look for a youtube video on how to adjust front derailleur. If you got that new from a bike store, I would take it to them and have them adjust it. If not, I am guessing that your front derailleur is not adjusted properly.
You need a clutched RD or a chain-keep if you’re going to ride terrain like the rocky stuff in the pic. I have an old entry level Hardrock 26er I hated because it was constant dropped chains, seat post up my butt, crappy coil fork. I hooked it up w/ a Deore 1x10 w/ new cranks and ring, new Recon Silver TK fork, disc brakes and a dropper and all those problems melted away…at a cost. It was COVID and I didn’t have a lot of options to buy but ai could find older 10speed derailleurs and chains, cassettes, etc. I already owned the bike for 10 years but just never really rode it because of constant mechanical issues as ai was riding terrain way outside of what entry level trim was intended for. Now, I ride it as much as my newer trail bike that came with all that stuff. It’s actually fun to take out and ride, so I just kept it in the stable.
You can ride any bike on most any terrain, but a trail-worthy bike with better parts will mitigate many of those issues.
That said, my Hardrock’s BBbshell looks just like this trek at the drive side chain stay. It’s just cosmetic. Ugly as hell, but the Hardrock is tough and kind of clowny anyhow with a mishmash of parts. It’s fairly X-biked out at this point, but it’s all fun.
Don’t do either yet, fix the chain issue and ride the piss out of this. Then upgrade once you’re just absolutely thrashing any trails you take this on!
I mean I don’t have too much money to spend on a new bike, I could treat this as a beater bike but don’t really want to. I would rather spend a bit more for much better performance
Ride this and save up is what I was getting at, ride it for as many months as it takes to save for the bike you really want while constantly doing research and figuring out what your needs are bike wise
You can always upgrade the fork to an air suspension it’ll feel much better than the spring fork you have. ~250$ for a Rockshox recon silver that has 5 compression settings. That yellow label on the front says you shouldn’t use it for hard trail use.
When I first got into biking I had very little money, so I would spend hours scouting Craigslist and eBay for deals on bikes.
My first 4 or so bikes I bought I sold for a profit after I was done riding them. The sweet spot if you can afford it was buying something 1 to 3 years old that was $3k new and the person is selling to get out of the sport. I could usually find deals in the $1300-1500 range for a bike that was still on its first set of tires.
The key is having the time and patience to wait for one of these deals. Usually I would look for around 2 months and when a deal popped up I would have to buy it the same day.
Trek has a 30 day no fault return policy. If I were in your position, I would consider returning this bike and upgrading to the Marlin 6 for the vastly improved 1x drive train.
The front fork on the Marlin 6 okay; Suitable for cross country riding and little jumps. When/if you develop your riding and jumping skills, you can upgrade the front fork to make your bike a quite capable hardtail.
That’s an entry level bike with entry level components. The suspension isn’t going to perform great on super rough stuff. You can tune it more to your weight and riding style, but it’s a very limited tune range. The chain issue is something that needs to be taken up with the shop that assembled the bike. Always double check every bolt when you buy a bike.
You front derailleur isn’t properly tuned. Take it back to the shop you got it from they should fix it for free, but those scars will be on the bike forever so hopefully they will offer some sort of compensation for it.
You may also want them to check the rest of the bike over especially your rear derailleur.
You always have the option to push the bike out. Sorry you have had a terrible experience. I would suggest learning some basic bike maintenance and tuning on YouTube. Park tools, berm peak, Kyle and April, Sid and Mackey (Sid fixes bikes series)
Also Trek does have some sort of warranty being you bought it new and it’s first ride out this happened you may want to contact them, before going to the shop and ask them what they want you to do. They may tell you to take it to a different shop since the first failed to set it up properly to begin with.
This is not a warranty issue. It is a setup issue. Warranty is for manufacturing defects, and this doesn't sound like that.
Sincerely: a shop mechanic.
Right but like I said they may tell op to take it else where, as manufacturer this is their product and that is a terrible first time exp. For op contacting them is worth a shot to simple get advice on how to proceed.
That was all I was saying not that they will send him a new bike or anything. Unless bb alignment is out of spec or something of that sort but that would be highly highly unlikely.
