At some point just about everyone I know has owned a Marin, in fact at one point we all seemed to be riding Marins too (now of course it’s Orange Fives!). Never call a mole herd-like, no sir!

So Marin has a certain warm spot in our hearts. For 2009 they’ve launched a frankly terrific looking range of bikes that seems to cover the whole gamut of biking flavas.

Highlights include several 29ers (Dave?, Colin?…), Womens specific bikes, an urban singlespeed with cute retro looks, cromoly frame and a flip flop hub, plus a new 100mm travel XC race oriented platform called the Alchemist.

Oh and did I mention the new Racelight hardtail range that includes the Team CXR, a full carbon framed hardtail with a fair bit of Shimano SLX componentry and a bolt through Reba 100mm fork. Sounds thrashably fast…

Unfortunately the Marin website appears to be a work in progress. Are both the Nail Trail and Pine Mountain 29ers supposed to be £1299? And I can’t seem to get the specification pages to scroll in either IE or Firefox. Ho hum!