Is this revolutionary? Marin relies on a new type of rear triangle

The prologue belonged to Polygon, now Marin is also showing the innovative suspension system from Naild. Behind Naild is a bike industry veteran: Darrell Voss had already designed mountain bikes at Klein in the late 1980s. The new Marin Wolf Ridge has an absolutely unique rear triangle thanks to the Nail design.

R3ACT-2 Play is the keyword, and there is a lot of brainpower behind this product: the Marin Wolf Ridge has a four-bar rear triangle with two levers positioned in front of the bottom bracket. However, the true specialty of this rear triangle is not visible to the naked eye when the suspension is not fully extended: the voluminous swingarm contains a slider, a kind of guide rod, which is responsible for keeping the rear triangle free from drive influences.

According to Marin, the rear suspension system from Naild also has unique kinematics that regulate inertia under acceleration load. Regardless of the suspension travel, the system works without lockouts of external components, even with the 160 millimeters of the Marin Wolf Ridge bike. Marin and Naild have designed customized kinematics that give the new bike a level of propulsion that is unprecedented on comparable long-travel bikes.

The result of the innovative rear triangle is said to be an unprecedented riding experience. Matthew Cipes, Mountain Bike Product Manager at Marin, says: "It's almost unbelievable to build a bike that has such good climbing performance and at the same time is the best bike I've ever ridden downhill. However, you have to have ridden it to really understand and empathize with it."

The rear triangle was designed by Darrell Voss, who worked at brake specialist Kool Stop in the 1980s and at legendary bike manufacturer Klein in the 1990s; one of Voss' last positions was at suspension expert SR Suntour.

The carbon frame of the Marin Wolf Ridge accommodates 29er wheels and offers 160 millimetres of suspension travel. The chainstays measure a short 435 millimetres and the steering angle is a downhill-friendly 66.5 degrees. The bike comes in two equipment variants: The Wolf Ridge Pro is equipped with Sramm XX1 Eagle and Fox 36 Performance Elite and Float X2 suspension elements, while the E*thirteen TRS Race Carbon wheelset is also quite impressive. The Wolf Ride 9 is equipped with a Sram X0-1 Eagle drivetrain, the suspension is provided by Rocks Shox's Lyric RCT3 and Monarch Debonair and the wheels are from the Flow series by Notubes.

www.marinbikes.com