Coming in 2016 are updates to a few of Van Dessel’s most favoritest drop bar bikes, giving them more or better dropout and axle options and sparkly new paint. More on those below, because the big news (pun intended) is the Primo Ballerina fat bike.
If the frame looks familiar, that’s because it’s a shared mold for which no apologies are offered. Founder Edwin Bull says fans wanted a Van Dessel fat bike, so he found one he liked and dressed it up in his signature style. Specs are everything modern fat bikers would want, including internal cable routing through the full carbon frame and fork. The geometry is suspension ready, and you can order it with the Rockshox Bluto, and more…
There’s clearance for 5″ tires front and rear using the stock rigid carbon fork.
Axle spacing is 197×12 rear and 150×15 front, with a 100mm english bottom bracket.
Retail is $1899 for frame/fork/headset, or $3499 for a complete bike with SRAM GX1. Sizes available are 15″, 17″ and 19″.
The FTB (Full Tilt Boogie) gets a slightly revised layup to improve impact strength in a couple areas, and they’ll come stock with bolt-on type thru axles for a cleaner appearance, replacing the QR-level type thru axles from 2015.
The WTF (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot) makes the move to replaceable dropouts, much like on the FTB, Jersey Devil, and Motivus, giving it the option to run 135mm quick release and 142×12 thru-axle options. Just like the road and cyclocross frames, you’ll have a choice of standard quick release and 15mm thru axle forks (we suggest the thru axle!). Lastly, they’ll get two new color options: orange and high-sparkle pink.
