So i bought this older Trek Marlin 7 a while back for cheap and it seems pretty decent. I’m guessing it’s a first-gen as it’s 3x and externally routed. The newer ones seem to be 1x and internally routed.
Since I’ve actually been riding it the question now is… Should i upgrade this bike or upgrade bikes? 🤔
My answer would be no. I did that one time, to an entry level full suspension bike. Absolutely ate crow when it came time to sell, at the end of it all I was out a pile of money and the bike was still pretty mediocre. Save your money for a more complete package. This bike will still do you just fine for quite a while yet I imagine too.
What kind of riding do you do mostly and what kind of riding would you like to do?
Like it looks perfectly functional and if you are just gonna be casually using it and / or commuting or something I’d be inclined to keep the bike ans just upgrade what you don’t like / what breaks.
If you intend to do more involved riding or at least want to build up to more trails / jumps etc then I would start again. Judging by the 7 pixels I can see it looks like rear quick release rather than bolt through axle. That alone would make me sack off the frame and start with a better base for upgrading personally.
I ride enduro and jump 5 meter gap doubles on a hard tail with a quick release rear (trek roscoe 7). Quick release isn’t a liability.
Never said it was a liability, I grew up riding quick release, does that mean I still want it though? Absolutely not.
I would upgrade the drive train and maybe the fork. After that i would just replace what breaks.
