Genesis bikes arrived on the scene way back in 2001 and bill themselves as “the original adventure bicycle brand”. When they offered Olly a place at the press launch for their 2025 range of gravel & adventure bikes, he jumped at the chance. While Genesis might not be a brand you’re completely familiar with, we think their new bikes fit perfectly into the kind of riding and adventures that a typical Gravel Union reader would enjoy doing. Read on, if you’d like to find out more.
“Would you like to come and join us in mid-Wales for the press launch of the Genesis 2025 range of bikes?” said the email invitation. While gravel riding in mid-Wales might not have quite the wow factor of a sun-drenched Italian hill town, it was also significantly easier to get to, had a much lower carbon footprint attached to it and with hindsight, was also the perfect brand ‘fit’ for Genesis. A quick check of my schedule later, I was booked on. The venue for the launch was going to be Staylittle Lodge, a former residential outdoor centre, where school children from across the UK would have travelled to experience life in the outdoors for a week, but which had been subsequently lovingly upgraded by owners Polly & Phil. With the Cambrian Mountains literally on their doorstep and hundreds of km of great gravel roads, singletrack trails and tiny country roads all around them, it was the perfect venue for the launch.
Image courtesy of Genesis Bikes
Cycling journalists on the whole are a pretty laid-back and low-maintenance bunch. Most of us do this job because we really love bikes and we especially love riding bikes. As a press launch organiser, if you can arrange the bikes and the riding, but also throw in some good food, some local beers and a comfy bed then you’ve already won most of us over. Maxim, the Media & Comms manager at Madison (who own the Genesis brand) made sure our first impressions were good. He even managed to lay on some late afternoon sunshine, so that the Cambrian Mountains were glowing on our arrival. The new bikes were mainly hidden away until the grand unveiling the following morning, but there was just enough branding to remind us why we were there and one of the new Croix de Fer bikes on display for us to ogle.
Image courtesy of Genesis Bikes
After an evening of getting to know all the other invitees and the Madison/Genesis staff, fuelled with great curry and hydrated courtesy of a fridge well stocked with local beers, we retired to our immaculately decorated rooms. A bag of Madison clothing, tailored to our individual sizes, was waiting for each of us. Day 2 started with a fantastic breakfast, courtesy of Staylittle Lodge’s in-house chef, and plenty of excellent coffee. The plan was for us to first be given a walk-around tour of the new range, followed by an early lunch and then a ride out into the hills. Genesis brand manager Brodie Gardias was in charge of delivering the insight into the new range, ably assisted by the rest of the Madison team. Unusually in a world where digital has taken over, we were each given printed handouts detailing the full line-up, with a breakdown of the spec for each model and pricing details. As Brodie ran through the highlights of the range, which were carefully displayed around a brightly lit room, normally used by host Polly as her yoga studio, we were given the chance to ask questions and get up close and personal with the different bikes.
While we cogitated, asked probing questions and sipped coffee, Staylittle’s chef laid out a great lunch. With our collective brains full of Genesis-based facts and figures, we donned our impressively colour coordinated Madison kit, topped up our energy levels and then headed outside. Each of us had been allocated a specific bike, with our name printed neatly on the top tube. The bikes had been set up perfectly, with saddle heights set to the measurements we supplied in advance and our preferred type of pedals already fitted. The only downside was that it would be very easy to get used to this level of service! Going home again afterwards was quite an anticlimax. With positions fettled and bikes carpark tested, Phil, a qualified cycling guide, gave us an overview of the planned ride and we set off like a gravel riding team, heading for the trails of Hafren Forest. We were joined by Genesis brand ambassador Kerry MacPhee and Madison’s social media manager Jos, who was our official photographer, and was using an on-brand Genesis Smithfield e-bike to take some of the strain of carrying his camera kit.
A press launch is not generally designed to give the attending journalists an in-depth test of the different bikes on offer, it’s more to get an overview. There were a variety of bikes from the new Genesis range available for us to ride, including the Croix de Fer 40, the Croix de Fer 50, the Croix de Fer 931 and the Croix de Fer titanium. The Croix de Fer is Genesis’ ‘go-anywhere’ bike. With clearance for 700x47mm tyres, dropper post compatibility and a huge array of mudguard, rack, cargo and bottle cage mounts coming as standard, they are ideal for mixed on-road/off-road/bikepacking adventures.