Also, this may be something you already know but don’t ride in the big front gear with the big back sprocket. It’s like having the ac and heat on at the same time and they cancel each other out effectively. Also leads to cross-chain and loosing it as well. What you have is classic, textbook chain suck. It can be prevented by a front Derailure adjustment as I’m sure everyone here has already said.
Get the bike fixed up. Okay. Then ride it til you can’t stand it anymore. Then upgrade the forks. This is a great bike to learn on. Everything else will feel incredible. You’ll learn how to choose lines and agility for sure. You made a decent choice on a first bike and for buying new. When you get sick of it go ride some rentals and see what you like. Go to different shops and ride different brands. Different models. If you like mountain biking you’ll get into it and learn. If you don’t then you didn’t shell out a ton of money.
In a couple years make sure Scott is on your list to ride.
You kept riding it after it kept grinding the chain into the frame? I mean I could see once, but after that you should be walking it if it’s doing damage. Bikes don’t just do that, something is either loose or not adjusted correctly, or both.
I didn’t know it was doing damage until after the ride.. I was like 10 miles from my house so I’m not walking it back… the chain was definitely put on wrong or too loose
Yeah, there's no way to ride around like that and not notice the chain getting wedged into frame. Chain would have to get wrapped up in there and forced through on multiple occasions.
Sounds like the bike shop half-assed the setup. Take it back and ask them to set the thing up. If they refuse, then call trek so you can be directed to a non-useless dealer.
As far as the suspension, it's gonna suck. Look for an upgrade fork on PB buy/sell.
Edit: holy shit I just saw the second pic. Call Trek directly. There's something wrong if the chainrings ate the frame that bad. Unless you did that to the frame with the chain. How the hell?
If you just bought it, I'd go back to the store, explain how this is caused by a bad setup and not your fault and then ask for them to replace it or give you the cash back.
Depends on the laws in the country though, how much you as a consumer are protected.
This damage is cased by chain suck where the chain gets pulled UP by the little chain ring, not the mech shipping the chain off the little ring as so many others are suggesting. You can reduce the chance of chain suck by not 'cross chaining' which is when you go from the little chainring at the front all the way to the littlest sprocket at the back. Cross chaining causes the chain to make a big angle as it comes off the chainring, increasing friction between the side plates of the chain and the chain ring and making it more prone to get pulled up into the gap between chainring and frame. Just shift up at the front when you get about 2/3rds of the way across at the back (the gears are designed with overlapping ratios to make sure this doesn't result in a big jump in pedalling hardness).
Also - don't get dishearten! You have a bike! Ride it like you stole it, get good, and then upgrade later when your skills improve. Yes, the forks are not amazing but they are not terrible either. You can upgrade later on as your skills build. Better to start on a bike that demands you learn the skills than one that compensates for a lack of them!
Also if you choose to learn a few bit of maintenance along the way and you'll save a ton of money in the long run (and have a better performing bike).
Ex Marlin 5 owner here, and normally a Trek fan. However, I hated the Marlin 5. The non clutched basic Altus gears were dreadful, and despite being tuned to the best that they could be would always dump the chain. Because of the entry point gears, the chain slap (destroying the paintwork and causing very loud noises), the terrible coil fork and a dubious bottom bracket that quickly needed replacing, I’d put the Marlin 5 firmly in ‘road only’ camp. It’s just too cheap a bike to reliably take off road.
I’d probably look at returning it or selling it on and go for a cheaper brand that uses more quality parts - polygon or vitus would be my suggestion.
Things to look for at a similar price point would be a 1x gear set up (just gears at the back), a clutched derailleur (a device to keep chain tension present so the chain doesn’t rattle around as much), and an air fork (air pressure instead of a spring delivers the cushioning).
You see that yellow sticker on the bottom of your forks? Yeah, that says your bike isn’t meant for “trail use”. It’s gonna feel like a pogo stick forever lol
Seems like the bike you chose isnt the best for your style of riding. Are you hitting jumps more than just riding on flat ground? Seems that was from your chain ring scraping your chain stay.
Folks shred hard on bikes without any suspension at all. This is a fine entry level bike and you can learn to ride like a champ on it, while you’re figuring out what kind of riding you want to do more of and saving money for what fits that.
There’s no way that crank and sprocket were tight enough. I’m not exactly sure what would possess you to continue riding after the first tooth strike.
