Murray Missile 

I picked up a 1995 Marin Eldridge Grade MTB a little bit ago, it's in pretty decent shape and mostly original except for the saddle and unfortunately the front wheel but there is no evidence of fork or frame damage. It's the 20.5" frame, the first Marin of any kind I've seen for sale locally with that large a frame. It should clean up nicely, I'm going to try to find the correct front wheel but failing that I'll look for a set of period correct wheels that would be an upgrade. I plan to keep it as original and period correct as possible. Please excuse the pics, they're from the CL, when I get better ones I'll post them but these will have to do for now, they'll at least give you an idea of it's general condition. It's been well used but not abuse, the fork feels good and it looks like it was well maintained most of it's life. The paint and most of the decals are in very decent shape, the grips are shot but the shifters, bars etc. are in very good condition. I have NOS and like new duplicates of the Deore LX shifters and derailleurs but I don't think I'll have to swap any of them out and it even has good tires on it. It wasn't a "steal" but I think I'm still in it right. Now I have to pick which one has to go to make room for it.......

2cam16

Nice find! I've got a '92 and love it. One of my favorites among my rigids.

Murray Missile 

Found one more non original item, the seat post is a cheap chrome steel one that probably came with the cheap vinyl saddle. Not a big problem, I have several that will do for now.

TenGrainBread 

Hard to tell just from the NDS photos but the cranks look like early White Industries cranks, made under contract by Sugino. Check the backside of the cranks arms to confirm.

At the time, White Industries had two levels of cranks. The top of the line set were made in California by WI, fully CNC machined from billet and then mirror polished. These had the WI logos engraved into the crank arms. The spiders were profiled and back of the arms machined out to shave weight. The second tier cranks were forged by Sugino and then finished with some machining, but not as much as the made-in-the-US version. The WI logo was silk-screened on, which often rubs off. Not quite as fancy but still a high-end cranks that was used OEM on a surprising number of Marin and some other brands' nicer models for a couple years.

TenGrainBread 

Another cool part you have on that bike is the brakes - they look like Dia Compe VC-900 cantis. These brakes use the same spring adjustment mechanism as the Paul Component brakes of the same era, and had a really cool height/angle adjustment for the pad holders, like Paul's Motolite v-brakes. Hard to say who came up with these features first.

Some better pics should show if these are actually VC-900s.

Thalia949

I had a number of Marin's from that era. The Eldridge Grade is an upper tier steel bike. I had an Indian Fire Trail from that same year. White industry cranks, I think the brakes were from WTB, but not sure.

Onething I noticed from your pic is the front wheel is on backwards. Those tires are WTB velociraptors, and the tread is facing the wrong direction.

Marin is still in business and in the same town. I would be willing to bet if you called them, they would be a wealth of knowledge on your Eldridge Grade.

Murray Missile 

The front wheel is a replacement and I'd flip the skewer but since the tube is blown the tire has to come off anyway. The whole bike is getting a tear down, deep cleaned and detailed. I'm keeping this one as original and period correct as possible. I have an aftermarket seat post that is nearly identical to the original but I'm hoping to locate an original eventually. I also hope to find the correct front wheel. I've wanted a "good" original vintage MTB for a long time but they seem to be rather hard to find in my size. My birthday and Christmas just came a little early this year. ��

Thalia949

Nice to get a Christmas and birthday gift early and all in one! Those steel frames ride great and you will get a lot of miles from that bike. Enjoy!

Murray Missile 

The logos are engraved into the crank arms.

Got the front tire to hold air long enough to ride a couple hundred feet. Both shifters turned out to be FUBAR but no problem as I have a pair of the exact same NOS shifters. It turns out only the front rim was replaced, they kept the original Deore LX hub so I'll probably have some better rims laced onto the original hubs. It still has both MARIN bottle cages too. What little I got to ride it felt REALLY good though, I'm looking forward to getting this back into A-1 shape.

TenGrainBread 

Nevermind about the Dia Compe brake reference. Those are Marin Lite brakes, made by Tektro.

Can you take some close-ups of the cranks, including the back of the arms? Trying to figure out of there were multiple versions of these.

Murray Missile 

Thanks for the brake ID, I couldn't see any markings on them. I'll get some crank pics tomorrow, rain's moving in right now.

ramones71 

Before you swap those shifters out, flush out the insides with some wd40 and go in after it with some tri flow. Might bring them back to life

katsup

I've rebuilt a number of those types of shifters. Most of them you can just work the paw back and forth to get the spring moving. There are 2 on the front shifter, don't remember how many on that back.

A video that explains it a bit (different shifter, same idea)

Murray Missile 

Well, if the RH shifter was all there that might work but there are a few essential pieces missing. What's left is very nice cosmetically and I'll keep them for parts but when you already have the exact same shifters only NOS and it's getting completely disassembled anyway no point in messing with them. I appreciate the input, I've resuscitated quite a few shifters that way myself but if you don't have all the pieces it ain't gonna work LOL.

I may have a bigger problem, I haven't tried to air up the forks yet, I don't have a needle, but if the air seals don't hold I'm SOL, replacement seals are "unobtanium" for the Mag 21's. If they won't hold air I'm going to try to find a rebuildable Rockshox Judy from that era with a 8.375" long 1-1/8" threaded steerer. I wish the Judy uppers would fit in the Mag 21 crown, I'd just swap them out.

UPDATE: Found articles online on how to make my own seals or to replace them with a Schrader valve so I should be good.

Lascauxcaveman 

Hmmm... I had a dead Mag 21 fork that came on my Nishiki Cornice and I googled around and found a rebuild kit that was available at that time (2-3 years ago) for about $80. I surplussed the dead fork on eBay because I wanted to set the bike up rigid anyway, as the rebuild looked like a lot more work than I would want to get into, if that helps.

I've owned a modern MTB with a beefy squish fork, and bashing that thing down through the bumps at full speed was a ton of fun; but I can do the same thing on my rigid bikes. Just a little slower.

Murray Missile 

Well, it looks like I was meant to have this MARIN, turns out I may have the replacement rims I need already, my '89 GT Karakoram came with a like new set of wheels but they were MTB rims laced to DuraAce road hubs. ???? A rather odd combo but the rims are a like new set of Araya RM-395 Team XC 32 hole eyeleted rims and my LX hubs are 32 hole, the rims are also period correct as they were first introduce in '92 or '93 depending on who you ask. Of course I can put the equally nice Dura Ace hubs to good use too. Not sure how well the rims show up but........

Murray Missile 

The arms look cast but the logos are stamped not silk screened.

TenGrainBread 

Interesting. They are definitely the Sugino version but the two Sugino pairs I have had were screened not stamped. Perhaps they changed this process at some point.

From the internet:

ryansu

There is a bikemanforu on that, I wish you better luck than I had, it's supposed to be a common and fairly easy to remedy issue. For me there must have been something else going on as I could never get the gears unstuck and ended up swapping in a cheap thumbie to get the gears working.. YMMV.

headtubes

Choice

Murray Missile 

My guess is the stamped Suginos were the transition between the other two.

rjhammett

I picked up this Eldridge Grade a few months ago. Mine is a few years older than yours. Pretty decent mountain bike for the time. I have swapped out the pedals for SPD clipless pedals. The frame of my bike is 20.5" ctc and 22" ctt.

Murray Missile 

Very clean! 1989?

rjhammett

I think it is a '90 or '91 since it has Deore Rapid Fire shifters. The '89 didn't have them.