I am just about to buy an ORYX SPIT FIRE 33. I hope the reason they dont make bikes anymore in not because they were not good.

any info is awsome

Small canadian market with 3 major companies going head to head. Not enough buying power for competition. Procycle purchase/owner the three biggies. Balfa, Oryx and RM. All three companies made similarily marketted bikes with varrying production costs.

Blafa used old technology with outrageous production costs for bikes that werent always the best quality.

RM uses old technology with high production costs, it holds its value due to handmade and the name itself, consistent quality and the best reputation due to various pro riders.

Oryx was a small company make crappy bikes that slowly broke into the market. Decent price point but never broke through.

Balfa is gone, oryx is reduced to value bikes and RM is the only one of the three making freeride and dh bikes. Probably a good move as oryx would never be able to break rm and norco's stranglehold on the north shore fr scene so would never make their money back on the bikes.

Ok that cool, but are you saying that i shouldnt buy an ORYX? I thought that it was the same as Rocky Mountain?

Thanks

Its not...They are owned by the same parent company. But run differently. Oryx focused more on the average budget rider (or tried to) RM doesn't give a rats ass about your pocket book, they just want to gauge you for as much money as possible for outdated crappy technology (speaking fr bikes only here, they make good xc bikes) Oryx and RM have no business operations that are the same.

That may change but that would be a very dumb move on the part of procycle.

Mael, what do you mean Balfa is gone? You mean reduced to NEARLY nothing, arent even comparable to the other two or what?

We still have a Balfa Distributor over here, i always thought Balfa were very high end frames... But then again, I used to think Ellsworth was the badgers nadgers...

As far as I know balfa is done (meaning doors closed the company sold etc). But then again procycle could pigeon hole them into mid range frames, who knows.

Balfa is ok. different strokes. I didn't like how expensive the bikes were, how ugly they were, or the geometry.

https://www.mtbkanata.net/forums/lofi...hp/t10669.html

Ok I guess it is still up the air. Balfa could exist as a second rate company, but in reality I don't see why procycle would hold onto the high end dh frames to create competition for RM. Well either way, I guess we will se with 2005.

https://www.balfa.co.uk/ Heres the UK Distributor, named under Bafla, but they sell 243, Avent and some other makes there aswell...

Interesting

Sweet you can't even find a NEW minute man here, they are long gone.

Thats funny Balfa is basically like Uk's Norco. They make their own bikes and distribute them as well...thats classic.

Norcos are pretty rare over here at the moment, from what I can gather, norco are a main Manufacturer in Canada and America, they're new stuff has only just come over here, ive never seen anybody riding a balfa or anything like that so I dont think they're common place, although i do like the look of the frames and almost bought a 243 racing frame from the distributor.