yeah no kidding; going from a heavy 55lbs DH rig to a 30lbs HT on the same trails is an eye opener. Sorta brings back that feeling that you can actually control the bike rather than using it to plow through everything.Bicyclist said:
Appalache Real - 33lb full on DH bike, now thats light!!
- Thread starter jamie@balfa
- Start date
tell me about it...zedro said:
I'm a old cross country rider (26 years and counting) and I still remeber when the mazazines were scare when early mountain bike was under 40 pounds (yeah fully rigid, 6 speed cluster) but a lot of water pass under the bridge since then and today is not so dificult to find a cross country bike that is about 25 pounds..
anyway as much as I love all the suspension linkages and all the fancy disc brakes and Bigass forks Downhil bikes will work far better if they when on a diet, i just don't know how to make it happend, well i do but it cost far to much money specially if you have a many bikes as i do..
let me tell you after all Titanium Bolts are not that much cheaper by the dozen..
Jm_ said:
wow great work Jm, no way in hell i have the paccince to measure all that stuff..
Ok guys, typo on the forks, they were 5.95lbs out of the box with full length steerer, bumpers and axle.
Im still waiting for another accurate set of scales to turn up to re-measure it.
On another note just had Manitou Swinger 4 Way Airs turn up to fit, 517g inc all the hardware (steel axle, alloy spacers) in a 2.75" x 8.75" length and the Revox has also turned up, same size and inc the same hardware comes at 768g which has a Ti spring as standard.
J
Im still waiting for another accurate set of scales to turn up to re-measure it.
On another note just had Manitou Swinger 4 Way Airs turn up to fit, 517g inc all the hardware (steel axle, alloy spacers) in a 2.75" x 8.75" length and the Revox has also turned up, same size and inc the same hardware comes at 768g which has a Ti spring as standard.
J
My boxxers are 6.2 pounds, or 2820 grams. Your scale sucks, or its incredibly optimistic. 
jamie@balfa said:
interesting
thats exactly 50g more than what the vanilla RC that came stock on the 02 bb7 weighed, including a 500lbs steel spring
http://www.ultimatesupport.com/s.nl/sc.21/category.61/it.A/id.2851/.fjamie@balfa said:
Those are the scales we use at the shop to weigh bikes. Very accurate, so much so you can weigh all the individual components with them also. They work very good.
I'll add this to the discussion for the skeptics. The Appalache Real that I had last fall weighed in at 37lbs and 38 lbs on two different shops scales. It was built up modestly with an 05 boxxer worldcup on the light end of things and a set of the old heavy atomlab trailpimp rims. In between there was nothing carbon. Avid jucy's xt shifters and derailers, Azonic bar, Raceface prodigy cranks etc. The shock was an old fox RC.
Who cares how light the damn thing is? Is it fast?
hmm i have that rear hub (american classic) on my trailbike, it lasted 1 year and now it engages a bit weird, and some parts have ovalized and i had to machine new out of steel to avoid replacing and relacing
nokon on the other hand, yummy!
nokon on the other hand, yummy!
I think Jamie's scale is slightly off. That bike is going to be 35-36lbs with the build shown, which is still silly light for a 9" travel bike. No harm done Jamie....
Also, the rear end is chromoly and quite stiff considering the tubes' diameters and lack of a thru-axle.
I have a very accurate scale at my house - a baby weighing scale (yes baby, we just had triplets) that the public health nurse dropped off at our house. But that's another story.
My frame w/o shock weighs ~7lbs 5oz. With a 6 Way Swinger with steel coil it weighs ~9lbs 4oz. I'll be looking at putting a 4 Way Air on there as well. My build which will be on the light side should put the bike at about 37-38lbs. with a Mojo Boxxer, Azonic Ti/mag pedals, Stone Edge ti headset, etc, etc...
We'll see once I finally get it built up.
Also, the rear end is chromoly and quite stiff considering the tubes' diameters and lack of a thru-axle.
I have a very accurate scale at my house - a baby weighing scale (yes baby, we just had triplets) that the public health nurse dropped off at our house. But that's another story.
My frame w/o shock weighs ~7lbs 5oz. With a 6 Way Swinger with steel coil it weighs ~9lbs 4oz. I'll be looking at putting a 4 Way Air on there as well. My build which will be on the light side should put the bike at about 37-38lbs. with a Mojo Boxxer, Azonic Ti/mag pedals, Stone Edge ti headset, etc, etc...
