Marin Rift Zone 29 XR review | Trail Bike of the Year contender

Simple suspension

Marin uses a linkage-actuated single-pivot system, dubbed MultiTrac, on the Rift Zone. A pivot is located on the seatstays, while a rocker drives the shock.

The 130mm travel is controlled by a RockShox Super Deluxe piggyback shock – the extra appendage on the shock allows for additional oil volume, helping keep the shock cooler when it's working hard, for a more consistent performance.

Marin claims the system has plenty of small-bump sensitivity, as well as the feeling of a long-travel system on large drops and rocks, thanks to its progressive nature.

Marin is one of few brands to offer a proper rear suspension setup guide on its site, with suggested pressures for a given rider weight for the rear shock – a nice touch.

Marin Rift Zone 29 XR climbing performance

At 15kg, the Rift Zone 29 XR is on a par with a lot of the contenders in this year's Bike of the Year trail bikes category, which certainly puts it at no disadvantage on the climbs.

The Assegai tyres aren’t the fastest rollers, but the EXO casing and dual-compound rubber ensure they roll faster than the burlier and stickier versions of the tyres I’ve ridden in the past.

As such, with a circular pedalling motion, the Rift Zone 29 XR rolls up smoother climbs as well as any of the trail bikes in this test. If you want its maximum zip, the lockout switch on the shock is within easy reach.

The steep seat angle puts your weight nicely over the cranks too, especially on more rolling climbs, so it’s a comfortable place to spend some time as you wind your way up forest tracks to the top of the hill.

On technical pitches, the Rift Zone 29 XR’s super-supple suspension generates grip well, enabling the Assegai to dig into the dirt, rather than slipping and sliding, while harsh edges of rocks and roots are smoothed.

The Marin-branded rear hub has a wider engagement angle than many other hubs, though. On technical climbs, where you might be ratcheting through a section to avoid pedal strikes, it can make the bike feel a little more sluggish.

It also makes its presence felt on traverses, where one might want to put in short and sharp jabs at the pedals to maintain speed.

I found the XR a little more likely than the best climbers here to dip deeper into its travel on the steepest sections. With a compact rear triangle, I felt I was sat more over the rear wheel than on bikes with slightly longer chainstays.

Fortunately, there’s a stubby head tube and plenty of stem spacers supplied, so if you’re a regular on steep climbs, it’s easy to run the bar a touch lower than you otherwise might to help keep your weight a little more forward.

When it dips into its travel, it impacts on the bike's attitude when you’re stood up sprinting – it’s just not quite as taut-feeling as some of its competitors.

SRAM’s GX drivetrain works well on climbs – this might sound like an odd thing to say, but the shifting under power is good and when your drivetrain is dirty, it feels smoother than Shimano’s offerings.

Marin Rift Zone 29 XR descending performance

The Rift Zone XR shines the steeper the tracks and the harder you push it.

The 485mm reach (size large) ensures there’s plenty of bike in front of your centre of mass. With ample spacers under the stem, there’s room to run the bars high when you’re in the steeps, or slam them lower if you want to minimise understeer when you’re cruising the blues.

The 430mm chainstays are short, which helps you haul the front wheel round when slipping and sliding through rooty twists and turns, or lift the front when you want to pop and play. Although, all-out high speed stability might be improved with a little more rearward length.

The single-pivot linkage-actuated MultiTrac suspension, combined with the Select+ level Super Deluxe shock, is beautifully smooth when rattling over roots, helping keep the rear wheel nicely planted and your tyres digging into the dirt.

Open the throttle and the Rift Zone 29 XR very comfortably reaches peak velocity.

However, the rear end stiffens a touch when you’re pulling on the brakes, making it skip and jump over braking bumps a little more. In the right circumstances, this just adds to the grin-inducing character of the XR, though, as your rear wheel slips and slaps its way through the chunder.

When it’s time to generate speed over lumps and bumps on more rolling terrain, the support in the suspension comes a little later in its stroke. This means there’s a bit more effort required than with the perkiest of bikes, however when gravity takes hold, the Rift Zone 29 XR is flat-out fast.

The piggy-backed Super Deluxe shock, in its Select+ version, gave me little to complain about, while the Select+ version of the 150mm-travel RockShox Lyrik fork, with its Charger 3 damper, is a high-spec product that complements the Marin’s ride qualities well.

Drop it into a chute, and it doesn’t collapse to the depths of its travel as it rails through the catch at the bottom, while the Charger 3 damper deals deftly with high-frequency chatter, too.

The ability to adjust both high and low-speed compression to suit what and where you’re riding just adds to the feeling that Marin's product managers know where to spend their cash.

This is exemplified by the SRAM HS2 rotors specced at each end.

These noticeably lift the performance of SRAM’s budget DB8 brakes from ‘I’d like an upgrade’ to ‘ooh, these are punchy’. However, their lever feel is still a little wooden and the stock organic pads are not quite as good as SRAM’s sintered options.

The Assegai tyres, front and rear, might slip and slide over British mud, but as soon as that clears, they’re a class-leading do-it-all aggro tyre, even in the dual-compound, EXO-cased version found here.