Flanders Forte frameset

The Flanders Forte is a fun bike to ride. It's nimble and quick and has really flickable, precise handling on even the roughest or loosest of surfaces, which makes it the perfect weapon for cyclo-cross racing or high-speed blasts on the gravel tracks.

• Pros: Hugely responsive to any input, loads of tyre clearance to make it more than a CX bike
• Cons: There are a lot of logos...

Flanders Cycles originated in Flanders (unsurprisingly!) and its history spans four decades, testing and developing bikes under some of the toughest race conditions throughout Belgium, Europe and Australasia.

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It's now based in Australia, after distribution was taken on by Paul Redenbach, who rode for its pro cyclo-cross team over in Belgium before returning home to Melbourne. He and the team down under have since developed their own new frame designs and taken the brand to a new level.

The ride

The Forte frameset was developed in conjunction with and tested by two cyclo-cross teams, Flanders JBlood and Kern Racing – and it shows.

A mixture of the aggressive geometry with its low front end and stiff, exciting frame shows its competitive upbringing. It loves to be ridden hard and it's so responsive to whatever input you give it.

This Kern Racing build comes in at just 7.8kg, which means it's absolutely brilliant for climbing. Taking it to my local twisty woodland trails was an absolute hoot as I carved my way around and bunnyhopped over tree roots and holes.

With a 71.5-degree head angle the steering is quick off-road without coming across as hugely twitchy, yet it manages to be beautifully direct. Even when you are losing traction on soft mud or small gravel into a bend, you can keep the power on as the slide feels so predictable and you know exactly where your front wheel is going to end up.

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This makes for fun descending too, and on the wide, swooping gravel tracks around my way, where you can touch 50mph while hopping and swerving around rocks big enough to wreck wheels, the Forte was an absolute scream.

Its riding style reminded me of the carbon fibre Canyon Grail, a bike that I absolutely loved. The Forte has that same grin-inducing ride as you flick the handlebar this way and that to avoid the carnage.

Things can feel a little more intense on the Forte as it has a firmer ride than the Canyon, and without the same levels of shock absorption of the Grail's cockpit and seatpost it can feel like the obstacles are coming at you that little bit quicker.

I'd put the Forte's ride style more like that of the excellent Vitus Energie CRX, which makes sense considering they are both 'cross bikes as opposed to the gravel bias of the Grail.

However, if you are out for a longer stint and don't need the added pressure of flying by the seat of your pants then the Forte can deliver here too.

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The network of gravel byways near me stretch for hundreds of kilometres and most are wide open with swooping bends thanks to being owned by the military and designed for the movement of troops and tanks.

Even with the relatively narrow 32mm Panaracer Gravel King SK tyres fitted, the ride wasn't harsh so you can tap out a rhythm for ages without fatigue or discomfort, and you can cover decent distances without issue before opening the tap when you get to a fun bit.

If racing is your thing then all of this adds up to a great bike for turning up at your local CX league. With masses of tyre clearance, mud clogging isn't a huge issue and the way it responds to hard efforts means that accelerating through the bunch or pushing out of slow bends never gets boring.

The whole ride is all about fun and an impressive reward for your effort.

Frame and fork

This latest edition of the Forte is created from a uni-directional carbon fibre monocoque that's had a bit of refinement to the layup over previous models. In this 54cm size the frame weight is a claimed 980g with the full-carbon fork coming in at just 380g. Not bad for a frameset designed for the rough abuse of gravel and cyclo-cross racing.

The front end has a 1 1/8 to 1 1/2in head tube for added stiffness under steering loads and those from the disc brakes. The tube is only 145mm tall too, which shows how race-orientated this thing is.

Like a lot of frames these days, especially race ones, the Forte follows a familiar theme.

The tapered head tube leads into a large diameter down tube which has a mix of round and flat edges as it heads down to the bottom bracket junction.

Purists may not be too happy to see a press-fit bottom bracket, but after plenty of wet, muddy rides I haven't had any creaking issues.

The chainstays are tall to provide plenty of material for stiffness, while remaining narrow for good tyre clearance.

The top end of the frame is more svelte for comfort, with the top tube narrowing as it travels back towards the seat tube.

I like the way the top tube blends into the seatstays, which are slender from a side-on profile to allow some flex.

The whole thing is finished off with a tough-wearing paintjob and while I picked up on the amount of logos in the 'cons' section above, I do appreciate that this is a race livery where branding equals advertising. There are various colourways available.

The frame has full internal cable and hose routing which thankfully is positioned well enough that you hear no pinging or rattling when riding on rough ground.

Ours has a 1x groupset but there is a mounting point for a front mech if you'd prefer a double setup.

As you'd expect, the disc callipers are fitted flat mount style and there are thru-axles front and rear, although with a 15mm/12mm bias rather than the more common 12mm front and rear. Worth bearing in mind if you are speccing wheels and you have to pay extra for adaptors.

It's a race bike, so there is no provision for mudguards or a rack, and I like that approach. While many bikes are becoming a bit of a do-it-all mix, I still like to see a division between pure performance machines and all-rounders.

I've mentioned that tyre clearance is pretty impressive and here you are looking at room for around 42mm tyres. This doesn't restrict the Forte to cross racing, which limits tyres to 35mm, and gives you the option for more volume to take on longer gravel rides.

Build options

The Forte is available as a frameset only option for £1,049 or you can go for a 'rolling chassis' build which includes the frameset, Parcours Paniagua wheels, Deda Zero 1 handlebar, stem and seatpost plus Road & Ribbon bar tape for £1,519.

Our build is based on the one that Team Kern ride, which is the Deda Zero 1 setup with a SRAM Rival 1x, hydraulic brake groupset with 160mm front/140mm rear rotor spec and a Prologo saddle.

The wheels are deep-section carbon Parcours Grimpeur Discs (separate review to come) wearing those Panaracer tyres.

It's a good build that works really well together and SRAM, just like Shimano, has a way of delivering very similar shifting and braking right through its range regardless of price. The gear changes are crisp and the braking is impressive once the discs are bedded in, which really suited the way the frame and fork behave.

However you build this bike up, the frameset is an impressive heart so it'll be a blast whatever.

Value

I compared the Forte to the Vitus Energie CRX earlier and you can get one of those with a SRAM Force groupset for just £1,899.99, but we are talking mass production compared to the smaller scale model employed by Flanders.

At £1,049 for a full-carbon, race-ready frameset weighing just a claimed 1,360g, I'd say that's a pretty impressive outlay. The Flanders feels really well built and the carbon layup gives a very good ride feel, especially when it comes to stiffness versus harshness.

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The rolling chassis isn't too far off the mark of something like the very good Forme Monsal Rival at £2,600, giving you nearly £1,100 to spend on a groupset.

Conclusion

If you want a race-inspired bike for cyclo-cross with the tyre clearances needed for gravel, then the Forte is a very good choice – especially if you want a frame that lets you know everything that is going on beneath those tyres.

Verdict

A lightweight, hugely responsive frame for cyclo-cross racing or day-long trips on the gravel