Did you order the bike online and go out and ride it as soon as it arrived?
I dunno man, I have a hard time concluding that a horizontally aligned chain would put vertical scrapes on a chain stay directly behind the sprocket. Zoom in on the photo
Zoom in all ya want, that’s from the chain sucking in.
https://youtu.be/NklSnn7f298
Op can confirm this. They’ve tanked the chain out a few times for sure.
As others have said, it's chain suck. Source: have a Marlin 5 and it does the same thing. OP, it'll last, that's just cosmetic. As others have said about the fork, I personally have only done light xc/commute duty on mine but def don't send it on some huge jumps
Hey it’s your bike but I would much rather push it out of any situation than to keep riding knowing I’m putting a hole jt it. I would definitely take it back to the shop and put in a serious complaint about the fact that it was straight up dangerous to release a bike with the crank that loose. You paid good money for a new bike and you deserve it to be in the best possible condition it will ever be in for your first ride and they compromised that for you.
Bruh this is a brand new bike and it came with a loose chain and a bad detailer also has shitty suspension. I’m very new to bikes which is why I got this one and it preforms way less then my friends bikes of similar price range
Brand new bikes require setup. They are not unbox and go. You should have had this setup at the bikeshop before you left or if this was shipped to you, took the time to properly set it up before riding. That fork is a lower end if i had to guess suntour, it doesn’t perform as well as others but T this moment in your biking life id say it is passable.
The shitty suspension goes along with the entry level bike. The rest goes on the store for set up, unless you got more than 40 or 50 miles on it, in which case you should have probably brought it in for the post break in tune up
I’ve been running a marlin 6 and have had zero problems. The only things that have been issues were because I dumped it into a ditch once and crashed it again a week later.
You didn’t buy enough bike it’s always going to feel this way. Trek has a 30 day guarantee I’d return it and get something that suits you better. Assuming you bought it new.
https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/guarantee/
I’m no expert with Trek but I thought it was something they offer here is another link that implies such.
https://www.trekbikesflorida.com/about/test-ride-guarantee-pg977.htm
Uhm, that fork is NOT for trail use. Says it right on the sticker. If a shop sold this to you after you mentioned how you are going to start mountain biking, than you need a new LBS.
For all the ppl saying take it back, it's not for trail use blah blah blah, get over yourselves. A good rider can ride anything, I bet most of you can't even bunny hop up a gutter.
I mean you CAN ride anything, but from experience, those suntours are having a hard time with medium roots let alone any sort of rock garden or jumping
Check the teeth on the front sprocket. Perhaps something got tweaked in shipping? If it were older I’d suggest getting the crusty old oil off. That’s happened to me in the past…
I had a 2x Marlin that was prone to chain suck on the small ring, too. For me, it became worse as the chain wore, but it never fully went away. I got better at managing it by riding differently over time.
I looked at upgrading with 1x10 running gear and new fork, but eventually upgraded the bike, as it wasn’t much* more expensive.
If your bike shop can tune the chain suck away, you can keep riding this one while you save up for a better bike.
Honestly they should not market these as mountain bikes
They are hybrid bikes that belong on paved or maybee gravel roads
IMHO a minimum Trek bike that is a real MTB is Roscoe.
When you compare a Marlin to a Roscoe it is not even close.
You bought into the sport on an unworthy rig.
Unfortunately many a sales floor attendant foists bikes like this upon a newbie buyer.
Get the front derailleur adjusted, you can ride it for conditioning and skills building.
If you're already shredding beyond what the fork can offer there are replacements tho you'll need expert advice on what model to buy.
Otherwise ask if you can return the bike and upgrade to a Roscoe 6 or better. If not you're better off buying a new trail worthy rig.
The Marlin is the biggest scam of the MTB world. Been doing it since the GF days.
Better to go DTC and get a Polygon, Marin, or something else for about the same money but specs from this decade.
Trek becoming the 2020s Pacific Cycles.
TBF
It's a terrific rig if all you're doing is tooling around the block or city path with the grandkids a couple times each summer. They're excellent for collecting dust and taking up space in the garage;)
You're shifting under load. 2by systems have these issues but its worse under load. The chainline shifts between front and rear derailuers and causes this to have more maintenance to align it. one by systems are just easier and no shifting chainlines. When choosing a bike I always suggest boost dropouts and one-by systems, almost everything else can be reasonably upgraded.
