RH Clark

I have been riding the Marlin a good bit. I did about 8 miles of up and down tight twisty mountain trail today with my son. The warped rear wheel didn't feel bad at all on the trail. I could only tell it going fast on pavement. I stayed in the high side 1-7 most of the day only needing my lowest on one very long steep section.

The bike fits me to a T. I can move all around it and have near full leg extension in a position where I can still move well. Love it so far.

I talked to my closest bike shop today and planned on a new wheel. I asked them about possibly upgrading the rear shifter and was told that the Marlin wasn't really an upgradable bike. It made me wonder if It was a sales pitch for a newer more upgradable bike or just the facts.

It has Shimano Tourney shifters. They can likely work on these to get them better but I just wondered if a fairly inexpensive rear shifter upgrade was possible. I won't need more travel on the suspension or anything like that. I'm 51 and like fast a lot better than rough.

Any suggestions on rear derailleur upgrade or any other relatively inexpensive upgrades would be appreciated. This bike will be a pleasure rider on neighborhood pavement and do some fast smooth single-track and dirt roads mostly. I prefer to travel far and see the scenery than to see how far I can jump off rocks, though I do enjoy some nice grassy hills that can get fairly rough at a faster speed.

Darth Lefty 

Nice ride!

Get that wheel fixed! If the spokes aren’t popping they soon will.

Anything can be upgraded. They are really trying to tell you don't pour money into it expecting it to become premium.

Upgrading contact points is best. Saddle, grips, tires, pedals. Tires make a HUGE difference. After that, upgrading fork would be more effective than drivetrain. Something with damping, at a minimum. But for now I’d say just go ride. It will tell you when it needs attention

JonathanGennick 

Is it a seven-speed bike? The dealer has a point then, because no one makes high-end parts anymore for seven-speed gearing. There literally isn't an upgrade path.

The situation is made worse in that the rear hub on seven-speed bikes is not compatible with any higher level of speeds. You end up in a "one thing leads to another" scenario that has you replacing what feels like half the parts on the bike and it's not cost effective.

RH Clark

Can I find better 7 speed shifter on EBay or something ? Maybe this Tourney shifter will be awesome when adjusted perfectly, but right now it's not as good as my Acera on my older bike. I'm fine with the gear range. I just want it to shift fast and precise. That's really the only upgrade I really need right now.

Darth Lefty 

I actually really like the ones you have. I’m sure they just need adjustment. And that’s easy, it’s one cable barrel adjuster at the back of the derailleur. What’s wrong with the shifts? You can find a video to show you how to tune the system.

JonathanGennick 

How does the following look compared to what you have now?

https://www.jensonusa.com/Shimano-M3...-Shift-Lever-3

Does your Marlin have a unified shift + brake lever? That's a complicating factor that just now occurred to me.

trailangel

Just ride the bike. Shimano stuff all shifts good.
If it's not working good, hit it with a little WD40 or CLP.
Readjust.
Ride the bike.

Utmost importance is to have the rear wheel re-trued.

qclabrat

^this for everything
Unless it's broken otherwise just build a better engine
your LBS gave you solid advice as well

RH Clark

I might try to do it myself but I would have to drive an hour one way just to get a spoke wrench. I might even make it worse. The bike shop wants about $60 to fix it if fixing is even possible. they say about $100 for a new rim and adjusting derailleur. I have a couple other bikes I have worked on and made better but not perfect. I'm trying to learn all this stuff but will likely just get the new rim for $100 rather than spending $60 on fixing one that may never be perfect.

I don't ride hard enough to bend rims all the time, so it's not as if I will be riding on a warped and trued rim soon regardless, in which case fixing it would make more sense ,if a new one would need fixed soon anyway.

I can't yet tell much difference in the spokes, possibly some tighter and some looser ,but nothing super obvious just feeling. My main concern is it will fail and I'll have to drag the bike back a few miles to the truck. It won't be as dangerous as if it failed on a landing, cause I don't get airborne.

I only paid $200 for the bike and it really does look new except for the rim. A teen owned it and I figure he landed hard when he first got it, and basically quit riding after he saw it was warped.

qclabrat

you can get a multi sized spoke wrench at Walmart or online
Are people still driving to buy stuff....lol

RH Clark

Don't use credit cards. Local Walmart does not have one. They have about 6 feet of bike stuff. Can drive a bit over an hour to the next Walmart and 2 hours to a Dicks. Yes,I live in the sticks. I did ride about 8 miles of forest yesterday though and didn't see a soul.

carlosponti

not my video but here is someone who put a 10 spd he did have to upgrade the rear hub you can upgrade components. You do have to do a lot of the work yourself to make it worth it.

carlosponti

I retrued a wheel on my road bike which is kind of a beater but I used a crescent wrench not sure of the size maybe a 4 inch it was a super small one. its better to have a spoke wrench but you can get away without one.

RH Clark

I may give that a shot. Thanks.

Dannihilator

For the Marlin 5 a good upgrade would be the wheels, and a cassette because the new wheels will likely be a cassette.

Darth Lefty 

If you go that route you can use a zip tie for a feeler gauge. A guy in your other thread said to use the brake caliper but you have disc brakes.

Country stores might be able to order things for you too, or you can buy gift cards to order with. But you probably know this

HerrKaLeun

Get the 4-sided spoke wrench. The cheaper ones will round off nipples.

Rounded off nipples is one reason why I learned to stay away from used wheels of unknown origin.

PGHNeil

You gotta love the cheap bikes that get used!

Someone mentioned upgrading the wheels, which for the 5 is a must if you want to upgrade the rear gearing. The hub on the rear of a stock Marlin 5 cannot be upgraded to accommodate a cassette. The Marlin 6 and 7 can though. If you're going to essentially switch out the entire rear wheel then you might as well go with a higher quality groupset.

FWIW when researching the Marlins I opted to go with the 7 so that I had better options for upgrading down the road, while also having slightly better (but still entry level) components. I've had my eye on the Deore M6000 2x10 groupset minus the brakes. I've also been looking at upgrading the tires and from what I can tell the Marlin 5-7 frame can only accommodate a 2.3" tire in the rear between the chain stays.

freeranger

A good while back, I upgraded my '96 GT hardtail from a 3x7 to 3x8. I just looked up parts (the shifters I have seem nicer than the ones I att'd a link to), and looks like in the neighborhood of $128 to upgrade your bike (rear wheel, cassette, shifters, chain)-this does not include labor if you aren't doing it yourself. Would I do it today-not sure, but still ride the GT and still having a blast on it. Here's a link to parts that I think would work-someone please correct me if I'm wrong: wheel, cassette, and chain(see below the wheel for cassette and chain): https://www.amazon.com/Alex-DP20-Whe.../dp/B004WSLV40 Trigger shifters: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Shimano-Ali...30_XoZg8Rqcq5g Whether you think it would be worth it is up to you. The older Alivio components I have are still working fine-in fact, many that have ridden my bike have complimented on how well it shifts.

fly135

I bought 3x8 Shimano shifters with integrated brake levers for $18 from Aliexpress and I am totally pleased with them. Might be a good idea to get a stand and learn to adjust your derailleurs.

https://www.aliexpress.com/premium/s...179&isrefine=y