Balance AL-450 build

[AudiSport44]

Not sure how many of you are familiar with the BALANCE brand, but they had a store I used to pass by on my way to school when I was a kid. This was back in Romania in the early/mid 90's. Obviously I couldn't afford one back then so I could only admire them. I'm in the US now (since '96) and found a NOS Balance AL-450 frame on Ebay many years ago. I first built it up with modern, at the time, XTR parts and even used an adapter to run disc brakes. Since then I took all those XTR parts off and used them to build up a BMC full suspension bike. The plan was to put this bike together in a more period correct fashion. The rebuild started when I found a super mint, literally looked like it was never used, Manitou Three fork on Ebay.

Below is how it looks with the new fork, Ringle repro bottle cage and Chris King headset. The Kore stem will probably change.

 

[joglo]

Hi, not sure if there are a lot of fans, because in Europe Bikes from Balance had been not very often sold.
In Germany 1995 announced, but not many dealers had them.

I do like the nice aluminum frames with fading color paint-job, and of-course the FRS look-a-like full suspension models.
Not my picture, but from an earlier ebay offer:


Yours look nice and in perfect condition.
I personally would swap the M3 against an M2, just to have a purple matching color on the front too.

 

[AudiSport44]

Hi, not sure if there are a lot of fans, because in Europe Bikes from Balance had been not very often sold.
In Germany 1995 announced, but not many dealers had them.

I do like the nice aluminum frames with fading color paint-job, and of-course the FRS look-a-like full suspension models.
Not my picture, but from an earlier ebay offer:
View attachment 606617

Yours look nice and in perfect condition.
I personally would swap the M3 against an M2, just to have a purple matching color on the front too.

My initial intention was to do an M2 fork and keep things purple and polished, but after finding this fork in such an amazing condition I decided to go with a different scheme. You'll see

I also have a brand new Balance FS-PRO. It's a full bike. That one is the red version.

 

[AudiSport44]

New custom built Erdmann wheels from Germany. NOS Rockwerks crankset with Moonhead Machine chainrings and NOS X-Lite bar ends.

 

[Proto2000]

Looks like the same crankset with a different name. What's the story on them?

 

[AudiSport44]

Looks like the same crankset with a different name. What's the story on them?

All I know is that they were made under a few different names. They are identical but don't know what the original source is.

 

[AudiSport44]

 

[AudiSport44]

Changed the Chris King polished headset to a blue FSA. Not sure it's staying yet. Contec stem and seatpost can be seen as well. There may be some changes though.

 

[AudiSport44]

I changed the FSA headset to a turquoise Chris King to match the rest (it was too blue). Added a Salsa turquoise seat clamp, installed the crankset and I'm going with STX-RC shifters. Rear derailleur is already installed. Everything going on this bike is brand new. The fork is not on because I had to get the steerer extended.

 

[AudiSport44]