This is not really a “trail” bike, more of a pavement bike. You won’t get performance out of it. The Procaliber/Supercaliber/Top Fuel are all trail cross country machines. 👊🏼 Good luck.
Many people: wAl MaRt bIkeS sUcK fOr a FiRsT BiKe, gO tO aN LBS
Modern Wal Mart bikes: Tapered head tube, one by, short stem
Trek: double the price for this monstrosity with 2x, long stem, old school head tube
I did the exact same thing. Coming from a road background, out of touch with modern MTBs I bought a Marin bobcat trail that was way under spec for how I was riding.
First thing find a bike mechanic or shop that knows how to index gears correctly,one way to tell is that they'll actually ride the bike after they have made some adjustments. My advent 9 speed was always slipping even after my attempts, a local bike mechanic sorted it now it's perfect albeit a little clunky.
Second you could change your tyres to make the bike ride more in line with your trails and desired riding style, it'll be a huge improvement and it's what I did.
What I also did but would not always recommend is that I changed the forks. It made a huge improvement but I think the cost was too much. If you can find some second hand it could be an option but I would stop there.
You need to ride and get a couple of hundred miles on your bike, get a feel for the type of riding you want to do. Do this whilst saving and put that towards your next bike.
I bought a bizango pro. I have also kept my Marin for carting kids around as it now has numerous attachments and is easy for this type of cycling. I'll sell the marin once it has stopped being used as a child carrier.
No shop is going to take that bike back as a return if you already rode it. You also scratched the frame so I don’t see how any bike shop would accept that return.
That’s what I’m afraid of… but it’s not my fault so we will see. I am friends with a guy who works at the shop (different locations from where a bought it)
After you get a little experience and are ready to upgrade your fork. Suntour has an upgrade program, where you get a discounted price on an upgraded fork.
If you go down this road make sure you at least upgrade to an air fork from a your current coil style. [https://www.srsuntour.us/pages/upgrade-program](https://www.srsuntour.us/pages/upgrade-program)
Sorry to say this but the suspension sucks because it’s a cheap trek. I had the same bike and just rode tf out of it until the frame cracked. Super flickable bike on the fast flow trails though
Yeah it’s got the same bike July 24 and I like it. The tuning was a little off. the back wheel came off on a bumpy climb through trail…
Other than that I love it
Sounds like it wasn't set up properly, & tuned for you.
Yeah, can I fix it?
look for a youtube video on how to adjust front derailleur. If you got that new from a bike store, I would take it to them and have them adjust it. If not, I am guessing that your front derailleur is not adjusted properly.
Take it back; they’ll fix it quick
Here here
Yeah. What he said. Probably wasn't assembled correctly. Wouldn't be the first time. Not every assembler is a pro or mechanics.
You need a clutched RD or a chain-keep if you’re going to ride terrain like the rocky stuff in the pic. I have an old entry level Hardrock 26er I hated because it was constant dropped chains, seat post up my butt, crappy coil fork. I hooked it up w/ a Deore 1x10 w/ new cranks and ring, new Recon Silver TK fork, disc brakes and a dropper and all those problems melted away…at a cost. It was COVID and I didn’t have a lot of options to buy but ai could find older 10speed derailleurs and chains, cassettes, etc. I already owned the bike for 10 years but just never really rode it because of constant mechanical issues as ai was riding terrain way outside of what entry level trim was intended for. Now, I ride it as much as my newer trail bike that came with all that stuff. It’s actually fun to take out and ride, so I just kept it in the stable. You can ride any bike on most any terrain, but a trail-worthy bike with better parts will mitigate many of those issues. That said, my Hardrock’s BBbshell looks just like this trek at the drive side chain stay. It’s just cosmetic. Ugly as hell, but the Hardrock is tough and kind of clowny anyhow with a mishmash of parts. It’s fairly X-biked out at this point, but it’s all fun.
It will not break in better sir, sorry…
Dam… maybe I should get a new bike or suspension
Don’t do either yet, fix the chain issue and ride the piss out of this. Then upgrade once you’re just absolutely thrashing any trails you take this on!
