It seems like forever that Claire has been riding her Marin SQ24″. I mean, the thing actually looks like it fits her now! She even puts the 100mm dropper post all the way up occasionally on the road. Heck, we’ve even talked about pulling one of the 1cm spacers out of her OneUp V2. It’s neat, growing up with a dropper post, how much better she is at taking advantage of it than I am.
Not much has changed since the first time she rolled it around the Circuit-8 trail. The grips are blue cut-down Chromag Wax grips at the moment, rather than red. I’ve bled the brakes and changed the pads. She swapped the tubeless valves for some blue ones she asked for as a birthday gift and topped up the sealant. The only other fresh part is a pair of Chromag Radar pedals, in blue, when we moved her original purple ones, with lots of life left, over to her commuter.
The part I think about the most is her hand-me-up SRAM Guide brakes – give the gift of Guides. Power is awesome (for a kid), modulation is awesome, pads are inexpensive and the brakes are easy to work on. I’ve straightened Claire’s rotors a bunch of times – A.B.A.P. -and I’m at the point now where I really should replace both of them, but the brakes themselves have been faultless since the full rebuild I did when we acquired them (thanks Steve!) despite many meetings with the ground, including some hard ones.
Her 2012 Float 32 is awesome as well thanks to that SuspensionWerx magic, and that fork has now been in our family for over a decade which is neat as well. But the real story here is that Marin designed the San Quentin 24″ around a 26″ fork which brings many used options into play as well as min-maxing budget options on the market. For example, a Judy Silver comes with the complete Marin build, it’s not fancy but it’s either vastly superior or significantly less expensive than most forks coming on 24″ bikes.
This winter in addition to fork and brake services Claire will also be rebuilding her OneUp dropper post. The chain, cassette, and ring are all in good shape and the 9-speed 2005 SRAM X0 shifter and derailleur from Mr. Lungtastic are still shifting well and providing plenty of gear range.
I am watching the Easton carbon bar for gouges, especially from the brake lever clamps. Claire’s had some spectacular crashes and stress risers are stress risers but thus far the bar has shrugged off all its meetings with the ground.
Looking at all the premium kids’ bike options coming on the market I think there’s a strong opportunity for Marin to sell a next-level SQ24″ as well. Nothing too-too fancy. A performance boost with Maxxis Minion DHF 2.4″ tires. A tunability boost with a 24mm external BB crankset using a SRAM 3-bolt crankset for a massive range of chainring sizes to choose from. Some proper gram-shedding with a Judy RL Gold (aluminum stanchions instead of the steel stanchions on the Judy Silver) and a dropper post.
Most of all I’d love to see Marin offering a frame only. I know multiple parents with premium ZS44/ZS56 headsets sitting in boxes after installing anglesets in their own bikes, too-narrow carbon bars ready to be cut down for their kids, and so on. Avoid massively heavy cassettes by running smaller stacks and smaller chainrings. Avoid absolute shit price-point components you’ll end up replacing anyways by buying a frame and installing your old stuff or min-maxing purchases best suited for your locale.
I figure that, aside from a massive growth spurt, we’ll get at least another full year out of the SQ24″. The next step will be a harder bike to choose. Many brands are pushing full suspension bikes at 26″ for anything with a decent build, which won’t be happening, and there are very few frame-only options. Unfortunately, Marin doesn’t make a scaled-up SQ26″ and the smallest size of the SQ27″ bikes are too large a jump – we need a step in-between.
I suppose we’ll cross that ladder bridge when we get there.
More of the Clairebarian’s Next Bicycle: