"Marin's Bobcat Trail 3 manages to both look and ride like a much more expensive bike than it is, with a quality frame and geometry that comes from the 'proper trail bike' book to deliver a really capable ride" Compared to many bikes at this money, where it can often feel like the factory accidentally used their road bike geometry when sticking to together, it's a night and day difference.The large bike I tested has a reach of 465mm, which is up there with most full-on enduro bikes. For a start, offering 120mm travel at the front gives it an edge over rivals that mostly make do with 100mm, but that's backed up with a frame shape that does it's best to encourage you to push harder and find the limits of bike and rider rather than trying to kill you because you wanted to ride something that wasn't flat.At soon as you're sat on the bike, it instantly feels like a serious trail machine, with the slack-for-this-kind-of-thing 67.5° head angle and broad 780mm wide bars on a stumpy 45mm stem letting you know it means business. A gravel bike might be right up your streetFive different races at the Kings Cup Gravel Festival in SeptemberAll material © Farrelly Atkinson (F-At) Limited, Unit 7b Green Park Station BA1 1JB. View our Color • Gloss Black/Charcoal/Cyan or Gloss Bright Blue/Dark Blue/Yellow/MagentaThe Bobcat Trail is a capable mountain bike with modern trail geometry build for exploring singletrack trail systems.
The Bobcat Trail 3 is a capable mountain bike from Marin that features a modern trail geometry build for exploring singletrack trail systems. The Bobcat Trail range is arguably the start of their 'proper' mountain bike lineup - the cheaper Bolinas Ridge bikes notwithstanding - and all the bikes share the same aluminium frame with 120mm of travel up at the front paired to 650b wheels on smaller sizes and 29" hoops on the bigger bikes.The Bobcat Trail 3 is the most basic bike in the range but, like the others, the frame is well made and featured, with sleek internal cable routing, nicely finished welds and the ability to eventually upgrade to a tapered steerer fork thanks to a 44mm headtube, though all the bikes come with straight steerers. By continuing to use this website, you agree to the use of cookies. The economical Tektro hydraulic disc brakes on the Bobcat 3 - surprised experts with their effectiveness, one comparing them to the Shimano discs on the higher-end Bobcat 4. "Marin's Bobcat Trail 3 manages to both look and ride like a much more expensive bike than it is, with a quality frame and geometry that comes from the 'proper trail bike' book to deliver a really capable ride"Marin Bikes • 1450 Technology Lane, Suite 100, Petaluma, CA 94954 • United States Neither tyres nor rim claims to be tubeless-ready, but you might stand a chance of getting it all working with some tape, a load of sealant and persistence. Our website uses cookies to display the correct country version of our website for you. They also offered improved rollover and traction. The SR Suntour XCM HLO might claim 120mm of bounce but I suspect very, very bad things would need to happen to get it to compress that much and the open dropouts and skinny legs mean noone will be accusing it of being precise in a hurry.That's unsurprising on a budget machine, though the coil rather than air spring does mean it's much harder to correctly tune the fork to ride weight in the first place. Yes, it's hampered by the budget drivetrain and tyres and if you're just focused on parts then there are better value options out there, but it delivers a ride that's a disproportionate amount of fun, with proper, trail-ready geometry and genuine capability when you want to let rip.Thanks to some well thought out details and a solid frame, it's also worth upgrading as you go, in case you can't stretch to one of the more expensive models - though as both the 4 and 5 have better drivetrains, forks and tyres as standard, going in higher is definitely worth considering if you can.Jon is the editor here at off.road.cc. Thanks to the longer chainstays (needed for the 29in wheels) rider weight is shifted more forward, so the Marin makes surprisingly light work of the steepest ascents. It was on the climbs, however, that it became apparent just how much shorter the frame is compared with the Ghost, Saracen and Vitus. It's also good to see that the 30.9mm seat tube is ready for a dropper post to drop in whenever you're ready to upgrade.Once you start heading down the trail, the fact it's been put together on a limited budget does become slightly more apparent. The wheels on 29” models served as a good balance between light weight and strength. Best-in-class frames and solid, serviceable spec make the Bobcat Trail a solid choice for the recreational rider looking to step up to modern geo and step deeper into mountain biking, and for the experienced rider in search of an update that doesn’t break the bank. "Marin's Bobcat Trail 3 manages to both look and ride like a much more expensive … You're currently viewing the Marin Bikes of United States website. The top-end £895 Bobcat Trail 5 is the first in the lineup to come with a single ring drivetrain too, which is a shame.What is nice to see is that the bike gets proper hydraulic disc brakes - it seems cable discs have been deservingly shunted to the scrap heap of history, even on entry-level bikes. Best-in-class frames and solid, serviceable spec make the Bobcat Trail a solid choice for the recreational rider looking to step up to modern geo and step deeper into mountain biking, and for the experienced rider in search of an update that … off-road.cc is dedicated to bringing you the best coverage of all off-road riding He's previously been technical editor at BikeRadar.com, editor at What Mountain Bike Magazine and also web editor at Singletrackworld.co.uk. "Marin's Bobcat Trail 3 manages to both look and ride like a much more expensive … That means a lot of clunking and clanking unless you time your shifts and predict the ratios well in advance.Interestingly, I found this was what marred the riding experience the most when riding natural, mildly technical trails as all the hunting about for the right gear really hinders flowing progress.