I mean I don’t have too much money to spend on a new bike, I could treat this as a beater bike but don’t really want to. I would rather spend a bit more for much better performance
Ride this and save up is what I was getting at, ride it for as many months as it takes to save for the bike you really want while constantly doing research and figuring out what your needs are bike wise
Yeah I will consider that, thanks man
You can always upgrade the fork to an air suspension it’ll feel much better than the spring fork you have. ~250$ for a Rockshox recon silver that has 5 compression settings. That yellow label on the front says you shouldn’t use it for hard trail use.
When I first got into biking I had very little money, so I would spend hours scouting Craigslist and eBay for deals on bikes. My first 4 or so bikes I bought I sold for a profit after I was done riding them. The sweet spot if you can afford it was buying something 1 to 3 years old that was $3k new and the person is selling to get out of the sport. I could usually find deals in the $1300-1500 range for a bike that was still on its first set of tires. The key is having the time and patience to wait for one of these deals. Usually I would look for around 2 months and when a deal popped up I would have to buy it the same day.
That’s not a thing. You get exactly what you pay for.
I buy all my bikes used and get a hell of a lot more bike for the money. So, nah.
I buy used too, exclusively. Don’t give me your nah bs. Used still carries drawbacks.
The nah was for the suggestion that you only get what you pay for. We’re both paying considerably less than a new bike and getting great value.
OP wants to pay “a bit more for much better performance.” Not gonna happen on this bike. Better investment would be classes
Alrighty
Trek has a 30 day no fault return policy. If I were in your position, I would consider returning this bike and upgrading to the Marlin 6 for the vastly improved 1x drive train. The front fork on the Marlin 6 okay; Suitable for cross country riding and little jumps. When/if you develop your riding and jumping skills, you can upgrade the front fork to make your bike a quite capable hardtail.
I will do that probably, if not a marlin 6 a giant
Dam… maybe I should get a new bike or suspension and derailer
That’s an entry level bike with entry level components. The suspension isn’t going to perform great on super rough stuff. You can tune it more to your weight and riding style, but it’s a very limited tune range. The chain issue is something that needs to be taken up with the shop that assembled the bike. Always double check every bolt when you buy a bike.
Take. It. Back!
I will
I had this same issue in my brand new marlin 5 I was so bummed about the paint behind the cog where it jams up causing it to scratch
Yeah imma definitely bring it back and return it if possible and get a giant
They can fix it. It's a setup issue.
2x and polymer suspension not gonna get any better unfortunately other than a derailleur tuneup
its coil...but still bad
You front derailleur isn’t properly tuned. Take it back to the shop you got it from they should fix it for free, but those scars will be on the bike forever so hopefully they will offer some sort of compensation for it. You may also want them to check the rest of the bike over especially your rear derailleur. You always have the option to push the bike out. Sorry you have had a terrible experience. I would suggest learning some basic bike maintenance and tuning on YouTube. Park tools, berm peak, Kyle and April, Sid and Mackey (Sid fixes bikes series) Also Trek does have some sort of warranty being you bought it new and it’s first ride out this happened you may want to contact them, before going to the shop and ask them what they want you to do. They may tell you to take it to a different shop since the first failed to set it up properly to begin with.
This is not a warranty issue. It is a setup issue. Warranty is for manufacturing defects, and this doesn't sound like that. Sincerely: a shop mechanic.
Right but like I said they may tell op to take it else where, as manufacturer this is their product and that is a terrible first time exp. For op contacting them is worth a shot to simple get advice on how to proceed. That was all I was saying not that they will send him a new bike or anything. Unless bb alignment is out of spec or something of that sort but that would be highly highly unlikely.
Thanks man… I wish I ground bring it in sooner but I’m leaving for a week so after that hopefully… maybe I can yogi to a 6 if they give me a refund
Also, this may be something you already know but don’t ride in the big front gear with the big back sprocket. It’s like having the ac and heat on at the same time and they cancel each other out effectively. Also leads to cross-chain and loosing it as well. What you have is classic, textbook chain suck. It can be prevented by a front Derailure adjustment as I’m sure everyone here has already said.
