found a new toy

[ianbike]

Hey guys. I think that I've decided to do the bike thing since I don't really wheel enough for a SAS to be economical. Heres my proposed plan, lemme know what you think.

2001 Balfa bb7 frame, handmade in Canada w/ 7.6 inches of rear travel. Marzocchi Monster T, Sun Doublewides front and rear(24 inch rear wheel). Race Face goodies all around, MRP chainguide, Shimano XT rear deraileur and shifter. Hayes discs with the 8 inch rotors. Nokian Gazzalodi 2.6 inch tires front and back.


Then there my other planned bike for every day use

Some sort of hardtail, preferrably a Norco or a Rocky Mountain. All the parts off my 2000 Rocky Mountain Pipeline= marzocchi z.3 qr20 with 5 inches. All shimano XT parts with a formula disc in the front, race face crank and bb. Sun Rhyno lites with 2.4 motoraptors.

Doesn't this sound like a completeley blissful waste of money? Hopefully i'll have it done by mid summer.

[Kyron]

What da mean SAS not being economical??? How much is that Balfa going to cost ya??

AND where you going to ride that beast?......

[ianbike]

Well, simply put, I don't wheel enough for a SAS to be practical right now, and the wheeling that I do isn't super insane so my ifs is just fine for the time being. The Balfa actually wont be too bad. I'm estimating about $3500 for the whole buildup. And in terms of finding places to ride it, well I can hit up any trail since it's a dh bike built for super technical terrain. It handles much better than an ordinary dh bike so I won't be able to climb much, but I can suffer with pushing. I also have planned to setup another bike too which would be more for all around use.

[Downhiller]

The Balfa is a great choice. I rode for them in '99 and '00 and put about 3,500 miles on my BB7. I did zero maintenance on the swing arm pivot, and it was still smooth when I sold it. The parts list you are considering is almost exactly how I had mine set up, it worked great.

[ianbike]

Thanks for the info downhiller. Makes me feel a lot better about my planned purchase. I called a bike shop that carries Balfa and told the owner about the deal that I could get from a different place and the guy told me to straight up buy it withought even test riding it. Apparently he's riding balfa too and says that the frame is incredible. So That convinced me. I'm callin the guy who has it in about 5 minutes to seal the deal. Have a good one.

[fire_beer_mayhem]

If you want a good 8" travel bike check out the Bombshell stuff. The mindbomb frame has a little over 8 inches of travel and cost alot less. You can get the complete bike for $2500 it is supose to ride like an M1. The forks it comes with are very much like the monster T.

[ianbike]

Well, I put a down payment on the frame. I payed the guy half of it, and when it comes I'll pay the other half. Should be in by the end of this week if not sooner.