Today, Genesis has announced the overhaul of its rather Iconic Croix de Fer gravel bike.
A staple of the British brand's range, the Croix de Fer has now been modernised with increased tyre clearance, dropped seat stays and thru axles, while maintaining its rugged steel DNA. The brand has also opted for internal cable routing, but not in a way that will create a headache for home mechanics. And, there are flat bar models available.
Genesis has been busy; alongside the Croix de Fer, it's also updated the Tour de Fer and Genesis Vagabond - which really is a tractor of a gravel bike.
New Genesis Croix De Fer
The star of the show, however, really is the Genesis Croix de Fer. The bike launched all the way back in 2009, with the original brief claiming that “drop bars don’t always mean tarmac. ‘Normal riding’ shouldn’t be a definition of accepted limits.”
Since then, Genesis has followed this philosophy, and it has of course become mainstream. So what exactly has changed?
New features of the Genesis Croix De Fer
The first and most obvious change has to be the move to internal cable routing. Where the outgoing model chose to stay more mechanically simple, the Genesis team has decided that cables should be hidden from view.
The engineers haven't gone crazy here though, and that's something I am very happy about. Now, a single external cable runs from shifter to derailleur with the downtube being the only real internal routing. This balance drastically cleans up the aesthetic, whilst keeping maintenance - especially for home mechanics - a lot simpler.
Genesis has also included internal routing ports for dropper seat posts too, which as I'll come onto in my first ride review, I think would really suit this bike. The external routing around the headset also means that Genesis has been able to stick with standard components at the front of the bike.
As bike design continues to evolve, tyre sizes seem to carry on increasing, and it Genesis is well and truly on the bandwagon. The new Croix de Fer now features 47mm tyre clearance, up from 45 on the outgoing model. Better still, is that you can fit a set of 45mm tyres in conjunction with full-length front and rear mudguards, still leaving ample clearance for mud to disperse.
A product manager did let on that you might be able to go slightly bigger than a 47mm tyre too, but push the limits too much, and it starts to be dependant on rim and tyre combinations.
Another nice feature is that across all bikes (except framesets of course), Genesis fits its Amplitude subsidiary tubeless wheelset with a tubeless ready tyre. The rims also come taped from factory too, so this bike genuinely is tubeless ready - rather than the usual required tyre purchase or rim tape caveats.
Wheel standards have changed slightly too, as the Croix de Fer now features boost spacing at the rear. This wider standard is an evolution for gravel, coming from the mountain bike world; the promise is greater stiffness, but it will limit wheel choice. The Croix de Fer offers 180mm rotor clearance front and rear, which should provide all the stopping power necessary for bike packing trips and touring alike.
At the rear of the bike, Genesis has dropped those seat stays too, which the brand says was partly an aesthetic decision, but also carries the benefit of improving vertical compliance to the bike. The dropped stays are combined with an ovalized top tube, which improves stiffness whilst maintaining relatively low weight.
Frame options
As mentioned before, Genesis has been pretty busy over the last two years of development for the new Croix de Fer, perhaps shown best by the number of bikes that are launching today.
A total of 4 framesets are available for the new Croix de Fer, each using a slightly different material type.
The Croix de Fer is available in full bike builds with a Chromoly steel chassis, which provides the great ride feel and dampening qualities that you would expect from the frame material.
Improved 725 steel (£899.99/€ 999.00), 931 stainless steel (£ 2,499.99/€ 2,999.00), and titanium bikes (£ 2,699.99/€ 3,199.00) are also available, however, these will currently be sold as frameset only bikes.
Interesting too is that the chromoly steel fully built range kicks off with two flat handlebar builds. The CDF 10 and 20 flat bar will use 1x9 speed Shimano Cues, and 1x11 speed Cues respectively.
The range continues all the way up to the CDF 40 and 40, which are both drop bar only, and feature a newly designed carbon fork which saves a whopping 900 grams over the steel offering.
New Genesis Vagabond
Genesis has also released a new Vagabond gravel bike, which is really aimed at those wanting to go, well, pretty much anywhere.
Further blurring the lines of mountain biking and gravel riding, the Vagabond features 27.5 inch wheels for sizes XS and SM, and 29 inch wheels there above. The bikes also come fitted with Maxxis Ikon TR 2.35" tyres to match the new geometry.
The Vagabond features a super slack 69 degree head angle, which should give you confidence on super steep terrain. At launch, the Vagabond will be available in two different builds, the Vagabond 10 costing £1,799.99/€1,999.00 and the 20 costing £2,299.99/€2,699.00.
Tour de Fer lives on
Genesis hasn't forgotten about the Tour de Fer either. The brand's touring bike still features in the range, and has received some minor tweaks too.
The bike still features a more traditional seat stay design, and is available in just one frameset option spanning four different builds - none of which feature a triple front chainset. Touring enthusiasts will be happy to note though, that the bike still comes fully equipped, complete with a pair of spare spokes on the left seat stay.
The Tour de Fer range starts from £1,299.99 /€1,499.00, for the TDF 10, all the way up to the TDF 40, at £2,199.99/€2,599.00.
For more information, head to the Genesis website.
Genesis Croix De Fer first ride review
I was lucky enough to get to ride the new Croix de Fer ahead of launch, on some absolutely splendid gravel roads in the heart of Wales. A 4 hours jaunt around the Hafren forest, just a few miles inland from Aberystwyth, allowed me to test out the new ride on everything from fire roads in the moorlands, to steep, and at times sketchy single track.
And I must say, the bike really surprised me.
The new Croix de Fer is a truly capable bike - that is clear from KM0. Our ride started with a short tarmac section, where I quickly learnt that this is not a gravel race bike, but that's okay, because it' not trying to be. The bike straight away provided me with confidence and a rather imperious ride feel on the road.
Once we turned off into the forest and traded tarmac for loose packed fire roads, I was impressed with the dampening qualities of the steel frame. The bike might not have been the most lively I have ever ridden out of the saddle, but I found that not to be necessary, staying comfortable, and with traction thanks to the wider tyres, over all surfaces.
After some playing around in the moors, our guide Phil took us down a few much narrower tracks, where a mountain bike would have been overkill, but perhaps only just. Here was where the Croix de Fer shone for me. The bike stayed perfectly composed over some fairly harsh bumps, and was stable in the air too on the couple of occasions I was able to jump. The frameset once again does a stellar job of staying planted, without totally shaking your hands to pieces.
Overall, first impressions are great. The Croix de Fer feels bombproof, rugged, and certainly has a high fun factor.
