Does anyone know of a shop that sells the Appalache Real mtn bike? I'm getting back into riding and I'm interested in this frame. I used to ride a bb7.
Appalache Real sold in the US?
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the bike is finished, no more. Jerome Roy (designer) decided to call it quits, to much work to sell a few DH bikes, too bad he's a great mind for DH.
did they ever hit the market? i remember reading about them and I really liked the design, but it seems like they were just a flash in the pan.
They were the same bike as the balfa bb7. Or if not the exact same very similar.
really cool frames. too bad he couldn't make a go of it (seems to be a re-occurring story in the industry, unfortunately).
How is the guy running XPrezo fairing with his frames/bikes? Any good?
another ex-balfa alumni, huh? they do like their bolt-on steel swingarms.
that thing is like an all grown up Belair - I like it - but I think it is pretty spendy compared to the competition if I recall.
Edit: wow - they have a pretty extensive line up of frames now! Pretty cool!
Edit: wow - they have a pretty extensive line up of frames now! Pretty cool!
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don't even think about you silly boy. You been out of the game a while. Give me a call on my cell 713-2459 and I'll get you the low down on any deals out there. Good to hear you're back. Still whoopin' on adled teens?
I'm amazed that Transcend hasn't gone ape**** in this thread already. Must be something with that European air.. 
I love the looks of the Appalache Real, but the BB7 just wasn't my cup. But that Xprezo also looks fast and beautiful, I'd like to test ride that.
I love the looks of the Appalache Real, but the BB7 just wasn't my cup. But that Xprezo also looks fast and beautiful, I'd like to test ride that.
I have a feeling the appalache real is not gone for good. A british guy bought the name Balfa(balfa.co.uk) he is also the distributor and not that long ago he was asking people on a British forum about having these produced in the UK or Taiwan. They are still for sale in the Uk as a mate just bought one.
I managed to crack in 3 places a GT DH I swingarm in Whistler after one full summer of riding.
My BB7 got me through 2 full summers in Whistler without ever showing signs of giving up. I believe in steel for swingarms!!
I emailed the uk importer regarding the frame not being made anymore. This is the reply i got.
j-posch
Do you happen to have a link to that forum/discussion ?
Im supercurios about where you got that info. And if its true and such, just wondering since its not exactly what i heard from the uk dudes.
Saw one at Mont Sainte Anne a few weeks ago... they had it there for the WC race. Spoke with the guy at the team tent for a bit. 8.5" travel, aluminum front, steel rear. Should've got a few pics, but didn't. Looked a bit like a cross between the Raah and BB7. Specs sounded good. I rode the Raah there last season. Nice bikes.
Straight from the Xprezo news blog, the race crew posing with the new steed
Attachments
It was on southerndownhill.com, search the forum on there.[/QUOTE]
Thanks man, found it.
http://www.southerndownhill.com/forum/index.php/topic,137789.0.html
The guy on the far right was at the Bromont World Cup with his bike and let me ride it around the parking lot. The felt really nice, even though I couldn't really tell just riding the parking lot. the suspension was super smooth and felt like spot on race geo with very low CG. All I can say is if I ever get the chance to buy one, I probably will.
Seems every year they creep furher and further away from there great design the BB7, they're devolving not evolving. That bike above looks awful, chainline pivot with non linkage driven shock, um that was over five years ago
front gusset looks niceHmmmm wasn't the BB7 a chainline pivot non linkage driven shock bike....
HI PIVOT,makes up a lot for the non linkage driven shock and was a good compramise for weight and low weight, not ideal, but f***ing good. BB7 was close to five years ago, I mentioned evolution of the design, Take a point though, good on you
you deserve it.
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Don't confuse the Xprezo and the Appalache. The Xprezo Furax has nothing to do with the BB7/Réal as it doesn't originate from the BB7 design in any way...apart maybe for the steel swingarm. Design-wise, the Furax is quite close to a one-off bike the Xprezo welder did a few years ago and the Réal is the only true BB7 follow-up.
On a side note, the first production year of the BB7 was 1999. So that would make the design close to 10 years (not 5).
On a side note, the first production year of the BB7 was 1999. So that would make the design close to 10 years (not 5).
Can I get two points?:biggrin:HI PIVOT,makes up a lot for the non linkage driven shock and was a good compramise for weight and low weight, not ideal, but f***ing good. BB7 was close to five years ago, I mentioned evolution of the design, Take a point though, good on you
What was that massive all steal Dh sled they had years back? Someone here in the Northeast used to have one of those with some obscure fork. Gawd, I lusted over that bike
What was the last production year? They evolved the whole time, then I think with the Real the pivot got lowered a touch, then again the second year. I just woke up, this is like some law school bad dream with all the nit picking.
I'd like to see that.
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@Inclag: You probably refer to the Balfa Nouveau Riche (or NR). The latter NR had an alu front triangle, but the first models were all steel. Prior to that, there was the Balfa Bobonum that was all steel (and URT...). Up until a couple of years back, we would still see people riding Bobonum and NRs at Mont-Sainte-Anne. I haven't seen any for a while.
@no skid mark: I think Balfa got bought by Procycle in 2004. There were still Balfa produced by Procycle in 2005, but I don't think there were any in 2006. I may be wrong on that. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Basically, they were very different in 99, 00, 01 and 02, but the 03, 04 and 05 were much more similar. The Appalache Réal is using the same suspension layout as the BB7, but it is much more refined. Most of my friends are riding Réals...they were all riding BB7s and they just can believe how the Réal rips.
No, they were not from the same designer. All Balfas were created by Jérôme Roy, but Hugo Bardou is the main guy at Xprezo. Hugo was there are the beginning of Balfa, but he now runs Xprezo and they are different companies. It's not like Xprezo it the "continuation" of Balfa or anything. Appalache is the continuation of Balfa and that's it.
@no skid mark: I think Balfa got bought by Procycle in 2004. There were still Balfa produced by Procycle in 2005, but I don't think there were any in 2006. I may be wrong on that. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Basically, they were very different in 99, 00, 01 and 02, but the 03, 04 and 05 were much more similar. The Appalache Réal is using the same suspension layout as the BB7, but it is much more refined. Most of my friends are riding Réals...they were all riding BB7s and they just can believe how the Réal rips.
No, they were not from the same designer. All Balfas were created by Jérôme Roy, but Hugo Bardou is the main guy at Xprezo. Hugo was there are the beginning of Balfa, but he now runs Xprezo and they are different companies. It's not like Xprezo it the "continuation" of Balfa or anything. Appalache is the continuation of Balfa and that's it.
Thanks flipside, for clearing that up. I think the 05 Balfas were just unsold 04 stock that were bought by Procycle, I may be wrong though.
Those NRs are rad, they even had jack shafts like BMW. good for ground clearance, bad for fuglyness.
Those NRs are rad, they even had jack shafts like BMW. good for ground clearance, bad for fuglyness.
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I heart google
The nouveau riche
If i could I'd love to try to get one of these.
Wonder why they didn't run smaller chainrings on the crank drive side.I heart google
The nouveau riche
If i could I'd love to try to get one of these.
Nice bike.
Any close up pics of the linkage?
Can't find any, but it's similar in style to what Sunn and the GT RTS used.
Flipside, do you remember who made those non-inverted forks that had no arch? Till this day I haven't seen many bikes that visually appeared to be glued to the ground as those old NR's did.
Might be due to the 24 Nokians weight:biggrin:
the nr's were very cool. another french canadian favorite of mine (also with jackshaft) was the devinci big bang. burly:
