Bike Review - Genesis Croix de Fer.

When we did John o’ Groats to Land’s End in 2009 we rode completely unsuitable bikes, mine was an aluminium flat barred road bike while Jamie rode a Halford’s Carrera subway. Needless to say these were not suitable for extended laden touring purposes. We decided to invest in something more up to the task of lugging all our kit and ourselves on lengthy continental adventures.

The bike we settled on was the Genesis Croix de Fer, these bikes are suitable for long distance touring as proven by Vin Cox’s epic round the world trip completed on a slightly modified hub geared version. While essentially a cyclo-cross bike (too heavy to race) they really do everything well, I guess you could call them a jack of all trades which suits us well as they fulfill the role of commuter hack when not on tour and negate the need for multiple bikes (we aren’t made of money!).

Jamie’s 2010 spec version came equipped with Shimano disc brakes, which were prone to squealing like a stuck pig upon heavy braking. I purchased mine a year later (I’m a copycat), which had the updated and noise free Avid BB7 brakes, of course the addition of disc brakes makes it impossible to install a regular pannier rack and mudguards, a disc specific rack is required. Jamie’s version came with a 9-speed cassette at the rear as opposed to my 10 speeds, which was advantageous for me on the climbs. The Shimano Tiagra groupset works flawlessly, it’s not the lightest but that’s not the point. Gear changes are smooth and it seems like it will continue to function well for years to come.

It also makes a reasonable 'party bike'.

The frame is comfortable and the steel soaks up bumps well enough and we found all the stock parts (bars, stem and seatpost) to perform well and I have no real desire to change any of them out. The white color scheme looks great, and doesn’t get as dirty as I had anticipated. Genesis has now changed the colour to black, which doesn’t look nearly as good. We are both 6’ 2” and found the 58cm frame size to be a great fit. Of course the saddles had to go, these where replaced by a pair of Brook’s leather saddles, the standard for bike touring, and I will testify that they live up to the hype and are worth paying extra for. I have used a B-17 in the past and now use the much more slender Swift model (which I will review). Jamie uses a B-17 and is very happy with it. For my next tour I will more than likely switch out the stock brown faux leather bar tape for some Brooks leather tape as it gets slippery with sweat and isn’t comfortable to grip for long periods.

My only real beef with the bike was the stock wheels. It seems to me that the spokes are of very low quality and tend to snap extremely easily; by the halfway point we had each broken 4 spokes. It seems to me that Genesis could have used stronger spokes, especially considering the Croix de Fer is marketed as a go anywhere, do anything bike. Jamie’s freewheel also seized up literally 100m from the ferry terminal at St. Malo, it was a real spot of luck that it gave up there after 2070 miles rather than out in the middle of nowhere. I’m currently looking into getting completely new wheels built for the next trip, as there is nothing more frustrating than unreliable wheels. It’s also worth bearing in mind that 700cc wheels with disc brakes are a fairly new concept and still aren’t very common, the owner of the bike shop we visited seemed baffled by them and didn’t stock replacements. The bikes came fitted with cyclo-cross tyres, which we both switched out for continental slicks to lessen rolling resistance.

Overall I would recommend the bike to anybody looking for a light-touring bike that is capable of doing most things to a reasonable standard. I paid £999 for mine (from epic cycles) and consider the value to be outstanding, however I would have happily paid more if Genesis decided to supply better wheels with the bike. I can see the bike lasting me for many years to come and carrying me on many more tours.