Van Dessel’s new carbon Full Tilt Boogie cyclocross racer is fresh outta the oven and starting to ship into their warehouse. Above is the first look at a full production frame. Below, words directly from their keyboard:
FROM VD: The Full Tilt Boogie is designed as a race-day frameset with emphasis on low weight, power transfer, precise handling, and compliance. Geometry is identical to that of the Gin & Trombones (=low BB).
Actual frame weight is 1250gr (56cm). While this may not be the lightest frame weight being touted, we have reinforced specific areas of the frame (like areas of top tube where bars can hit), and in general take a bit more of a ‘better safe than sorry’ approach as far as pushing the extreme of gram shaving. Especially in ‘cross, where an extra ounce of control and reliability often means more at the end of the day than shedding every last possible gram. Our testing showed that using some extra material in the right places was well worth the ‘penalty’ as far as handling and reliability/durability is concerned.
Our 1.5″ tapered fork used on both the new Full Tilt Boogie and Gin & Trombones is 480gr (un-cut, actual weight). Our fork handles brake shudder exceptionally well, but the forks do also have a front “brake” hole in the crown so that one could use a fork-mounted brake cable-stop to guarantee the complete elimination of any shudder issues. Likewise, with 340 gram claimed fork weights being thrown about, our own testing and development showed that while possible, dropping fork weight did not equal a better fork.
The Full Tilt Boogie promises to be fast, confidence inspiring, reliable, light, and sexy. It will be ridden this season by riders such as Adam Myerson, Jeff Bahnson, and Bill Elliston, with Jeff and Bill heading up our own Van Dessel Factory Team.
We will be on hand with demo bikes and team trailer at most regional/national east coast races, as well as select events such as the Louisville and Ft Collins USGPs, Nationals, and ‘Cross Vegas.
Updated pricing and build kits for the Full Tilt Boogie is after the break along with a photo of the fork and some thoughts on disc brakes on ‘cross bikes…
As always, all complete bikes are built to order = stem length, bar width, crank length, and gearing is all to customer order:
– $1999 frameset
SRAM ————————
– $5399 Red
– $3999 Force
– $3499 Rival
– $3399 Apex
SHIMANO ————————
– $8699Â Di2
– $5499 Dura Ace
– $4199 Ultegra
– $3299 5700 105
CAMPAGNOLO ————————
– $6199 Super Record
– $5499 Record
– $4699 Chorus
– $3799 Athena
A note on disc brakes – none of our ‘cross frames are currently disc brake compatible. While creating the design and molds for the Full Tilt Boogie (well before UCI approval of disc brakes), we did look into making framesets disc brake compatible. The fact is that it would have added weight, and significant development cost, which before the ruling to allow disc brakes led to the negatives outweighing the positives. Making frames disc compatible is easy though. I think there are three significant hurdles to mass disc-brake acceptance in cross: 1) Just because you can get the wheels to stop quicker doesn’t mean you keep tires from slipping, 2) weight, and 3) parts compatibility/availability. Making frames disc compatible will be the relatively easy part of the equation.
