Franco Balcom Road

Five years ago, Julian Franco and his cousin, Hector, decided to start their own bike company. Unwilling to use the ‘open molds’ available to anyone, they decided to go big and invest in their own so they’d be able to offer something authentically unique. Thus, the Franco Balcom Road was born.

THE FRAME
For a couple of cycling enthusiast cousins just starting out, the Franco is surprisingly long on buying options. Made from higher-end Toray T800 carbon, the Balcom Road is available with either a standard or integrated seatpost. There are a host of interesting tube shapes and features found throughout, but the most interesting is the derailleur cable routing that runs through the head tube-very direct and clean. The Franco is available in five sizes with either a Race (short) or Endurance (15 millimeters taller) head tube. Showing an impressive level of marketing savvy, they made sure that all the Endurance frames are designed to minimize the ‘look’ of a longer head tube-after all, no one wants the world to know that they’re shying away from the painful, leaned-over positioning that the pro riders use.

 The Sram Red drivetrain provided all the quick and consistent shifts we could ask for.

Julian says they are currently looking into paint options, but as of now the Franco can be had in any color as long as it’s black (our good-looking white test bike was an early option they opted against).

THE PARTS
On top of their desire to have a unique frame, the cousins also knew that in order to be successful they’d need to make the Franco brand itself unique. ‘Our company became a different company when the economy turned,’ said Julian. ‘Although our goal was never to out-Trek Trek, we realized, too, that we needed to do something more than just buy a few hundred frames and then push them on the dealers.’

Running the cables through the head tube keeps things clean and direct.

And with that, the boys came up with the idea of creating a consumer-direct sales plan, but one that could nonetheless offer a ‘pro shop’ experience. As Julian added, ‘Even for our ($2999) entry-level bike, that’s a lot of money, and we think our customers should be able to apply some extra value to that purchase.’ And although they have five stock build kits, you can mix and match or custom order your bike with whatever parts you want, and the bike will be built accordingly by their own pro mechanic.

With so many test bikes coming equipped with SRAM Red, we sometimes take it for granted to note how well the drivetrain works. The Red on our test bike worked flawlessly with quick, strong and decisive shift detents. The skeleton brakes, too, were equally impressive. In fact, so was the Hed Ardennes/Continental GP4000 wheel combo-talk about a smooth and consistent roll! Fans that we’ve been of Ritchey controls, the Franco was spec’d with the new shallow drop Curve bend bars, and both the feel and control provided were well-regarded.

Franco has a deal with ProLogo saddles to make the saddles with the color coordinated blue trim.

THE RIDE
Even without an ultra-light build kit, the Franco still hit the scale at a reduced-fat weight of just over 14 pounds. That number should be especially attractive to someone considering the entry-level bike (or $1999 frameset), since only the one frame is used for all price points.

While test riders didn’t come away thinking our Endurance-version Balcom Road (named after a particularly tough local climb once used in the Tour of California) was the ultimate race bike (‘it wasn’t as snappy as I like,’ ‘it hesitated just a bit on turn-in’), they were in agreement that it was one of the most comfortable bikes they’d ridden. Ah yes, the proverbial ‘all-day-in-the-saddle’ ride quality. As abused as that term has gotten, it is a real, objective attribute, and the Franco delivers it (via superb bump absorption) along with super-consistent handling.

THE VERDICT
Besides the custom build capability, Franco has also struck a deal with Retul (the 3D motion capture fitting group) whereby they will include a custom fit with the purchase of each bike via any one of 175 worldwide Retul dealers. As for the ReTul and custom build option, for Julian it’s a simple proposition. ‘So much of the bike buying process can make or break a person’s devotion to the sport. Our goal is for people to enjoy their cycling experience so that they’ll become geeks about it like us. Besides, if we didn’t believe in this bike, we wouldn’t have put our name on it!’

RBA