I'm sad to say its back to the drawing board for a new front derailleur to replace the Goblin's SRAM X7.

The Shimano XT I picked up from eBay, looks and feels the part however the shifting cage on the front is a little too long to get it adjusted and shifting properly as it doesn't quite sit right with the Goblin's chainstays.

I'll pop the XT back on eBay and persevere for the time being until I can figure out another option.

On a more successful note I did manage to sell the wheelset and tires from the Skyhawk on Craigslist this week increasing the sale fund by another $75.  Making sure I am well on the way to recouping a chunk of the cost of the Goblin.  I now have a frame to sell along with the Suntour Raidon forks.

In the meantime it looks like the weather has taken a turn for the worst this weekend and its rained pretty much non stop yesterday and all through the night, with the possibility of snow on Sunday.  After the downpour the trails will be pretty beat up so I'll have to play it by ear as to if I can get out and ride this weekend.  If not I'm sure I'll find something else to tinker with.

Shimano XT Front Derailleur FD-M771 High Clamp 34.9

One thing I have never had any success with is managing to set up an SRAM Front Derailleur.  Be that the X-3 of the Skyhawk, or the X-7 of the Goblin.  Hours of adjustments, step by step guides on YouTube and I just can't seem to ever get them shifting right.

I've found Shimano derailleurs, however, can be set up in minutes and without hassle, so the search was on to ditch the SRAM and replace with a solid Shimano derailleur.

A quick eBay search brought up this gem, a few bids and I was pleased to say I won the bidding for $19 + $6 shipping.



mtbr reviews seem particularly positive so I'm excited to receive it.  I'll report back on fitting & set up once it arrives.

As my last bike (Skyhawk) and current bike (Goblin) are both from Airborne, I'm a big fan of the brand.  They seem to be carving out a definite and solid fan base based on their competitive pricing and direct to the consumer business model.

When operating that type of business model one thing you need to be doubly sure of when building a brand is that your customer is extremely well looked after, you only have to read Airborne's sub forum on mtbr to see lots of positive reports of Airborne going above and beyond to keep customers happy and ensure that they instill the level of trust required from a brand who only sells online.

There's been a lot of excitement around the release of Airborne's latest offering, described as a more trail specific, less out and out XC version of the Goblin, aptly named...Goblin Evolution.

The specs look just as impressive as the pictures and the $1,599.95 price point making this a particularly exciting prospect.

Airborne Describe the new Goblin Evolution on their website:
"Frame optimized for 120mm travel fork

Larger diameter top-tube, downtube, chainstays, and seatstays

Contoured "Round-to-Square" seat-tube with direct FD mount

Pressfit GXP BB shell

Clearance for 2.5inch tires

142x12mm rear Maxle

69 degree HT with 435mm chainstays and 12.5inch BB height

All of the above changes make the Goblin Evolution better suited and dialed in for trail use. When it comes to spec, we've included parts that we knew would make an awesome trail Goblin: 120mm RockShox Revelation fork with 15mm Maxle and lock-out, Hayes Prime Comp hydraulic brakes, X7 2x10 drive train with an X9 Type 2 RD, Sun-Ringle Charger Comp tubeless-ready wheelset with custom matching decals, Maxxis Ardent 2.4 folding bead tires, and a Truvative Stylo T-30 cockpit."

With pre orders being taken for a February Delivery I'm sure they will fly of the shelves.

Source: http://www.airbornebicycles.com/products/137-goblin-evolution.aspx

The cold weather has firmly set in here in in Northern Virginia and being a little more pressed for time I decided to defer from my usual Staurday morning ride at Fountainhead Regional Park and make the short 10 minute drive to the route known locally as Difficult run, which takes in sections through Lake Fairfax Park, the Cross Country Trail and the W&OD.  The route is approximatley 9.5miles and I can consistently get round in approx 50 minutes.

With it being so cold I wasn't hanging around this morning and got out on the trail as quickly as I could, before I hopped out of the car I quickly snapped the display which showed the temperature at a healthy 28 degrees Fahrenheit:



Without messing around I unleashed the goblin into the crisp morning and headed of to whizz round as quickly as I could:

There's lots of different ways to mix up this run however the most popular route starts out at the Ice Rink car park off Michael Faraday Drive.  Heading into the trails around lake Fairfax park at the top corner of the car park.  There's lots of different ways of describing the route however the best way to show the route I take is to check out my route on Strava.

http://www.strava.com/activities/97837954

The trail was pretty iced, ground was hard and it was fairly fast rolling, I couldn't feel my hands by the end of it so do need to consider some thicker gloves if I'm going to be out in the cold again however, I did get to break out one of my black Friday purchases from yesterday, I picked up a pair of the below Nike base layer pants for the princely sum of $36 dollars form Dick's Sporting Goods.

They held up great today and although not cycling specific, worn with some liner shorts underneath my baggies they worked a treat.  I'll post up a review after I've had chance to give them a few more outings.

Until next time....