Marin LARKSPUR 1 / Blue L

Marin Larkspur 1 – The mixte-style adventure companion for city life and beyond

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How the name came about

The bike takes its name from Larkspur, a small town in Marin County just a stone's throw from where the bikes are designed. Legend has it that the wife of the town's founder christened the settlement in 1887 after the larkspur flower, even though she actually mistook the abundant local lupines for it. The town also has deep roots in cycling history: the "Larkspur Canyon Gang", a group of local teenagers, roamed the trails of Mt. Tamalpais on ancient balloon-tyre bikes in the 1970s and helped spark what would become mountain biking – a fitting genealogy for this modern step-through.

The meaning of the model name, component by component

"Larkspur" carries a double meaning: it points to the namesake town as well as to the flower after which the town was named. The numeral "1" identifies this bike as the base configuration within the Larkspur range. "Blue", finally, is the colour designation adopted from Radfieber and refers to the frame's paintwork.

How this model differs from the other bikes in the series

Within the Larkspur family, this model clearly fills the entry-level slot: it shifts through ten gears via a microSHIFT 1x10 group, whereas its sibling, the Larkspur 2, steps up to eleven Shimano Deore gears and adds a dropper seatpost as well as beefier Shimano brakes. The frame, tyres and geometry, however, stay the same – both bikes are built around the identical mixte steel chassis with 27.5-inch wheels.

What this bike is made for

The Larkspur 1 is conceived as a laid-back companion for everyday life and leisure: a commuter for work, coffee runs, the school run or impromptu detours onto gravel and forest paths. The low step-over makes mounting and dismounting easy, while the wide tyres smooth out rough surfaces. In contrast to other ranges such as the sporty drop-bar Gestalt gravel bike or the tour-oriented Four Corners, the Larkspur favours a flat handlebar, an upright seating position and retro appeal over race pace – in short, comfort and character in an urban setting.