The New Airborne Goblin
Just recently we took delivery of the brand spankin’ new Airborne Goblin 29er.
Right out of the box.
So what makes this Goblin different from the previous model? Here’s what they have to say:
FRAME: Tapered HT with increased rear wheel mud clearance, increased standover clearance on the 16″ frame-size.
Tapered Reba RL fork with increased 100mm travel
Larger 180mm rotor up front for increased stopping power and fade resistance
New 38/24 gearing on the all new SRAM X7 crankset that offers a better gear range for climbing paired to an 11-36 cassette.
Geax AKA 2.2 tires that roll fast on hardpack and offer outstanding grip on loose and rocky terrain
New Selle San Marco Ponza Power Saddle
Finally, the most important thing: we managed to do this all for a price of $1199. That’s only $50 more than the past Goblin in spite of rising industry costs!
First time out.
If you need more info, here’s the specs:
Frame 6061 Hydroformed Aluminum Hardtail 29″
Fork RockShox Reba RL 29 Dual Air w/Lock-Out, tapered steer, 100mm
Headset Ahead Sealed Cartridge 1 1/8″ to 1.5″ tapered
Brake Levers Avid Elixir 7
Brakes Avid Elixir 7 Hydraulic Disc
Rotors Avid 180mm front, 160mm rear
Shifters SRAM X-7 2×10
F Derailleur SRAM X-7 2×10
R Derailleur SRAM X-7 2×10 Mid-Cage
Cassette SRAM PG-1050 11-36T 10-Speed
Chain SRAM Powerchain 1051
Crank SRAM X-7 2×10, 38/24 rings
Bottom Bracket SRAM XR GXP Sealed BB
Pedals NONE
Rims WTB SpeedDisc XC Alloy Double-Walled with eyelets
Hubs KT HiFlange Sealed Bearing 32H
Spokes Black 14g Stainless
Tires GEAX AKA 2.2″
Handlebar AIRBORNE Alloy Flat, 640mm width
Stem AIRBORNE Alloy +/- 7 Degree Rise, size specific
Saddle Selle San Marco Ponza Power
Seat Post AIRBORNE Alloy 31.6mm Diameter, 350mm Length
Extras Owner’s Manual, Clear Coat, H20 Bottle Mounts
The Goblin’s handling is superb! I was impressed on how nimble the bike is.
It has a 24/36t granny gear which makes climbing easy, even for out of shape people like me!
I’ve shortened the stem to a 60mm, this is more of a personal preference since I have short arms and all.
We’ll be testing out the Airborne Goblin out. In fact we’re doing something a bit different, this will be a panel review that will consist of 3 different riders testing it. So stick around!
That top tube is pretty aggressively curved, is that just for smaller sizes or do all the frames look like that? What’s the weight as-tested?
I still think you need to send it over for some East Coast testing 😉
Specs are really nice for the price point, especially brakes… surprised they managed to get Elixir 7’s on there!
The 16″ frames look like that, curved top tube. But the 18″ looks more like a traditional frame.
What RL said.
Only the 16″ frames are curved so that we can fit riders with inseams as short as 27 inches. The old 16″ frames without the curve only got us down to about 28.5-ish inches.
We made the change in response to a rather interesting shift in customer demographics.
Conventional wisdom stated that mid-sized to taller customers were the only ones buying 29ers. However this past year we found that we sold a surprising number of smaller 16″ Goblins and Guardians, so much so that we ran out of the 16″ Goblins way earlier than expected.
We found that there were many men and women that were candidates for the 16″ sizes that were just on the edge of not having enough clearance with the straight top-tube, so we made the change to accomodate them better with this new run.
At this time only the 16″ Goblin has the curve, but we are considering doing the same thing to the Guardian 16″ later on in the future when we do another production run.
Hope that makes sense!
Jeremy