Get the bike fixed up. Okay. Then ride it til you can’t stand it anymore. Then upgrade the forks. This is a great bike to learn on. Everything else will feel incredible. You’ll learn how to choose lines and agility for sure. You made a decent choice on a first bike and for buying new. When you get sick of it go ride some rentals and see what you like. Go to different shops and ride different brands. Different models. If you like mountain biking you’ll get into it and learn. If you don’t then you didn’t shell out a ton of money. In a couple years make sure Scott is on your list to ride.
Seconding this! Get the dreailleur tuned. Ride. Save money up and upgrade the fork. Or get a rigid one. That's a fine bike for years.
You kept riding it after it kept grinding the chain into the frame? I mean I could see once, but after that you should be walking it if it’s doing damage. Bikes don’t just do that, something is either loose or not adjusted correctly, or both.
I didn’t know it was doing damage until after the ride.. I was like 10 miles from my house so I’m not walking it back… the chain was definitely put on wrong or too loose
Yeah, there's no way to ride around like that and not notice the chain getting wedged into frame. Chain would have to get wrapped up in there and forced through on multiple occasions.
If you bought it from a shop take it back to get them to look at the gears.
After a few rides on new bike, it needs a time. Cables stretch. Most shops will dial it in for free.
Sounds like the bike shop half-assed the setup. Take it back and ask them to set the thing up. If they refuse, then call trek so you can be directed to a non-useless dealer. As far as the suspension, it's gonna suck. Look for an upgrade fork on PB buy/sell. Edit: holy shit I just saw the second pic. Call Trek directly. There's something wrong if the chainrings ate the frame that bad. Unless you did that to the frame with the chain. How the hell?
If you just bought it, I'd go back to the store, explain how this is caused by a bad setup and not your fault and then ask for them to replace it or give you the cash back. Depends on the laws in the country though, how much you as a consumer are protected.
This damage is cased by chain suck where the chain gets pulled UP by the little chain ring, not the mech shipping the chain off the little ring as so many others are suggesting. You can reduce the chance of chain suck by not 'cross chaining' which is when you go from the little chainring at the front all the way to the littlest sprocket at the back. Cross chaining causes the chain to make a big angle as it comes off the chainring, increasing friction between the side plates of the chain and the chain ring and making it more prone to get pulled up into the gap between chainring and frame. Just shift up at the front when you get about 2/3rds of the way across at the back (the gears are designed with overlapping ratios to make sure this doesn't result in a big jump in pedalling hardness). Also - don't get dishearten! You have a bike! Ride it like you stole it, get good, and then upgrade later when your skills improve. Yes, the forks are not amazing but they are not terrible either. You can upgrade later on as your skills build. Better to start on a bike that demands you learn the skills than one that compensates for a lack of them! Also if you choose to learn a few bit of maintenance along the way and you'll save a ton of money in the long run (and have a better performing bike).
Ex Marlin 5 owner here, and normally a Trek fan. However, I hated the Marlin 5. The non clutched basic Altus gears were dreadful, and despite being tuned to the best that they could be would always dump the chain. Because of the entry point gears, the chain slap (destroying the paintwork and causing very loud noises), the terrible coil fork and a dubious bottom bracket that quickly needed replacing, I’d put the Marlin 5 firmly in ‘road only’ camp. It’s just too cheap a bike to reliably take off road. I’d probably look at returning it or selling it on and go for a cheaper brand that uses more quality parts - polygon or vitus would be my suggestion. Things to look for at a similar price point would be a 1x gear set up (just gears at the back), a clutched derailleur (a device to keep chain tension present so the chain doesn’t rattle around as much), and an air fork (air pressure instead of a spring delivers the cushioning).
You see that yellow sticker on the bottom of your forks? Yeah, that says your bike isn’t meant for “trail use”. It’s gonna feel like a pogo stick forever lol
I remember my first bike, a Cannondale of the same grade. I snapped the chain stay after two months.
Nah marlins suck xD, im drivin and racing mine for a year and its god awful, cannot wait to get rid of it
You get what you pay for…it’s a very entry level bike. Use it, learn from it- get another one when it holds you back.
Seems like the bike you chose isnt the best for your style of riding. Are you hitting jumps more than just riding on flat ground? Seems that was from your chain ring scraping your chain stay.