We'll see once I finally get it built up.
I had a nice chat to Jamie today about the weights. Had a quick blast on one built up with Boxxer Airs and generally nice light bits. Felt freakin' awesome! Good work lads.
Well, the appalache Réal is light, under 10 pounds with a regular steel coil, but what it is not is a race only fragile frame.
Jamie did a very nice and light build, but it still is a very strong and stiff serious downhill chassis.
Granite table flex measurements have shown its rear axle to BB torsional stiffness to be very similar to that of a heavy duty steel hardtail.
The Réal is a direct evolution of my previous downhill designs, and those frames have, over the years, proven to be one of the longer lasting.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts!
Jerome Roy
Jamie did a very nice and light build, but it still is a very strong and stiff serious downhill chassis.
Granite table flex measurements have shown its rear axle to BB torsional stiffness to be very similar to that of a heavy duty steel hardtail.
The Réal is a direct evolution of my previous downhill designs, and those frames have, over the years, proven to be one of the longer lasting.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts!
Jerome Roy
Jerome I'm so glad to see you postingm here..loulou said:
From one designer to another (sadlly i don't think I'm at your level) I congratulate you for you Inmaculate sense of style and pracmatic engeniering.
Today I have three of your balfa's frames (used to have another one but was a little to small) and I enjoy every minute of them when I'm riding them and even more then i'm working on them since the details are amazing and extremelly well resolve
hopefully your BigOld Brain is working on new projects for the benefit of the comunity
sincerlly
Ricardo
Thanks Ricardo,
Yeah the bicycle is a open text on the state of technical knowledge.There are so many way to acheive the same goal.
I like all machines from looms to skidders and helicopters...
I just read the text on the work of Alex Morgan in Decline Magazine, that was good!
and the frame pictures are so nice!
Nice to hear from you Ricardo! you design bicycles?
Yeah the bicycle is a open text on the state of technical knowledge.There are so many way to acheive the same goal.
I like all machines from looms to skidders and helicopters...
I just read the text on the work of Alex Morgan in Decline Magazine, that was good!
and the frame pictures are so nice!
Nice to hear from you Ricardo! you design bicycles?
I can not agree with you ..loulou said:
I work On more Airplanes, Helicopters, Bulletproof cars, and many less complicated objects and designs, but none of them are as simple and as complicated at the same time as a bicycle, specially if you compare the amount of results they deliver, well maybe Skateboards and think like this Quadcarver I help design..
as you say out of a bunch of tubes, two tyres and some other simple parts you can have a billion diferent permutations, some far better than others, and yours are Up there on the very top self (in my Opinion) actually your bike filosofy remind me of Russian Aircraft design were the whole object is understandable with out a 300 page operation manual and pretty much everything can be fix in the "Field" or at least Service and replace with Out the shelf bearing and bolts..
for example One of My Balfas is a old BB7 2201 to be exact and that Pulley that You make is just a Thing of beauty (the one with the shimano cassete cog holder)So, so simple and elegant but also so strong and design to be serviciable and made to last for ever , Oviuslly better parts came after since everything evolves (and sadlly sometmes De-evolve to cost cutting reasons and some other issues) but is easy to see your intent of making the part the best you can at that time with the resouses you have around at that time,, again looks like you did your very best or at least try really hard..
anyway is nice to have around a designer of your qualifications, hopefully some day we get to meet in person and share some design ideas...
plus I really hope you are working on new projects since a brain and a heart like your swill be a waste to be left idle...
Actually i got to see that magazine for the first time and read that article you are taking about,, Nice very nice work...
I made a few just for fun from the ground up, but i kind of sucks at the constrution part since i'm a little to impacient and sloppy...
I have a deggre in industrial design and also a masters in Ergonomics with heavy enfasis in Biomecanics and focus on human power aplications. not only for transportation or even fun but to be used as "Power sourses" in remote areas of 3th world countrys (were I use to live)
Curentlly i have a small design firm and i mostlly produce motorcycle
solutions related to Ergonomic issues Here is my little website
plus I like to thinker around in what i call "Pennytech" creating very simple solutions with very comun tools that anybody else can reach,, kind of a strange past time for i like it a lot Here are My photo galleries with a million diferent little projects plus a bunch of other people work, some how like a library if you like..