Marin Muirwoods RC 2020

Marin's Muirwoods RC looks like a super-sensible classic and classy urban cruiser with an added ingredient of fun courtesy of Marin's mountain bike background and some humungous 650B tyres. Its leaden performance on road, though, makes those interesting specs and aesthetics nothing more than slightly irrelevant novelties.

Marin tells us it's looking to update its blurb about the Muirwoods RC, which currently shares the same 'mountain bike-based urban warrior' type description as the non-RC model, telling us it's actually more a reliable commuter bike. It does look far more like Marin's take on a traditional urban cruiser, where style and poise are promoted at the expense of dynamism. Even on smooth roads it certainly sounds like a more vintage bike, with a symphony of clinking and whirring. Lamy's first rule of new bike testing is: the quieter the bike, the more efficient the bike. The Marin does not instantly impress.

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These relatively trivial points would be easily forgotten if the Muirwoods RC was a street sleeper, ready to burst into excitement with a push of the pedals. But it's not. At 14.1kg for this large model – which actually comes up a little smaller than I'd expect – this is a fair lump of chromoly to lug around.

Cruising on flat, smooth surfaces is a pleasant enough experience. But as soon as you need to put some power down, life gets tricky. Part of the reason for this is because the Muirwoods RC doesn't feel particularly stable (I'll explain why a little later), so out of the saddle climbing and sprinting is nigh-on impossible.

Obviously, this is not designed to be a pocket rocket, but power transfer is pretty disappointing, with too much energy lost in translation between foot and floor.

Frame

Seemingly, that compromised performance is no particular fault of the frame, which feels as solid and stiff as you're likely to find from steel tubes. It's finished very nicely, too, with a gloss silver paintjob, smooth welds, classic round tubing, rack mounts and Marin's slider dropout.

It also features a matching straight chromoly fork with more rack eyelets. The whole thing comes fitted with smart aluminium mudguards, which in truth struggle to accommodate the 47mm tyres.

With such an abundance of steel, I was expecting comfort to be paramount but that disappoints, too. Road imperfections certainly make their way through to the rider and it's not as cosseting a ride as I would have hoped.

Position on the bike is actually quite good for an urban cruiser. You sit relatively upright, partly thanks to the swept-back bar, which means you get a commanding view of the road ahead. Sizing, as I mentioned, is a bit suspect though. Marin says this large model should fit riders up to 183cm, which is 6ft in old money. I'm pretty much bang on that upper limit but I ran out of seatpost.

Components

One ingredient that plays a slight role in the RC's uninspiring ride is the Shimano Nexus 8-speed hub gear. It often feels like you've not quite found the perfect ratio and there are limited options at the bottom of the range when you're desperately struggling for something to help you climb, battle a headwind or simply overcome the bike's mass.

That said, gear changes are smooth and fault-free, although it doesn't feel as directly efficient as a good derailleur setup. Also, rather than using a fit-and-forget carbon belt drive, Marin specs a chain drive here with a forged aluminium 42-tooth single ring chainset, so even the drivetrain's maintenance-free potential is not entirely optimised.

Interestingly, Marin uses an old-school MicroSHIFT indexed thumb shifter, not a more modern option with gear selector window or twist-shift. I don't mind that at all, and it might be the reason this particular Nexus setup seems to swap ratios particularly competently.

Thankfully for this steel beast, Marin hasn't gone all old-school on the brakes and we get a fine set of Shimano M201s. They might only be Shimano's entry-level hydraulic stoppers but they perform better than most other options at this price point. In the case of the lumbering Muirwoods RC, that kind of performance is very welcome.

Finishing kit

When I used to see more mature riders doddering about on their vintage cruisers, or young novices wobbling about on their classic shoppers, I always thought their haphazard course was caused by infirmity or inexperience in the saddle. I must apologise to them all, because after riding the Marin I realise at the root of many cyclists' meandering movement is one ingredient – a swept back handlebar.

At low speeds especially, the aluminium bar on the Muirwoods RC acts like a handling amplifier, turning any twitch or reaction to under-tread roughness into a more substantial steering choice. And as for sprinting or climbing out of the saddle, forget it. It would be easier to win £20 riding a fairground funny bike. It does settle down at higher and cruising speeds, though.

The rest of the finishing kit is fairly standard. As I mentioned, the frame came up a tad shorter than I expected, so I used all of the safe available seatpost length.

Reach, though, wasn't too bad at all – this is actually quite a long bike, so no need for me to swap out the basic aluminium stem. The Marin 'Beyond Road Concept' saddle was fine, too.

Wheels

At least one of the Muirwoods RC's rolling components offers a special area of interest. While the wheelset comprises uninspiring and heavy double wall aluminium rims on that Nexus rear hub and forged alloy front hub, the tyres are another matter altogether.

These 47mm WTB Horizon 650B slicks – brandishing tan sidewalls for vintage effect – are properly massive. Despite having such humungous girth, road resistance is mitigated by their ability to be pumped up to – according to the recommendation on the sidewall – 70PSI. Do you know how much effort it takes to pump 47mm tyres to 70PSI? You'll be forgiven for feeling puffed out before you even turn a first pedal.

In truth I didn't go that high, but even at 60PSI their contribution to comfort proved negligible. So, after consulting the WTB website (which recommends 25-45PSI) and our very own Dave Arthur's review of them (who put in 30-35PSI), I dropped them down to 40PSI. Comfort was improved, although not enough to make the RC a plush ride.

Whatever pressure you use, grip is very decent – but then a 47mm tyre wrapped in wet clingfilm would probably offer some level of purchase. They also fill the mudguards a little too fulsomely for my liking, there's not much clearance. Indeed, there's not much clearance anywhere: when I first got the bike, the rear sidewall was even rubbing against the head of a zip-tie used to hold an understay cable in place.

It's also worth pointing out that the Horizons don't feature any specific puncture protection, so take a 16mm spanner with you because that rear geared hub is bolted in place.

Value

You might have gathered that the Muirwoods RC is something of an eccentric mixture of a bike, so it's not particularly easy to find comparable models from other brands.

However, if we take its headline speccing feature – the Nexus hub – I tested the aluminium-framed Canyon Commuter 5.0, which also comes with Shimano M200 brakes, a set of smart mudguards but a less exotic tyre choice and Gates carbon belt drive for £1,299.

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Meanwhile, at £1,000, the Merida Crossway Urban 500 sits in the same kind of market, albeit with a full derailleur drivetrain and aluminium frame. In that company, the Muirwoods RC is far from bad value on paper.

Conclusion

To say the Muirwoods RC is a case of style over substance is a bit misleading because, after being told by Marin that its marketing blurb applies only to the Muirwoods and not the Muirwoods RC, I'm not entirely sure what style it aims to exude. And when it comes to substance, well, there sure is a lot of it. I've said it before and I'll say it again – with modern design and manufacturing, I'm not sure that any serious bike that isn't intended for being thrown down a mountain needs to weigh 14kg, even with a set of mudguards.

However, it does act to serve one crucial role – and that is to highlight the importance of trying before you buy. While the Muirwoods RC looks smart and the specs, in theory, are nothing to sniff at, this is a bike for acquired tastes only.

Verdict

Interesting bike to look at, not so interesting to ride – uninspiring and, contrary to expectations, no fun