A couple of years ago, one of my neighbors left a bike out for collection. It was a smallish frame, old steel mountain bike that had been uglified in the extreme with gold spray paint, obviously as a theft deterrent. I picked it up, knowing that at some point, one of my grandkids would grow into it, and it would become a good project bike.
I didn't look at it too closely at the time, other than to identify that it was a decent frame with forged dropouts. and what would have been decent components for the era, Shimano 200SG.
The paint was too thick to make out any decals under it, and I thought no more about it, hanging it in a back corner to await the day it would be brought out to be restored.
well, today was the day. My older grandson has grown to the point that the bike will be suitable for him by the time spring rolls around again, so we dug it out, and he and I went to work stripping the parts off.







Once we had it down to the frame, we shone the light on it to see if we could make out the decals beneath all that paint, and there it was, MARIN. I think we might have something kind of special here.