on the trail, indicating that the frame protection was working well.
While the Alpine Trail does have downtube storage, the slimmer profile of its aluminum downtube doesn’t offer the space that a larger diameter carbon shape might on other frames, and the all-plastic cover and latch felt a bit less premium than other options. Still, there was space for a tube and perhaps a very small multi-tool. It’s a case of nicer to have it than nothing at all.
The stock build is solid, particularly for the price, but there are areas for potential future upgrades on the Alpine Trail, and my first priority would be to reduce the weight. Less expensive targets like a lightweight coil spring for the rear shock (those stock RockShox coils are hefty), a faster rear tire, or the spendier proposition of a new wheelset would potentially drop pounds of weight, improving the handling while climbing and riding flatter trails.
David: I didn’t feel as much need to drop weight from the Alpine Trail, but am mostly in agreement with Zack otherwise. I would (well, did) swap in a faster rolling rear tire — I’m not the hugest fan of the Maxxis Assegai in general, but am especially uninterested in running them as a rear tire, between their high rolling resistance and relatively high volume casing, a trait that I tend not to like for rear tires in particular. I’d also really like to see a longer stroke dropper post than the 170 mm one that comes stock on the Large bike that we tested. The XL size gets a 200 mm post, but I think the Large clearly merits one too.
But overall, Marin has done a nice job of spending money where it’s most impactful (suspension, mostly) while spec’ing solid but un-flashy bits elsewhere. I somehow hadn’t spent much time on the SRAM DB8 brakes before I got on the Alpine Trail but, like Zack, was pleasantly surprised by them. They’re not especially powerful — I’d say a small step down from the Code variants that use the Swinglink lever cam (i.e., all the recent ones apart from the Code R) but their lever feel is nice and they were consistent and predictable in their performance over my time on them. Maven Bronze brakes would be a nice upgrade if Marin were to switch to them at some point — they’re massively more powerful — but the DB8s worked well enough.
I’ll also echo Zack’s praise for the Alpine Trail’s overall build quality. The flip chips fit together nicely and are easy to work with; the silver splatter paint looks great in person (it’s hard to photograph well); and downtube storage on a comparatively affordable aluminum frame, even if the opening and interior volume are on the smaller side. Zack’s right to note that the all-plastic hatch feels a little flimsier than most, but it works just fine and I never noticed any rattling or other such issues, even with a full water bottle attached to it.
Who’s It For
Zack Henderson: The Alpine Trail XR is quite a versatile bike within the Enduro category, helped greatly by its adjustability. That said, it does cater more towards folks who like a lively and somewhat Freeride-inspired feel versus a more race-focused and planted Enduro racer. For a buyer who’s interested in a fairly burly Enduro bike, the value simply can’t be ignored. Sure, there are fancier (and lighter) bikes out there, but for $4,799, the Marin arrives without any annoying spec choices (aside from that too-short 170 mm dropper on the Large; come on Marin, use the 200 mm from the XL!), and the utilitarian design should offer solid reliability and ease of ownership. Add in the fact that it is a bunch of fun to ride on all sorts of descent-focused trails, and I genuinely hope to see more of these rolling around my local spots.
David: I’ll just clarify that the Alpine Trail is versatile in the sense that it’s notably adaptable to a range of riding approaches on reasonably rugged, high-speed descending trails rather than being all that well suited to mellower Trail bike duty. I’m in full agreement with Zack otherwise.
Bottom Line
It may not be the flashiest or most exotic, but the Marin Alpine Trail XR packs a ton of value into a highly adjustable platform that has proven to be a fun, freeride-oriented take on a modern Enduro bike that still does pretty well on faster, more technical descents, too. It can charge when you want to but isn’t a super serious go-fast-or-else sort of bike, bringing a lively and fun ride on flowy descents and jumps. The weight of the stock configuration takes a bit of extra effort to get up particularly heinous climbs, but the Alpine Trail XR rarely felt out of place during our time on it. From flowy jump lines to chewed-up tech trails in the Whistler Bike Park, the Alpine Trail XR impressed us — especially given its comparatively affordable asking price.
Deep Dive Comparisons
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Deep Dive: 2024 Marin Alpine Trail
We compare the Marin Alpine Trail to the original Alpine Trail, Yeti SB165, Santa Cruz Nomad, Propain Tyee, Privateer 161 V2, RAAW Madonna V3, Chromag Lowdown, Orbea Rallon, Yeti SB160, Ibis HD6, Kavenz VHP 16, and Banshee Titan.
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