Originally Posted by
willbuyone
I did this ride early this morning on my FX I think I may have raddled my brain lose. This time I took some trails that were closer to the ocean and got into some sand that was to deep for my 700x38mm and had to walk the bike for a short while. I think I could have made with a MTB but I am not sure.
Oh yeah the Marlin will be a good improvement for this, sorry if I sounded snotty! I was thinking that this would be close to the comfortable limit of your FX so the Marlin would work even better.
I have a Giant Talon from 2011 that was pretty much specced exactly like a 2020 Marlin 7. Over the years I upgraded the drivetrain to 1x11 and swapped the old suntour coil shock for an air shock. By far the best upgrade was a set of Continental cross-king tires with the black chili compound.
I ride stuff pretty similar to you, probably 85% not technical. A combination of gravel and Urban pavement, snow in the winter. Our single track here is fast, flat flowy stuff along river greenbelts so you'll hit sand patches and such. I run 2.2" wide at around 32 psi.
If your looking at an $800 new Marlin I would highly encourage you to shop used. I picked up my Giant used, it was a year and a half old and I got it for half the price of new! I picked it up around 2013 for $580.