Cycles Appalache: Exquisite speed metal

Jerome Roy is proud to present his new project: Cycles Appalache. The first chassis to come out of the small Montreal shop is called Réal, and is the fruit of extensive engineering experience in DH racing and freeriding. It is certainly a familiar sight for most, but the connoisseur’s eye will notice a long list of improvements. Roy has been making this design evolve on a yearly basis since 1999. Now in a seventh generation, the 06 frame is incredibly light, sheding over 2 pounds over the last evolution launched in 04. It tips the scale at 9.5 pounds with a ti spring rear shock.The 9 inch chassis is a single pivot design with the lowest center of gravity in the industry. In an era of weight reduction, even for DH rigs, the battle is not only won on net weight but also in the way it is distributed on the frame. A lower center of gravity means an easier bike to throw around as well as more stability under braking. With clever designing, it can also translate into excellent standover clearance and the Réal is hard to beat in that regard.


The single pivot is located very high on the frame at about 5 inches above the bottom bracket. That allows an ideal rear wheel trajectory that moves up and back rather than move up and forward: Simply put, the rear wheel works with the momentum of the bike. With this high pivot placement, the rear wheel keeps more traction when working over obstacles and that means a quicker bicycle down the mountain. The high pivot location has been an influence for a bunch of bicycle manufacturers, big and small since Roy introduced it back in 1999. It requires the use of a pulley to drive the chain over the pivot in order to eliminate chain torque interfering with the suspension. The Appalache device is a simple, silent and durable polycarbonate roller beautifully integrated to the linkage.

The construction is typical of Roy’s philosophy of bicycle frame manufacturing. 6061-T6 aluminum is used for the front triangle to achieve the lowest possible weight. The triangulated swing arm is 4130 cromoly. Steel being much stronger than aluminum it allows the use of smaller diameter tubing to achieve the same strength to weight ratio. That means superior tire and chain clearance. Another very important feature of the steel swingarm is that the dropouts are much stiffer, producing more precise and crisp shifting on top of being virtually indestructible.


About 20 Frames have been handcrafted in the summer of 2005 for testing and developpement purposes. Ridden and raced hard all summer, they proved to be exactly what they were made for: Being reliable, efficient and fast bikes. Lookout for a new production run to be available during the spring of 2006 and if you have to have one, expect the price tag to be around 3000 canadian dollars for the chassis and shock.

Get your info from Yodo bike distribution, who handle Cycles Appalache sales at www.yodobike.com or 1-800-745-2415.

Also make sure to visit www.appalachecycles.com for the latest info.

About Jérome Roy:

Among Roy’s former projects, many can be considered as forerunners of today’s trends in suspension design and have inspired more than one major manufacturer in the last decade. From jackshaft driven monster bikes to this current high pivot design, Roy’s vision of bicycle suspension has always been one of good sense. An innovative project called 2Step, launched in 2001 was Roy’s offering of the “advanced wheel path”, known as Virtual Pivot. He had been looking for a way to improve on the notorious patent and was a couple of years ahead of everyone else at the time. It proved to be exactly what a whole industry had been waiting for: A way to better market the advanced wheel path technology, outside the restrictive patent. Over a dozen manufacturers have used the idea, some designers even having the guts to trademark the simple and clever linkage under their own name!



Roy’s passion for gravity fed bicycle designs dates back to the early 1990’s. The suspension era was just around the corner and downhill racing, a new discipline at the time, was catching his attention. He quickly decided to put his creative instincts and engineering knowledge to good use and started his own bicycle company with good friend Fred Monast that they called Balfa Cycles. The company focused on full suspension designs specific to downhill and freeride applications. This project has gone on for about 10 years as one of the world’s most innovative downhill and freeride frame building company before being bought over in 03. Unhappy about the new direction the company was taking, he decided to leave in the summer of 04, already focused on his future plans.