Shuffleman

I am getting ready to purchase a new mtb and was looking for some guidance. I am a long time mtb rider, turned roadie, who has gotten back into mtb after years of being out. I bought a Giant Revel and upgraded the fork to the Raidon. It has been a descent bike but I am unhappy with it on many levels. First are the dreadful breaks. They are the worst of any bike that I have ever owned. I guess that they wanted to say that it had disc brakes. Secondly it is really, really heavy. Thirdly, the groupset is not the best but it does work well enough.
I have been looking at options and keep coming back to the Airborne Gobblin or Griffin. I can't find any information about their weight though. I am not a weight weenie but I would like to compare it to what I have currently. The only reasons that I have not pulled the trigger on one of these yet is the Sramm components and the weight. Sramm is fine but I ride Campy on my road bikes and Shimano on my mtb. For 20 years all my mtbs have had shimano but Airborne's pricing makes it hard to not move on that issue. Now, about that weight?
Goblin - Airborne Bicycle Co

Before all the LBS banter starts. I support mine. I just don't like Giant and Trek. That is what they sell. The other option in my town are Specialized and Cannondale. I like different bikes though. I get bored of everybody having the same thing.

Wingsprint

The Airbornes seem to offer a lot of value for the money. Goblin is the lighter of the two and is around 28lbs.

The Sram X7 stuff is pretty good.

The big drawback to the Goblin and Griffin is they both are using outdated geometry and design. The 29er market has moved to slacker head tubes and shorter chain stays than the Airbornes currently have. The Airbornes are still using 9mm quick releases while the industry has moved to 15mm or 20mm thru axles-- that alone would be a deal breaker for me.

Canker

The Griffin is their newest? and is a bit slacked out with a 69 degree head angle and has thru axles front a rear but being a 27.5+ isn't going to be lightweight.

JonathanGennick 

Airborne has a Facebook page, and they seem to respond to queries put on it. There is also a somewhat active and definitely enthusiastic Airborne forum over on mtbr.com. Post there, and someone will likely have weights for you.

FWIW, and speaking to Wingsprint's comment, I remember the Goblin top tube lengths as being shorter than is typical these days, and thus not so friendly toward running short stems. I notice the Airborne site doesn't list those lengths anymore for the Goblin, whereas they do list top tube for the Griffen. The Griffen geo seems fine to me, tbh. I like the paint scheme too.

s0ul_chicken

The Goblin stock weight is just over 28 pounds, and the Griffin stock weight comes in at 32 pounds. I would also recommend going a size up if you aren't sure what size to get, as they seem to run a bit on the small side.

@Shuffleman - what type of terrain are you riding on? The Griffin has it's place in the MTB world, but I would have to say it is rather limited. I ride in the desert southwest, and the Griffin is right at home here in the sand and loose over hard pack. I mean, this bike rails, and rolls through 2 inch sand like it isn't even there. I currently have mine setup tubeless, and run 11 psi in front, and 12.5 psi in the rear, and I am almost as fast as my 24 pound Goblin (I can get lighter, but love the dropper post too much). Since the pressures are so low, you get a bit of squish in the back, making for a very comfortable ride for a hardtail, especially if you want to take the long way home.

Wingsprint

My bad- I had the Guardian and Griffin mixed up. My comments regarding the 9mm QR's and gemometry were directed at the Goblin and Guardian.

Shuffleman

[QUOTE=s0ul_chicken;18627601]The Goblin stock weight is just over 28 pounds, and the Griffin stock weight comes in at 32 pounds. I would also recommend going a size up if you aren't sure what size to get, as they seem to run a bit on the small side.

@Shuffleman - what type of terrain are you riding on? The Griffin has it's place in the MTB world, but I would have to say it is rather limited. I ride in the desert southwest, and the Griffin is right at home here in the sand and loose over hard pack. I mean, this bike rails, and rolls through 2 inch sand like it isn't even there. I currently have mine setup tubeless, and run 11 psi in front, and 12.5 psi in the rear, and I am almost as fast as my 24 pound Goblin (I can get lighter, but love the dropper post too much). Since the pressures are so low, you get a bit of squish in the back, making for a very comfortable ride for a hardtail, especially if you want to take the long way home.

I ride in South East Georgia and North East Florida. There does tend to be pretty sandy tracks where I ride. Lots of roots as well. Not much in the way of hills. No need for FS. I am looking at a couple of options, one being the Airborne. I am also looking at the Cube Attention and a Ridley CF frame sold by Performance bike ($499). I would have to build it out but that is not an issue and I even like the idea as I did it with my road bike and loved the process and the bike. I just get tired of the same bikes that everybody else has. I like to see different ones from time to time. I rarely, if ever, see any of these three.

s0ul_chicken

Agreed! The bikes tend to get glances, and questions from other riders.

osco53

Most people around these parts are working people with very busy lives,, We all tend to ride pretty hard and tend to buy what our Local bike shops sell and support. I know riders who ride the weekend and then drop the bike at the bike shop on monday,,pick it up friday,,really. People with money never sease to amaze me
We have Trek dealers, Specialized and Giant Dealers. Those seem to be the big three.
I ride a Scott, also from a local dealer, another does Santa Cruz, that's about it..