This week’s Readers’ Rides comes from Hong, who shares a rad Marin Presidio 1 with a backstory about how he found cycling again after his bike was stolen…
When my very first mountain bike from middle school was stolen and I never managed to get it back, I put my love of cycling on hold for almost 10 years. It was a Merida Warrior 560, electric blue, 26” tires, V-brakes, and it only cost $200. I swapped on a rigid fork and a pair of slick tires, since most of my rides were just sprinting back and forth between home and school. I still remember attaching the magnet of a wired bike computer to the spoke, and the fastest speed I ever hit was 30 km/h.
If you compare this Marin Presidio with that Merida, you’ll find they are remarkably similar in their underlying logic. This Marin is the first “real” bike I’ve owned since the stolen Merida. Perhaps this bike reconnected me with the unfulfilled cycling fantasy of my 16-year-old self.
As someone who spent most of his life in China, where cycling is still a dominant form of urban mobility, I refused to adapt to the American car-first mindset. I purchased this Marin Presidio at a local bike shop in Jersey City, New Jersey, during my first year in the States for school in 2022. I was no stranger with Marin as a brand, their overseas production leaks had built a reputation for “USA quality” in China. I instantly caught the low-key navy color and the modern features like the 1x drivetrain and disc brakes. Most importantly, it was affordable.
I rode the bike to pick up takeouts, go play soccer, and commute into Manhattan. At the time, it still had the stock steel fork, aluminum wheelsets, and even reflectors. I didn’t know about Strava, let alone cadence or FTP. I even called tubes “inner tires” when I got my first flat. But the bike dramatically expanded how far I could travel, and that was the beginning of my journey exploring the city.
Maybe because Zuckerberg secretly spied on my transaction history, my Instagram feed soon started poisoning me with the latest “gravel” trends. I flipped my stem, mounted a front rack, and even ran a Surly Corner Bar on it at one point. But the thing that truly pushed the evolution of this bike was the trips I went on with it. I still remember my first 100k ride around Staten Island, cruising down Ocean Avenue all the way to Rockaway Beach, and struggling to keep up with random group rides along the Hudson River Greenway. Since then, I’ve continued upgrading the bike to match both my growing needs as a cyclist and my improving physical fitness.
Living between Brooklyn and Pittsburgh has given me a unique perspective on building this bike. I would even say the Pittsburgh cycling scene had the biggest influence on its current construction. Those Monday MXT rides were always a little too technical for me, but the flat-bar setup perfectly balanced out the fear of narrow overgrown, muddy singletrack.
One small detail you may notice on my Marin Presidio is the traffic drum valve caps. Yes, there’s a full story behind how I almost died with this bike and came back as a more motivated cyclist. I designed and 3D printed the caps myself, and you can now spot them on some of my friends’ bikes around the city too. Another personal flair is the custom top cap featuring my name, “Hong,” in Chinese/Japanese characters as a tribute to my hometown and motherland.
I enjoyed the flat miles of the GAP Trail on sunny weekends, and the smashed burgers with a can of Coke in West Newton are still my favorite trail nutrition. I run these SQlab inner bars at a 42 cm width for an extra hand position and a slight aero gain, helping me minimize my disadvantage when trying to keep up with the Tuesday night Decaf roadie crew. I realized I actually spend a surprising amount of time on these little bullhorns whenever the terrain smooths out. In my opinion, they’re a must-have for all flat-bar bikes.
I was born in Japan and raised in China, and I describe my product philosophy as “Asiamaxxing.” With a Shimano XT groupset, TRP Trail EVO brakes, and a TRP EVO 12 carbon crankset, this combination delivers consistent performance on multiday bikepacking trips around the Bay Area as well as intense gravel racing in central Pennsylvania, or Monterey, California.
I’m still conservative when it comes to trusting Chinese carbon products. One small advantage I have is being able to absorb information from the Chinese side of social media, giving me access to a much broader pool of long-term reviews. Light Bicycle WR38 carbon rims laced to DT Swiss 350 hubs, nothing can go wrong there. The Voicevelo Deep-V seatpost, arguably one of the best shock-absorbing seatposts from the long-running Chinese OEM ecosystem, also creates a new visual language of “triple triangles.”
At its core, this bike is still built around a non-butted aluminum frame. That means despite all the carbon components, it’s not a particularly lightweight bike. But in a way, that actually turned it into an excellent training platform, while simultaneously making me the center of attention on any group rides. Over time, I slowly became “the flat-bar guy.” But I want to make one thing clear: I like dropbars, I believe in the undeniable advantages of dropbars, and my next bike will absolutely be a dropbar build. It’s just that this bike still serves my needs for both travel and racing, and when you’ve been through so much with an object, you naturally develop an attachment to it.
June marks my final month living in Pittsburgh before I move back to Brooklyn for a new career adventure. There are no Frick Park trails or Schenley loops in New York City, only performative GenZs wearing wired headphones and jay walking across the bike lanes. My Spooky Gas Mask, an aggressive cross frame, is already impatiently waiting for the wheelset to be transferred over from the Marin. I guess it’s finally time to push myself toward becoming a more serious cyclist with a more serious bike.
I don’t really have a retirement plan for this bike. But what I do know is that it will always have a place on my living room wall.
Build Spec
- Frame: Marin Presidio 1 (2021)
- Fork: Whisky No.7 Cross Fork
- Wheelset: Light Bicycle WR38 with DT Swiss 350
- Handlebar: Giant Contact SLR / SQlab MTB Innerbarends® 411 2.0
- Stem: Fouriers SM-MB114-G17
- Seatpost: Voicevelo Deep-V
- Groupset: Shimano XT M8000
- Crankset: TRP EVO Carbon Crank
- Chainring: Wolf Tooth Camo
- Brake: TRP Trail EVO
- Tires: Schwalbe G-One RX Pro (Front) / G-One R Pro (Rear)
About the Author
Hong is an industrial designer and creative technologist. He is a lifelong bike commuter currently working toward becoming a competitive cyclist. For more information, please visit: studiohuahong.com
Instagram: @hong_on_wheels
We’d like to thank all of you who submitted Readers Rides builds to be shared here at The Radavist. The response has been incredible and we have so many to share over the next few months. Feel free to submit your bike, listing details, components, and other information. You can also include a portrait of yourself with your bike and your Instagram account! Please, shoot landscape-orientation photos, not portrait. Thanks!