Marin Gestalt X10 review

Marin offers multiple gravel bikes at affordable prices, from the brilliant budget Nicasio and the all-road friendly Headlands through to the all-road endurance of the Four Corners and Gestalt 2.

In contrast, the Gestalt X10 takes its influences from Marin’s origins as a mountain bike designer of some repute.

The geometry wouldn’t look out of place on a modern hardtail mountain bike and the comfortable front end balances smoothness and speed brilliantly.

Marin Gestalt X10 frame

The X10 gets a longer than usual wheelbase, an extremely slack head tube angle and a frame that’s low-slung. It also comes with clearance for huge 54mm-wide tyres and a cockpit that pairs a wide bar with a short stem.

My size-large test bike had a sporty 589.1mm stack and lengthy 440mm reach.

The head tube angle has been slackened right down to 67.5 degrees, while the seat angle has steepened to 74 degrees.

The bottom bracket drop has been elevated to 80mm to improve ground clearance and the wheelbase stretched to 1,122.4mm.

The standover height is only 708.6mm. Compare that to a rival modern progressive gravel bike design, such as the Merida Silex and it’s 116.4mm lower.

The Gestalt is so low-slung, it's a revelation when riding technical terrain.

Marin Gestalt X10 specifications

The build is all solid stuff, but it reflects the budget price of the Gestalt X10 package. The drivetrain, as on the State Black Label I tested alongside the Gestalt, is major-brand free.

There’s no Shimano or SRAM presence here; instead, we get the Microshift Advent X 10-speed 1x drivetrain.

The rear derailleur has a ratchet and pawl clutch that’s switchable. The clutch tensions the derailleur to greatly reduce chain bounce and slap when riding in the rough.

The Microshift derailleur pairs with Microshift’s drop-bar shifters and a wide SunRace 11-51-tooth cassette. Up front, there’s an unbranded alloy crankset, complete with a 42-tooth chainring.

Helpfully, this features a narrow-wide tooth pattern designed to better grip the chain and prevent chain drops, without the need for a retention device.

Braking comes from Tektro’s twin-piston MD-C500 mechanical disc brakes with large (by road and gravel standards) 160mm rotors front and rear.

Marin’s 48cm-wide handlebar is held in place by a stubby 50mm stem. The handlebar has a compact drop and 16-degree flare.

The Gestalt X10 runs on Marin’s own double-wall alloy rims and six-bolt hubs, laced with black stainless-steel spokes. The 24mm-deep rims have a 19mm internal width, which suits the 45mm-wide Vee Rocket Man tyres.

As a rolling change for 2024, Marin has upgraded the rims to be tubeless-compatible, to match the Vee Rocket Man tyres. Should you want to convert, then, the only extra expense will be tubeless tape and valves.

A decent-quality alloy seatpost is topped by Marin’s swoopy Beyond Road concept saddle.

Marin Gestalt X10 ride impressions

The Gestalt X10’s low-slung frame and elongated front-centre certainly look very different from your average drop-bar bike.

On the road, I expected the Marin to feel somewhat ponderous because of its off-road focused design, but I was pleasantly surprised to find this wasn’t the case.

The slack front end, with its 67.5-degree head tube angle, is offset nicely by the stubby 50mm stem and wide bar.

So, what should feel like a lazy, sluggish-steering bike is reasonably nimble, while the front end does an excellent job of muting road chatter.

In fact, the X10 is one of the most comfortable budget gravel bikes, just edging out the similarly progressive, yet less extreme, Silex.

That said, the X10 is never going to be at its best on hardtop surfaces; it feels stable, but it’s definitely not rapid to accelerate or steer on tarmac. It’s designed for dirt and it absolutely revels in the rough stuff.

The Microshift drivetrain may not be top of many people's gravel groupset wishlists, but I’ve no complaints at all about its performance. The 1x 10 setup, with a gearing combo that pairs a 42-tooth chainring with a huge 11-51-tooth cassette, is ideal for off-road endeavours.

The less than 1:1 bottom gear makes low-grip steep climbs manageable and being able to get into the light spinning gear when riding through slick-deep muddy bridleways, cut up by a succession of 700kg equine adventurers, means the difference between riding and walking.

Gear changes are quick and crisp, with the twin shifters behind the right-hand brake lever having a distinct shape, and a step between them making it easy to feel for the correct trigger.

Downshifts are Shimano/SRAM-level quick, though you can sense a little more hesitation shifting up the block. That’s as much to do with the wide gear spacing in the higher reaches of the cassette as any mechanical sluggishness.

The braking from the twin-piston mechanical TRP brakes has enough power, though the feel through the lever is quite firm compared to the lighter action of TRP’s Spyre Cs (as found on the similarly priced Saracen Levarg).

The X10’s brakes never felt like a hindrance, but they do lack the subtle progressive feel of superior (and pricier) hydraulic units.

I can forgive the middling braking, though, because the X10 is so brilliant off-road, coping admirably with the toughest terrain.

On fast fire-road descents, the sloping compact frame means you can lean and bank the bike with ease and exploit the available gravity-fuelled free speed at every opportunity.

I even enjoyed climbing with the X10 because you can swing on the wide bar and rock the bike with metronomic rhythm.

Pitch the Marin into woodland singletrack with lots of elevation changes, and twists and turns galore, and it’s in its element.

The bike handles so well; the Vee Rocket Man tyres, with their wide-spaced chevron-shaped block tread pattern, cut into loamy surfaces with ease.

The tyres can block out in sloppy mud, but are quick to clear. Unlike with a lot of rowdy gravel bikes, I didn’t miss a dropper post here quite as much.

Ideally, I would prefer one, but the frame shape makes it much more checkable, so it’s only on more extreme drops and downhill slopes that I noticed the saddle’s fixed position.

Fortunately, the frame is dropper-post compatible, so if you want to add one further down the line, that's an option.

The Marin is brilliantly comfortable; the front end minimises buzz and takes sharp hits in its stride. While the stock bar tape is good quality, I’d appreciate thicker stuff for longer rides, because the wide bar has quite a narrow diameter on its top section.

Marin Gestalt X10 bottom line

When it comes to pure off-roading, the Marin is excellent. The front end feels stable and smooth, yet nimble and quick to react when you need it to.

It never failed to put a smile on my face when the going got technical and was the bike I turned to first when I wanted to head out for a fast blast around the woods or on long cross-country singletrack rides with minimal tarmac and maximum dirt.