MILC AND GOBLIN BIKES – INNOVATIVE TOURING BIKE AT CONCOURS DE MACHINE 2016

The frame, designed for 650b wheel size, is handmade from  Tange Prestige Japan (Double Butted - Heat threated) steel tubes for the front triangle with an handmade-by MILC bottom bracket - press fit 86 , same for the 44mm headtube that welcome the front soft suspension. The rear triangle is handemade from Dedacciai Adamantis with a special steel tube shape to allow flexibility for the soft tail suspension.
Yes, the GOBLIN BIKES SPECIAL 01 especially built for the CONCOURS DE MACHINE 2016 is far from being a regular touring bike as this exceptional machine features a rear and a front soft suspensions...and this is not the only surprising features.

MILC's team has a serious background and history with suspension either with their experience at SUNN developing full suspension MTB and now Antidote Solutions specialized in measuring suspension efficiency but not only. You can understand now that with a such background they could not skip the integration of suspensions to this machine !

Let's start with the front suspension that has straight fork blades made of Dedicciai steel, Columbus steerer and flip-up device handmade of aluminum that received the disc-mount and the thru-axle. The suspension by itself works with 2 six-sided elastomer on each side squeezed with force in the flip-up device and also compressed with 6 flakes / piano wire to gain compression otherwise the suspension was too smooth and no working properly. A set of 3 different elastomer can be set up depending on the hardness requested.
The CONCOURS DE MACHINE is like a giant lab.  After the 3 races MILC has discovered some torsion on the front fork due to the strength created by the front disc brake. They are already re-thinking flip-up - front hub device to correct the propagation of the strength and prevent any risk of twist.

This suspension quickly remind me the process use in the concept bike develop by Alex Pong in 1993-1994 for Cannondale using six-sided large elastomer placed on monoblade front and rear suspensions, but it was not working. Well at this time it was more a design exercise than developing an operational bike.

The rear suspension is a bit different because it does not use any kind of  spring but works around the natural freedom given to the seattube and seatbase. Its functioning thanks to the natural flexibility and responsiveness of magic steel tubes..... Those "seatbase" have a special shape (Dedicciai steel tubes) and are connected with a Thru axle on the top tube instead of the seatube. This freedom allows the seatbase, and also the seatube but in a miner way, to flex and absorbs more than small vibration to bring a real comfort to the pilot. Of course the suspension is develop not to lose any lateral rigidity.

MILC and GOLBLIN BIKES have work on a very nice integrated light and powering system. The bike has Supernova E3 Pure 3 front light integreated in the headtube and E3 Tail Lights 2 rear light integrated in the integrated seatpost. Those 2 light are powered by a silent Velogical dynamo that is placed on the seatbase. But this dynamo is at the center of a more "complex system", it is link to a 3 positions switch that let the choice to the pilot to power off all the system, power on lights or power on the USB plug integrated on the handmade upper part of headset. This USB plug is a pretty useful stuff for anyone who wants to charge a phone or a GPS system : to make this possible there is a small electronic stuff to change the alternative voltage to continuous 5v.
The choice to use a Velogical dynamo is to have light system working on self-sufficiently with no issue related to a battery life, it is an important point for a touring machine.

About "regular" components the drivetrain is composed of a Shimano Dura-Ace transmission 11speeds with an Ultegra 11-32 cassette (not available in Dura-Ace) and a Rotor 3D+ Crankset with 50x34 Rotor NoQ rings. Wheels are Mavic Crossmax SL Pro 650B  with Compass Baby Shoe 650Bx42c tires. The stem iss a Thomson Elite X2 and the handlebar an FSA Energy Compact.