Originally Posted by
essentialoils
Hi all! I recently just purchased my first road bike, found a good deal on craigslist and got some advice from some of you here at bikeforums. Was wondering if you guys could tell me a little bit more about this bike from the pictures ? Thanks a lot and hope you're all having a great holiday.
http://imgur.com/kXGDsLW
Hi ess .. , and welcome to the Airborne "club". I have a 2000 Airborne Zeppelin, purchased new from the company in Dayton OH. Mine is equipped with mostly Ultegra 3x9 components. I believe that yours is at least a year or two newer based on the decals. Also there is a HUGE difference in the rear dropouts; yours are larger and include a replaceable derailleur hanger. Also your headtube is quite different; mine is just a straight diameter, without the flaring at the top and bottom. Is your fork 1" or 1-1/8"?
Originally Posted by
Looigi
Airbornes I'm familiar with were Ti and had very nice welds (including the one I have). The one in the pic looks more like lumpy aluminum welds. Is it Ti or Al? Also, components seem rather low spec compared to the norm for the Zeps I've seen. Did Airborne ever make Al bikes?
Have to agree that it does sort of aluminum "glow" to it, especially on the photo of the whole bike on the link provided (
http://imgur.com/kXGDsLW). So I'm not positive exactly what you have here. It is possible that they made some out of aluminum in later years. The original Airborne company went out of business at some point in time (not sure when), and the current Airborne company makes only mountain bikes and is not associated with the original company.
As to the lower level components on the bike, at least at the time I purchased mine, you could have it built any way you wanted with any components you wanted. Mine has a Shimano XTR rear derailleur and cassette, shifted nicely with my Ultegra 6503 brifters.
More photos would be helpful.
Regards, Dick