Marin Alpine Trail E Bosch
Wheel Size: 29’’ front / 27.5’’ rear
Travel: 160 mm rear / 170 mm front
Geometry Highlights:
- Sizes Offered: M, L, XL
- Headtube Angle: 63° (0° headset cup)
- Reach: 485 mm (Size Large)
- Chainstay Length: 435–443 mm (adjustable)
Frame Material: Aluminum
Prices: Complete bikes: $5,699 to $6,599 USD / $7,599 to $8,799 CAD
Intro
Marin is known for offering a lot of value for the money, and our experiences with their El Roy hardtail and prior Alpine Trail Enduro bike left us impressed with the performance-to-value of both bikes. While bike prices have remained stubbornly high since COVID, Marin’s new Alpine Trail E Bosch packs a revised suspension design, a Bosch motor, a big ol’ 750Wh battery, and an impressive parts spec into a package that costs far less than most competitors. Let’s dig into the details to see what makes this latest Alpine Trail E such a promising new offering from Marin.
The Frame
While Marin stepped into making carbon mountain bike frames back a few years ago, much of their line remains made of aluminum, including the Alpine Trail E Bosch. The new Series 4 aluminum frame also gets updated to a new-to-Marin suspension design called MultiTrac 2 LT, which cranks out 160 mm of travel. First seen on the updated Alpine Trail announced last week, Marin has abandoned their old linkage-driven single pivot design in favor of a Horst Link four-bar design. Marin says this change allows them to better control the anti-rise curve for better suspension performance under braking while also improving mid-stroke and bottom out support. At this point, Marin doesn’t provide more specific kinematics numbers for the new design.
The move to a Horst Link arrangement has also allowed Marin to incorporate a flip chip at the chainstay pivot, offering two geometry positions that tweak the chainstay length and bottom bracket height. We’ll dig into those details a bit more in the Fit & Geometry section below.
Marin has taken the opportunity to incorporate the near-ubiquitous UDH from SRAM, and the frame also now runs a 34.9 mm diameter seat post with claims of added frame stiffness. The Alpine Trail E also gets refreshed frame protection details, including a rather burly-looking downtube guard that includes some built-in drain ports to manage water, and rubber seals at the cable ports on the downtube and elsewhere should also help keep grit and water from making its way into places it’s not wanted.
Drive System
Bosch seems to have been taking significant market share from Shimano in the latest crop of eMTBs to hit the market, and the new Alpine Trail E is another notch in Bosch’s belt. Where the prior Alpine Trail E was updated with the EP801 motor from Shimano, Marin has opted for the Bosch Performance Line CX motor in this latest version. The wireless Mini Remote controls things from the handlebar, and the familiar system controller also nests in the top tube.
The Performance Line CX motor cranks out a maximum 85 Nm of torque, matching the EP801, but I would wager that Bosch’s more expansive battery options were a big driver behind the change. With the switch to Bosch, Marin has opted for a whopping 750 Wh PowerTube battery — and that’s included with both models of the Alpine Trail E Bosch. While a battery of that size certainly adds weight to what is already a hefty aluminum eMTB, the ability to leave range anxiety behind may be well worth the tradeoff for some riders. Despite all that juice, Marin claims that Bosch’s rail system makes installation and removal fairly easy, but we’ll have to see for ourselves how easy a battery swap ends up being in practice.
Fit & Geometry
The Alpine Trail E Bosch is only offered in sizes Medium through XL, but the size Large gets a 485 mm reach, tall 646 mm stack, and a rather stubby 420 mm seat tube length. The aforementioned flip chip at the chainstay pivot allows for 435 mm chainstays in “High BB / Short CS ” and 443 mm chainstays in “Low BB / Long CS”, with the bottom bracket shifting from 352 mm to 354 mm, correspondingly. That’s all in the stock 0° headset position — adjustable headset cups have become more commonplace, and Marin has elected to incorporate that feature into the Alpine Trail E as well with a +/– 0.75° cup. The Alpine Trail E Bosch’s 63° head angle and 78.3° seat tube angle on a size Large are already fairly aggressive, but that head tube angle gets as slack as 62.4° in the Low BB / Long CS setting with the –0.75° cup installed.
All of those adjustments have cascading effects on one another — virtually all geometry figures are at least somewhat influenced by both the headset cup selection and flip chip setting. That makes for 6 unique configurations, outlined in the geo charts below.
The Builds
By our assessment, the Product Manager at Marin responsible for the Alpine Trail E Bosch did a great job of pulling together sensible builds that maximize performance in critical areas while still delivering a lot of value. Both the E1 and E2 builds get 170 mm forks and coil shocks, along with TRP brakes featuring proper 203 mm diameter, 2.3 mm thick rotors. Shimano drivetrains and stubby 35 mm stems are present across both builds as well.
Full build specs are as follows:
- Drivetrain: Shimano CUES 6000 10-speed
- Brakes: TRP Slate EVO (203 mm rotors)
- Fork: Marzocchi Z1 (170 mm)
- Shock: Marzocchi Bomber CR
- Wheels: TBA
- Dropper Post: TBA
- Drivetrain: Shimano XT
- Brakes: TRP DH-R EVO (203 mm rotors)
- Fork: Fox 38 Performance Elite (170 mm)
- Shock: Fox DHX2 Performance Elite
- Wheels: TBA
- Dropper Post: TBA
Some Questions / Things We’re Curious About
(1) Marin says that the new MultiTrac 2 LT suspension system delivers better performance while unlocking new geometry adjustment features. How well does it keep up with the aggressive intentions of the Alpine Trail E Bosch?
(2) The Bosch Performance Line CX motor and 750 Wh battery bring a lot of power and the promise of a lot of potential range. With no smaller battery option, is the weight penalty of the bigger battery worth the extra range that it brings?
(3) Marin has packed a lot of value into the Alpine Trail E Bosch by maximizing performance in some areas of the build over others. Did they nail it, or are there some areas where upgrades might be needed sooner rather than later?
Bottom Line (For Now)
Marin may not make the marketing splash that some flashier brands do, but it’s hard to ignore the combination of aggressive geometry, a potent powertrain, and value proposition that the new Alpine Trail E Bosch brings to the eMTB market. The aluminum frame and big battery presumably add up to a fairly hefty bike, but may also pay dividends when it comes to reliability and range. We’ll just have to wait and see for ourselves just how all of these traits line up on the trail, and we’ll report back once we are able to log some miles on the latest Alpine Trail E.