Van Dessel Full Tilt Boogie Is Ready to Race Hard
Price: $3,999
Weight: 18.7lbs
Style: Cyclocross
Drivetrain: SRAM Force 1X
Material: Carbon
Tire clearance: 700 x 40mm
The right bike for: Riders looking for a high-end cyclocross bike without a high-end price tag.
The Full Tilt Boogie is an uncompromising and unapologetic cyclocross racing machine. Sure, you can grind some gravel with it and you can put on skinny tires to enjoy a great day on pavement, but this bike is designed by a hard-core racer for hard-core racers. With a short wheelbase and tight angles, this bike is designed to jump hard off the start line, corner as hard as you dare ask it, and the high bottom bracket allows you to keep the pedals turning through tight hairpins and tricky off-cambers. Since hand-ups are a crime (or you want to do long rides without a hydration pack) the Full Tilt Boogie has two water bottles mounts inside the main triangle. And with custom build options ranging from $3,299 to $9,299 whether you are cross-curious or training for the Worlds you can create an FTB to suit your needs or wants (let's face it, that need vs. want line can get pretty blurry when it comes to new bikes).
Mavic Speed Release thru-axles
In a time where proprietary parts and incompatibility are standard, the Full Tilt Boogie is all about giving you the power to do whatever you want. The Mavic Speed Release thru-axle system is great for fast wheel changes. When you are choosing your custom build, you have the option to select thru axle - 12 or 15mm - or quick release options for the fork and 142 x 12mm, Mavic Speed Release thru axle or 135mm quick release options for the rear dropouts. The PF30 BB shell makes swapping cranks a breeze, should you decide to upgrade down the road to lighter cranks or perhaps a crank-based power meter, and although the bike comes with a 1X drivetrain, the seat tube is compatible with clamp-on front derailleurs. And even though this is a purebred cyclocross race bike, water bottle mounts are a welcome addition for early season races and long training sessions.
SRAM Force1 drivetrain
The SRAM Force1 drivetrain with hydraulic disc brakes offers great performance and value without sacrificing either quality or your entire savings account. A full carbon fork looks hot, keeps the overall weight low, and has killer mud clearance. Mavic Aksium aluminum clincher wheels are great for training and make dependable race wheels for new riders when set up to run tubeless, which you can easily do with the stock WTB Cross Boss tires. Finally, FSA carbon bars, stem, and seat post round out a snazzy-looking bike that is ready to race and won’t force you to refinance your house.
Customize your ride
Full Tilt Boogie is available in eight different configurations ranging from $3,299 for a SRAM Rival build, all the way up to $9,299 for a lust-worthy Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 build with Mavic Ksyrium carbon tubulars. And if one of those eight stock options aren’t suitable, Van Dessel makes it easy for you to mix and match as much as you like. Use their website to select each individual aspect of your bike, so you can splurge on the areas that are important to you and cut back where you want to save a little. Already have wheels or maybe a set of bars and stem that you really love? No problem. You can leave those off the build and save more cash. And if that flexibility isn’t enough, you can buy just a frameset for $1,899 and get to work creating your true custom build.
High bottom bracket for increased pedal clearance
Coming from a company steeped in Belgian cycling culture, it’s unsurprising that the Full Tilt Boogie is a blend of modern, American cyclocross design and traditional, European-style geometry. Whereas American bikes are getting longer, like the comparably-sized Scott Addict CX 10 with a wheelbase of 1056mm, and lower, like the 58cm Cannondale SuperX with a bottom bracket drop of 6.8cm, my 58cm test bike keeps a high bottom bracket (6.5cm drop), short wheelbase (1041mm), and short trail to keep the bike nimble and maneuverable over a wide variety of terrain. It aims to strike the balance between precise steering and handling, while giving tall riders on long cranks the ability to pedal hard through corners without sacrificing stability.
Ride Impressions
As much attention as we pay to how our equipment functions, we also know it has to look cool. After all, the saying “look fast, feel fast, go fast” didn't come from nowhere. And the Full Tilt Boogie just looks cool. The tapered head tube blends nicely into a big, beefy fork that looks like its ready to chew up the nastiest, roughest terrain a cross course can throw at you. The top tube has some gentle shaping that slowly tapers down as it meets the seat tube, flattening out a little underneath to be gentle on your shoulder. The chain stays start tall and thin at the bottom bracket shell, giving the added benefit of increased mud clearance by the cranks, and transition to short and fat at the dropout. Capping it all off, the dropped seat stays make the back end of the bike look really stylish.
The first thing I noticed about the FTB was how quick and responsive the handling is. It was just begging to be thrown into tight turns. And despite being so good in the turns, it's not overly twitchy in a straight line. If I closed my eyes while riding along on the road, and ignored the hum and plushness of the knobby tires, I couldn't definitively say that I was riding a cross bike. Even sprinting out of the saddle at speed I was impressed by how solid the bike felt. It didn't strike me as a bike that needed to get off the pavement and into slow grass to feel more at home. I could have been very happy putting on skinny tires and going for a long road ride.
Even though the FTB feels so good on the pavement, that's just icing on the cake. The bike really shines when you get into loose terrain. The tight, responsive handling inspires confidence and had me looking for the gnarly lines, taking them as fast as I dared.
As with any bike that's meant to go off road, I had to see how it held up on the single track. And when I say had to, I mean really wanted to go play on the single track because I found it hard to ride the FTB and not be constantly searching for crazy stuff to ride. Tight turns, slick off-cambers, rocks, roots, and log rollovers were a breeze. As the rocks and logs were getting bigger I was thankful for the high bottom bracket and the ability to keep pedaling through really techy sections of trail, as well as not smashing the chain ring.
Steep, slippery climbs were also not a problem. The WTB Cross Boss tires have plenty of traction, whether standing to bump over a short power climb or sitting down to grind it out on loose terrain.
At $3,999 (at tested) the Full Tilt Boogie is a high-end race bike at a bargain price. The Mavic Aksium wheels are durable and great for training or entry level racing. But do yourself a favor and convert them to tubeless straight away. The Cross Boss tires are tubeless ready, so just get valves and sealant. If you're looking to maximize performance, throw on a set of tubular wheels and you've got a pro-level race bike. Either way, you can't go wrong with the Full Tilt Boogie.
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