I've been riding and racing the bike for a few months so I now feel qualified enough to write a bit about it!
The frameset is beautiful and paintwork has a very definite Flandrian look!! It arrives with a few extras that show Van Dessel know about what is required by a cross bike, the pot of touch up paint is an especially nice touch as is the frame protection tape on the top tube.
With a carbon rear end and carbon forks it feels very very light. The forks are full carbon tapered forks with an appropriate headset supplied with the frame. I don't have a crown race installation tool but a rubber mallet proved once again it is the tool for every job! Expect maybe in the case of the BB 30 bottom bracket which I took the the LBS to get fitted.
My build had to be a bit on the budget side but with TRP brakes, 105 shifters, rear mech, ultegra front mech, FSA gossamer BB 30 chainset and tiagra 10 speed cassette it ended up being much better than expected, this is mainly due to team mate Paul and his endless supply of used parts!
Black bar tape, cables, bars, stem, seatpost and saddle finish the build. Admittedly, I let the Van Dessel down as these should be more gucci, but yellow bar tape and cables are on there way!
I suppose what everyone is really interested in is how it 'goes'. It goes really well. Really really well! Partly this is down to the weight, I haven't weighed the bike but it feels light and is probably sub 8.5kg even in this build. Not only is it physically light when you lift it but more importantly when you ride it. The frame is incredibly responsive and really does inspire confidence. I've been happy to ride this bike through the technical bits of the local woods and round the powerline trail at Chopwell Woods. Obviously anywhere outside a race course the brakes feel pretty under powered compared to disc brakes, again this is something Van Dessel have thought of and the frame already has frame mounts and cable routing for disc brakes.
The frame also has fantastic mud clearance and seems to far better than most of the other framesets at the races, with only one cross bike this sort of feature really is important.
All in all, I love this bike, I'm lucky enough to have a few pretty good bikes but since this arrived I haven't ridden anything else. In my opinion, that is about as higher praise as I can give the G&T. I think the only upgrade I need to make is to get a second one for race days or maybe a carbon Full Tilt Boogie!
I also got the 2012 G&T frame recently. I built it up with SRAM Rival, disc brakes, Velocity handbuilt wheels, and some other Ritchey parts.
ReplyDeleteI'm super happy with it. It's my first cross bike but it took me through 5 races this year.
My only regret was going with SRAM. With muddy hands it's almost always hard to shift into the big ring. I think it would have been easier with Shimano since you can use your whole hand to press the levers, in the drops or on the hoods.
Definitely go for yellow tape, but I would skip the yellow cables. I think they look better subdued instead of calling attention to themselves.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/muchawi/6311171470/