We've been Following Arizona mountain bike
rider/writer/blogger Justin
Schmid on Twitter (@wandering_j) for
awhile now, but never communicated with him directly. So imagine
our surprise and delight to see that he'd selected the Airborne
Goblin for his "Three Great Deals" feature article in
yesterday's Phoenix Examiner.
Other honorees were Schwinn's venerable Frontier Expert and
Cannondale's Trail SL2, both excellent bikes in
their own right (although we might suggest a spec-by-spec
comparison between the $439 Frontier and our $345 Spectre).
In addition to saying nice things
about us, we like the fact that Justin understands there's more to
bike-life than zillion-dollar dream machines:
Any bicycle company should be able to make a great $5,000
bike. But it's trickier to offer a bike for a fraction of that
price without slashing a big chunk of the performance. Since May is
Bike
Month, now's the time to check out bikes that can get
you into the sport or be your shiny new second bike - without
maxing out the credit card.
Here's what he has to say about the Goblin:
Here we are at the highest range of our "value bike"
spectrum. The Goblin
is $1,199, and absolutely stuffed with good parts: The Reba fork
and Avid Elixir R brakes would be at home on a bike twice the
price. The SRAM X-7 20-speed drivetrain is capable, but not
flashy.
You can read the complete article
here.
If fairness, Justin's not completely sold on our
direct-to-consumer model. But we've invited him to demo a Goblin to
see our out-of-box experience for himself, so stay tuned. Also,
Airborne bikes are also available both online and in-store at
selected Sun and Ski
stores in Texas and 12 other states' worth of locations for
test-ride.