2.23.2006

Balfa

Balfa is a Canadian company following the current trend for new mountainbike companies, which is making DH bikes and heavy-duty hardtails. That's about all I know about them. [edit] I believe that Balfa is a much-missed company. There's a couple of them running around town and they look pretty cool. Also, I believe the Balfa guys are back at it, but I don't remember what the new company is called.


BB-7 - The BB-7 is a fairly simple looking DH bike with 7 inches of rear wheel travel. [edit] 'fairly simple'?!?! Yeah, well, I was never a DH guy. A Santa Cruz Super 8 is 'fairly simple' - this bike was complex - and cool.



Bobonum - I just can't believe how crappy this bike looks. It's as if CCM decided to make a DH bike. Now that "Krusher" fork looks extraordinarly beefy, but the frame and swingarm look like it they would snap coming off a 2' drop.

If there's anybody out there who can dispute my take on the quality of this bike, please do. [edit] This email is of course dead - please leave comments right on this post.

2 comments:

80 said...

I'm not surprised to hear that at all - Balfa has a very good reputation in these parts, rare as they are...

Alan said...

Hi again,

I left this last comment some time back. I can't remember if it was before or after I got my Balfa Wooly Bully (xc model ~ the same year). What I can say more accurately now is that the bobonum was definitely one of the strongest DH bikes of it's time. Of course by today's standards it's likely not 'the strongest bike ever built'.

The tubing looks small and flimzy because it is steel. And pretty thick steel from what I can tell on my Balfa. While hastely hammering the headset on my bike I missed and rapped the bottom of the down-tube. It got a pretty smal dent for such a hard blow. The Balfas of that time were certainly not using the popular thin steel tubing that dents much easier (my catamount does).

This site is excellent I hope you put on some more old skool bikes like mine.

Alan