2021 Trek Marlin 7 vs Specialized Rockhopper Comp vs Giant Talon 1 Comparison!!

Hello everyone and welcome back to the channel. My name is Lollipop and today we're just going to do a

comp

arison of three specific models from three different bike lines for

2021

, which are the

specialized

Rock Hopper line of the Trek Marlin series and the Giant Talon bikes of now. I already made a video

comp

aring these lineups as a whole and in that video I compared the Rockhopper Specialized Sport to the Giant Talon 2 and the Trek Marlin 6. Since those bikes had similar parts specs and price levels, however, I received a good There are a lot of comments from people wanting a

comparison

of the top-end models in this range, so today I'll be comparing and contrasting the

2021

Rockhopper Comp Specialized Giant Talon 1 and the Trek Marlin 7, covering everything from suspension forks to transmissions, including all transmission components.

I'll also fill out this table at the end of the video and talk about my thoughts on which bike is best at the end and since I don't want to repeat myself and make this video too long, I'm going to leave out all the basic information about these lineups and some of the more detailed details about the geometry of the frame as I already covered it in my previous

comparison

which is still linked to this video at the top right, however I will show the main specs right now if you are interested basically the

giant

claw frame It has the latest geometry that is closer to a trail bike so it will be better for descending than the other bikes based on geometry alone and on the opposite side you have the

trek

marlin

.

The geometry numbers are the closest to a cross-country mountain bike, so it will be better for pedaling efficiency and speed. Also, I won't cover all the differences like I do in my other videos and that's because these bikes are from different brands. All the internal components are technically different, like the handlebars, stems, rims and things like that, but in my opinion they are not different enough to really justify choosing one of these bikes over another, so I'm going to skip directly to the topic. comparison starting with the prices, the

rockhopper

specialized

competition is the least expensive bike of the three, costing US$800 or £675, the

giant

claw is $30 more at $830 but surprisingly less expensive and weighs 650lbs and of course Last is the Trek Marlin 7 which has a price of 20 dollars more, 850 or 725 pounds for the components.

I'm going to start with one of the main ones, which is the suspension fork. All bikes use quick release axles at the front to do this. It's easy to remove the wheel from the bike and all suspension forks come with a lockout feature that allows you to turn a knob on the fork to make it completely rigid, making pedaling much more efficient on flat areas or when you're riding. riding a bicycle. Uphill, all of these forks also come with 100 millimeters of travel in most sizes, which is typical for cross-country oriented bikes like these, but the Rockhopper comp uses 90 millimeters of travel for extra small and small sizes, while the Italian uses 80 millimeters of travel.

For those smaller sizes the Marlin 7 actually still uses 100 millimeters of travel for all sizes, the Rockhopper Comp uses a SR Suntour XCM29 fork which uses a coil spring and has 30 millimeter wide stanchions. This fork has specialist custom multi-circuit damping to do it. It's smoother and handles bumps better, but overall this fork is pretty entry-level. The Talon 1 upgrades to the Rockshox Duty fork, which also has 30-millimeter-wide stanchions and uses a coil spring, but this fork is a higher level than the Suntour Xcm and has better damping. It's worth noting that in the United States and potentially other countries, the Talon 1 may come with the sxc32rl29 fork, instead it has a rather long name, but it's a new fork made by the giants themselves.

This fork actually uses wider 32 millimeter diameter stanchions for added strength and rigidity and is an air fork rather than a coil spring fork, meaning it's much lighter and more adjustable for its weight. It also has a rebound adjustment knob on the bottom to basically control how fast the fork rebounds after being compressed and finally the Marlin 7 uses a Rockshox Duty fork, which is the same fork mentioned above as the Talon. Next, I'll talk about tires. All of these bikes come with wire bead tires that are not tubeless ready and most come with 29 inches. diameter wheels, except extra small frame size bikes which come with 27 and a half inch diameter wheels. 29er wheels are known to be faster and roll better over terrain, while 27.5 wheels are known to be more agile and better for playful rides like jumping and may be more comfortable for shorter riders, the

rockhopper

comp comes with ground control sport tires that are 2.3 inches wide while the

talon

uses maxis recon tires that are a little wider at 2.4 inches and then the

marlin

7 uses slimmer 2.2 inch bontrager xr2 broad.

Comp Tires Wider tires provide more traction on the trails but also make the bike a little heavier. The Marlin has the thinnest tires, although 2.2 inches is pretty normal for cross country, while the Talon and Rockhopper have wider tires that will be noticeably better in terms of grip and traction. Moving on we have the brakes, all bikes use hydraulic disc brakes with 160 millimeter diameter brake rotors at the rear, the specialist rock hopper competition uses shimano mt-200 brakes with 180 millimeter front rotors on most of sizes, while the giant claw 1 uses the tetro brand. TKD TKD-143 brakes which also use a 180 millimeter front rotor.

The Marlin 7 uses the same brakes as the Rock Hopper, but only uses the larger 180-millimeter front rotor for large to extra-large sizes. Overall, these brakes are pretty similar in terms of braking. power but shimano brakes are known to be more reliable and having a larger front rotor definitely increases stopping power so that's nice to see and finally I'm going to talk about the main difference between these bikes which is the drivetrain. Let me list the main components of the transmission first and then talk about which one I think is the best. The Rockhopper makeup uses a primarily advent microshift one-by-nine transmission, meaning there is one chainring in the front crankset and nine cogs or cogs in the rear cassette.

For a total of nine speeds, this bike also uses a heavy-duty 30-tooth crankset paired with a 9-speed micro-shift advent cassette that has 11 teeth on the smallest sprocket and 42 teeth on the largest sprocket and also has a microshift advent rear derailleur. and I should mention that all three of these bikes come with a clutch mechanism on the rear derailleur that allows you to add tension to the chain to prevent it from falling off the bike or making a lot of chain noise. I should also note that the Rockhopper specialist competition in some other countries like the UK actually only comes with a 2x9 drivetrain with mixed Shimano Altus and Acera parts, which is actually very different from the microshifter I just discussed, but I can talk more about this at the end of the article.

In the next video, I'm going to talk about the Talon 1 and the Marlin 7 simultaneously, since they have pretty similar drivetrains. Both bikes use a primarily shimano dior 1x10 drivetrain, but the giant has a 30 or 32 tooth pro wheel charm crankset depending on wheel size, while the marlin 7 uses a smaller 28 tooth crankset, Having fewer teeth on the front chainring allows for easier pedaling, but having more teeth allows you to essentially go faster, the

talon

1 also uses a shimano dior 11-42 tooth cassette and although the marlin 7 also uses a shimano dior cassette , one has a 46 tooth cog on top which allows for easier shifting for climbing hills and finally both bikes use the same shimano dior rear derailleur which is very good, smooth and very fast.

Well, for an overview of these transmissions, the specialized bike has the fewest gears, so you won't have as many incremental speeds to go a little faster or slower as you would on 1x10 transmissions, but the microshift transmission doesn't. it is. The bad thing, it has become more popular because of how affordable it is, but when it goes up against the Shimano Dura one out of ten, the Shimano drivetrain definitely beats it because they are known to be very reliable and perform well on the trail. Again, there is nothing wrong with these specialized, but having one more speed for the one by ten makes a difference in terms of the differences between the talon and the marlin, the marlin has a better gear for climbing hills and less teeth on the front chainring, so overall it will climb better than the other two bikes and will have gear ratios geared more toward ease of use than speed.

The claw with its 30 or 32 tooth chainring will be faster based solely on the transmission, but it will be more. It's difficult to climb on that bike, although that may only be noticeable on steeper, longer climbs, and finally, before I talk about these bikes as a whole, I'm going to quickly talk about how much each bike weighs now that Trek is the only brand of these . bikes who give us the official weights of their bikes and have the marlin listed at around 30.35 pounds or 13.77 kilograms. I've looked around and seen several videos of all of these bikes and it seems that all of them, including the marlin 7, tend to weigh around 29.5 pounds or around 13.5 kilograms, so there really shouldn't be much. difference between them, so now that I've covered all those key components and details, I'll show you the full table with all those differences in one place and talk about which bike I think is best for a specific rider.

This also happened in my last video, but unfortunately for specialized bikes there are always a little less expensive than the other two bikes, which is good. If you're on a budget, but for comparison's sake, it also means they'll probably have low-end parts and won't be the best bike of the three. However, one of these bikes has to be the least expensive and even the Rockhopper. It's the cheapest, it still has a better brake setup than the other two bikes, but as I mentioned before the brakes are pretty similar overall, in my opinion the Rockhopper comp is still a great beginner mountain bike, but for just thirty dollars or fifty dollars more you can get some better upgrades if you go for the giant or

trek

bikes and if you are in the uk getting the giant claw or marlin trek would be quite a big upgrade for the small increase in price or even down if the prices and pounds are correct on the websites, the giant claw definitely has the best tires of the three for trail riding and that, combined with its geometry and potentially the air suspension fork, is definitely the best for trail riding, in my opinion the hike is the best for cross-country riding, but it will definitely still work for trail riding if you want, for that reason ultimately these bikes aren't that different from each other , but if you can't find the giant claw one with the pneumatic fork, that's definitely the best one.

Best deal of the three if you find that one with the Rockshox Judy fork, still not a bad bike but it's more up to you what style of fighting you prefer, whether it's more cross country like the trek or more trail like the giant once again , these are all just my thoughts. I'm not saying I'm 100% right or anything and I'm happy to see what other people think in the comments below, so if you have anything to add or think I made a mistake. somewhere let me know in the comments section but in the end I hope this video helped you in some way and if it did please leave a like and subscribe and remember to keep riding your bike.