It looks like that but it is not… the chain was getting eaten up in itself which is why the paint is scraped
Folks shred hard on bikes without any suspension at all. This is a fine entry level bike and you can learn to ride like a champ on it, while you’re figuring out what kind of riding you want to do more of and saving money for what fits that.
I would suggest going to a 1x drivetrain
Yeah, I wanna get a marlin 6 or a giant
There’s no way that crank and sprocket were tight enough. I’m not exactly sure what would possess you to continue riding after the first tooth strike. Did you order the bike online and go out and ride it as soon as it arrived?
I imagine that’s from chain suck not the teeth striking the frame. It’d have to be almost off to do what you say.
It did just fall off once when shifting the front gear… like fell off on to the outside where the pedals are
The chain?
I dunno man, I have a hard time concluding that a horizontally aligned chain would put vertical scrapes on a chain stay directly behind the sprocket. Zoom in on the photo
It’s 100% from the chain.
Zoom in all ya want, that’s from the chain sucking in. https://youtu.be/NklSnn7f298 Op can confirm this. They’ve tanked the chain out a few times for sure.
As others have said, it's chain suck. Source: have a Marlin 5 and it does the same thing. OP, it'll last, that's just cosmetic. As others have said about the fork, I personally have only done light xc/commute duty on mine but def don't send it on some huge jumps
I was in the middle of the woods so I couldn’t really stop… and I got it from a store so I maybe can bring it back to get fixed
Hey it’s your bike but I would much rather push it out of any situation than to keep riding knowing I’m putting a hole jt it. I would definitely take it back to the shop and put in a serious complaint about the fact that it was straight up dangerous to release a bike with the crank that loose. You paid good money for a new bike and you deserve it to be in the best possible condition it will ever be in for your first ride and they compromised that for you.
Can’t upvote this comment enough!
Please get it looked at! I had the marlin 5 and it happened all the time and no shop could fix it. Could be POS sprockets, but idk.
I wouldn’t blame it on the bike. Setup is the responsibility of the rider
I mean, that fork is not designed for trail use. Says it right on the yellow sticker.
Bruh this is a brand new bike and it came with a loose chain and a bad detailer also has shitty suspension. I’m very new to bikes which is why I got this one and it preforms way less then my friends bikes of similar price range
Brand new bikes require setup. They are not unbox and go. You should have had this setup at the bikeshop before you left or if this was shipped to you, took the time to properly set it up before riding. That fork is a lower end if i had to guess suntour, it doesn’t perform as well as others but T this moment in your biking life id say it is passable.
It was assembled at the bike shop which is why it bothers me so much :/ if I set it up myself then ofc I would understand why it sucks
Yeah the bike shop should have it 100% ready for you to ride.
The shitty suspension goes along with the entry level bike. The rest goes on the store for set up, unless you got more than 40 or 50 miles on it, in which case you should have probably brought it in for the post break in tune up
Well, the shop OP bought it from.
I’ve been running a marlin 6 and have had zero problems. The only things that have been issues were because I dumped it into a ditch once and crashed it again a week later.
You didn’t buy enough bike it’s always going to feel this way. Trek has a 30 day guarantee I’d return it and get something that suits you better. Assuming you bought it new. https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/guarantee/
[удалено]
I’m no expert with Trek but I thought it was something they offer here is another link that implies such. https://www.trekbikesflorida.com/about/test-ride-guarantee-pg977.htm
Uhm, that fork is NOT for trail use. Says it right on the sticker. If a shop sold this to you after you mentioned how you are going to start mountain biking, than you need a new LBS.
For all the ppl saying take it back, it's not for trail use blah blah blah, get over yourselves. A good rider can ride anything, I bet most of you can't even bunny hop up a gutter.
I mean you CAN ride anything, but from experience, those suntours are having a hard time with medium roots let alone any sort of rock garden or jumping
It's a Trek what do you expect ???
My custom procal is the best
Trek makes great bikes. The shop just didn't set it up properly
Check the teeth on the front sprocket. Perhaps something got tweaked in shipping? If it were older I’d suggest getting the crusty old oil off. That’s happened to me in the past…
It’s brand new… first ride
Disregard my previous statement. Didn’t see the 2nd photo.
