Originally Posted by
monsterpile
Some others with even more knowledge might chime in here, but I have doubts that the Nashbar frame is going to be much lighter than your current frame. If you want to save weight you could get a different fork, but I wouldn't spend time and money on the Nashbar frame (nothing wrong with it I suppose) when you have such a great Marin frame already. Tires and or wheels might be a good thing to consider spending money on if you want to go faster on the Marin.
The Nashbar frame is going to be lighter than the Marin. However there are going to be issues with swapping parts. I doubt that much is going to fit on the Nashbar from the 1993 Marin. The fork for the Marin is probably 1", the wheels are likely 130mm (135 is now mountain bike standard), the front derailer is probably too small, the stem is probably a quill stem and the seatpost is too small. At the very least, andresih will need a new headset, new wheesl, new front derailer, new stem and new seatpost. With new cables, tires, grips and other stuff, the price of a $100 frame is suddenly pushing the price of a new low end bike. If he doesn't do his own work, the price goes up significantly.