The route that Phil had come up with was designed to showcase the characteristics of the bikes and give us a taster of what they were capable of. We started with a long gentle gradient climb up a gravel road, perfect for some sociable riding and trying out both the climbing and slow-speed handling characteristics of the new bikes. Our route topped out at just over 500m of altitude, with great views over the vastness of the Hafren Forest and the Cambrian Mountains beyond. A super-fast and smooth gravel descent was next on the agenda. Some sections of loose gravel, high-speed corners, adverse cambers and moving around within a pack of riders were all useful in helping us get a feel for the bike’s mannerisms and capabilities.
After some speedy descending, Phil brought us to a halt next to a section of singletrack. He described the trail in advance and pointed out the potential hazards before we set off, leaving small gaps between riders. The trail surface was rocky in places and had a couple of drainage ditches which cut directly across the track. I followed Brodie, who was riding an older model Genesis converted to a flat bar gravel bike, complete with short travel gravel suspension forks. His background as a mountain biker was pretty obvious as he neatly flicked his bike over each of the obstacles. The group was split between those riding the factory-specced Crois de Fer 40s, which came fitted with a chromoly steel fork and those on the ‘frame-only’ Crois de Fer 931 and Titanium models with their carbon forks. I was on one of the 40s and was impressed by how comfortable the fork was. A second section of singletrack quickly followed, this time on a shallower gradient, but with more adverse camber and frequent tree roots, plus a couple of short uphill sections before we popped out into a large carpark.
A mid-afternoon sandwich stop had been laid on, with public loos and a water stop nearby. It’s the little details that help keep everyone happy, but it’s surprising how these things can get overlooked.
The afternoon's route included more climbing. Phil had lulled us into a false sense of security with the slightly gentler nature of the morning’s parcours, whereas the afternoon was quite a lot more challenging. He balanced things out with a visit to the beautiful town of Llanidloes, including a visit to one of the great cafes on the high street.
The final part of the afternoon included some sustained climbing on tarmac, including a few short sharp pitches. Although nowhere near Alpine standards, the punchy nature of the route profile gave us the perfect opportunity to assess the bikes’ climbing capabilities and level of comfort. Typically, towards the end of ride, the previously friendly wind turned into our faces and despite having only covered just over 50 km with 1300m of climbing, the consensus seemed to be that we had got our money’s worth and were glad of a mug of tea and a sit down when we got back to the lodge! An evening of chatting, eating delicious dinner prepared by the lodge’s chef and watching the penultimate events at the Paris Olympics followed.
Day Two dawned with rain lashing the windows, never an ideal start to the day. The weather forecast was for intermittent heavy rain all morning, but fortunately with relatively warm temperatures to help us maintain some body heat. The plan was for a morning ride, testing out the capabilities of the new Genesis Vagabond – a big-tyred adventure bike, aimed firmly at the bikepacking and adventure riding market. There were Vagabond 10s and 20s for most of the group, but I struck lucky and was allocated a custom-built bike, complete with huge 2.4” tyres, mixed Shimano GRX and XT groupset and a PRO Tharsis dropper post.
Image courtesy of Genesis Bikes
Phil had designed a shorter, but more technically demanding route which included plenty of manmade singletrack trails, normally aimed at XC MTB riders. As we set off from the lodge, the weather was pretty grim – driving rain reduced visibility and gave the road and trails a greasy edge, but fortunately, as the ride went on, the rain petered out. Our route combined fire road climbs and singletrack descents, some of the latter complete with hairpin bends, multiple ‘whoop’ jumps, loose surface conditions and even a small section of slate bedrock. In short, an ideal combination of trail types and features to put the Vagabonds through their paces.
Phil’s piece-de-resistance for the route was a section of bridleway which ran straight across a farmer’s field. While only a few hundred metres long, the surface had been trampled by cattle and was pock-marked with hoof prints. Dry weather in the run-up to the press launch meant the ground was baked hard and the hoof prints had created a deeply unpleasant surface to ride across. Fortunately, the big volume tyres on the Vagabond helped increase comfort a little, but we seemed to make it across using a combination of total luck, blind faith and hysterical giggling, rather than by any huge levels of rider skill.
And that was it. A short section of tarmac (including the mandatory steep climb back up to the lodge), a shower to try and remove as much of the mud and cow muck as possible, a fantastic lunch of leftovers from the previous night and we were done. Less than 48 hours after arrival, we went our separate ways. I took away a lot of happy memories, some new friendships, a brain full of ‘testing notes’, a bag of very wet kit to wash and being very fortunate, a Genesis Vagabond to bring home and ride on my local trails.