Speedvagen, an offshoot of Vanilla Cycles that was created to offer stock and custom frames with much shorter lead times the the bespoke bikes from founder Sacha White, has finally added disc brakes on their road and cyclocross models.
The bikes get revised Berzerker dropouts that let them place the caliper mounts inside the rear triangle, placing the rear-most mounting point on the seatstay to direct braking forces up the tube rather than into the dropout. On all disc brake models, the hose/cable will run inside the downtube. On standard builds with a threaded BB, it’ll pop out and run externally on the chainstay. On PFBB30 upgrades, it’ll remain inside the frame all the way through the chainstay, popping out just in front of the caliper.
There are a few other tweaks and treats making their way to the 2015 iterations, too. Most of the tubes used are now custom drawn to their specifications, and there’s a new carbon seat tube option and carbon seatmast toppers, too. And to make it all look good, a few more paint schemes are on offer…
The Berzerker dropout places a stainless steel insert on the outside face to prevent scratches and wear from the skewer. Sure, a simple little insert would have sufficed, but that wouldn’t be nearly as cool as this machined out piece that shows the craftsmanship of the Vanilla workshop. Almost lost to that beauty is the slick hidden brake caliper mount inset from the seatstay/dropout junction.
Up front it’s a paint-matched ENVE cyclocross fork.
Complete disc brake bikes will have the option of Chris King, DT Swiss or White Industries hubs laced to ENVE, HED or H+Son rims. Their road bike will get a disc brake option, too, they just don’t have any photos of it ready to share yet. As it was, we had to send in a friend to score the top three pics of the ‘cross bike just have something better to show you.