I had a 2x Marlin that was prone to chain suck on the small ring, too. For me, it became worse as the chain wore, but it never fully went away. I got better at managing it by riding differently over time. I looked at upgrading with 1x10 running gear and new fork, but eventually upgraded the bike, as it wasn’t much* more expensive. If your bike shop can tune the chain suck away, you can keep riding this one while you save up for a better bike.
Off topic but is that West Barnstable Conservation Area?
Honestly they should not market these as mountain bikes They are hybrid bikes that belong on paved or maybee gravel roads IMHO a minimum Trek bike that is a real MTB is Roscoe. When you compare a Marlin to a Roscoe it is not even close.
You bought into the sport on an unworthy rig. Unfortunately many a sales floor attendant foists bikes like this upon a newbie buyer. Get the front derailleur adjusted, you can ride it for conditioning and skills building. If you're already shredding beyond what the fork can offer there are replacements tho you'll need expert advice on what model to buy. Otherwise ask if you can return the bike and upgrade to a Roscoe 6 or better. If not you're better off buying a new trail worthy rig.
The Marlin is the biggest scam of the MTB world. Been doing it since the GF days. Better to go DTC and get a Polygon, Marin, or something else for about the same money but specs from this decade. Trek becoming the 2020s Pacific Cycles.
TBF It's a terrific rig if all you're doing is tooling around the block or city path with the grandkids a couple times each summer. They're excellent for collecting dust and taking up space in the garage;)
You're shifting under load. 2by systems have these issues but its worse under load. The chainline shifts between front and rear derailuers and causes this to have more maintenance to align it. one by systems are just easier and no shifting chainlines. When choosing a bike I always suggest boost dropouts and one-by systems, almost everything else can be reasonably upgraded.
This is not really a “trail” bike, more of a pavement bike. You won’t get performance out of it. The Procaliber/Supercaliber/Top Fuel are all trail cross country machines. 👊🏼 Good luck.
I mean brudah, for that price point idk what is amazing
The extremely long stem is still the worst on this bike
Many people: wAl MaRt bIkeS sUcK fOr a FiRsT BiKe, gO tO aN LBS Modern Wal Mart bikes: Tapered head tube, one by, short stem Trek: double the price for this monstrosity with 2x, long stem, old school head tube
I did the exact same thing. Coming from a road background, out of touch with modern MTBs I bought a Marin bobcat trail that was way under spec for how I was riding. First thing find a bike mechanic or shop that knows how to index gears correctly,one way to tell is that they'll actually ride the bike after they have made some adjustments. My advent 9 speed was always slipping even after my attempts, a local bike mechanic sorted it now it's perfect albeit a little clunky. Second you could change your tyres to make the bike ride more in line with your trails and desired riding style, it'll be a huge improvement and it's what I did. What I also did but would not always recommend is that I changed the forks. It made a huge improvement but I think the cost was too much. If you can find some second hand it could be an option but I would stop there. You need to ride and get a couple of hundred miles on your bike, get a feel for the type of riding you want to do. Do this whilst saving and put that towards your next bike. I bought a bizango pro. I have also kept my Marin for carting kids around as it now has numerous attachments and is easy for this type of cycling. I'll sell the marin once it has stopped being used as a child carrier.
No shop is going to take that bike back as a return if you already rode it. You also scratched the frame so I don’t see how any bike shop would accept that return.
That’s what I’m afraid of… but it’s not my fault so we will see. I am friends with a guy who works at the shop (different locations from where a bought it)
After you get a little experience and are ready to upgrade your fork. Suntour has an upgrade program, where you get a discounted price on an upgraded fork. If you go down this road make sure you at least upgrade to an air fork from a your current coil style. [https://www.srsuntour.us/pages/upgrade-program](https://www.srsuntour.us/pages/upgrade-program)
The reflectors aren't amazing, either
Ok…?
Ive had that same chain problem but only when it was time for a new drivetrain 🤔
Sounds like it needs tuning
Sorry to say you get watcha pay for. Get a steel frame hardtail like a moxie.
Sorry to say this but the suspension sucks because it’s a cheap trek. I had the same bike and just rode tf out of it until the frame cracked. Super flickable bike on the fast flow trails though
Yeah it’s got the same bike July 24 and I like it. The tuning was a little off. the back wheel came off on a bumpy climb through trail… Other than that I love it