Right, I’ll get this bit over with, I hate touring on drop bars. I’ve tried it and it was horrible.
Also, I have some rather specific requirements as I shall explain…!

For our first tour I used a Carerra Subway and that taught me I needed lower gears and better brakes, so I built my 853 Inbred into a tourer to replace it and that was pretty bloody good. Until it cracked last year 🙁
I quickly rebuilt my Croix de Fer into a flat bar tourer prepared to find It wouldn’t cope too well, but it did that job very well indeed. But it was a bit short and toe overlap has always been a problem with it for me, but I was sold on 700c wheels….
I was actually going to go the full custom route as virtually nobody made a bike that fitted all my (odd, I admit) requirements, which were:
Flat bar geometry. Nice and upright but not short.
Steel frame. A strong one. Nice sedate geometry and plenty of heel clearance and all the braze ons.
Disc brakes. 180mm Disc brakes
VERTICAL dropouts. I must have these as a fully loaded trailer would pull the rear hub out and changing a flat with rack, ‘guards and horizontals is a right royal pain in the ass.
Stand mount plate

But then Genesis launched the 2016 Tour de Fer and I figured it was 90% of what my full custom would be and a grand cheaper! It’s taken a while to get hold of a frame and source all the bits (Odd requirements again…) but I enjoyed the process.
I did a proper fully geeky/OCD build on it too. I reckon it’s taken well in excess of 12 hours to get it built including building the wheels.
BB was faced and chased, every bolt replaced with stainless items, including the little one in the mudguard clips and disc bolts, but not the brake calliper bolts. I trust Shimano with those!
I’ve had to cut and file most of them to length and also make some small modifications to get front disc clearance, sort the rear rack and , MOST importantly, hide the dynamo wiring away from critical eyes (Mine!) I think wiring the lights up took 2 hours or more! It was worth it though as it’s super neat.
The drivetrain I already had, but I chanced on the immaculate LX cranks for £20 and the new old stock SRAM X-Gen front mech. (Best, toughest 9sp front mech ever made IMO) I chose 9sp as it’s cheap, tough and the same as Mrs PPs bike for obvious reasons. Brakes are LX Trekking with 180mm SLX rotors. BB is a gold Token one with ceramic hybrid bearings fitted.
I ordered the wrong ‘guards by mistake but these are wayyyy better than normal SKS stuff, they are more solid and look far neater with the single black stays.
Rack is a stainless steel Raleigh item I already had. Very tough.
Seatpost and bars are Shimano Pro Koryak items, 27.2 inline, and a low rise bar cut to 660mm. Grips are XLC trekking style. Stem is Bontrager Elite with Blendr mount for the Bontrager computer (Neatness, NEATNESS!) Cages are old Bontrager Sideswipe ones in alloy which can’t be bettered.
Saddle is a Brookes Swift titanium I got in exchange for a favour…. 🙂
Pedals are Shimano Saint. I can’t think of a better touring pedal.
Bell was a present from my brother, centre stand is a Pletscher item
Lights are Busch and Muller Luxos U on the front (with USB charging on the bars) and Toplight Plus on the rear powered by an Exposure/SP dynamo front hub. All the wires have been painstakingly hidden through the rack tubing and internally in the fork. The rear wire is shrink-wrapped to the rear brake hose and any visible wires have been shrink wrapped and tucked away. You have to look to realise it’s got a full dynamo set up, put it that way. 🙂
Rims I struggled a bit with. I needed tough, black, disc specific and 32h front 36h rear. Those DT Swiss ones were a chance find on Rose bikes and about £12 each. They’re designed for E-bikes. They’re perfect. Spokes are DT SS DB, obvs.. 😉 Rear hub is XT, tyres are Schwalbe Marathon Mondial, lots lighter than Marathon Plus and more capable on tracks and paths.
I’ve got Vaude panniers and matching click fix bar bag
I’ve done about 50 miles to see how it rides and it’s spot on. A solid and smooth ride. Not fast, but it just handled a trailer full of shopping with ease. The front is high but I’ve got a decent reach.
It’s really good. Absolutely spot on. A proper old bloke bike.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/Fp58KM]IMG_5737[/url] by Peter Atkin, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/EWv2Zf]IMG_4105[/url] by Peter Atkin, on Flickr

USB charging, permanently fitted, huge spread of light, and also out of the way of a bar bag!
[url=https://flic.kr/p/Fdos2o]IMG_5741[/url] by Peter Atkin, on Flickr

Very neat mudguards. The spacer there is the alloy tubing fitted to instead os a saddle on a new seatpost!
[url=https://flic.kr/p/F5KLK5]Tour de Fer[/url] by Peter Atkin, on Flickr

A few flashes of gold here and there. 3rd set of bottle bosses now holds my pump
[url=https://flic.kr/p/F84UB8]Tour de Fer[/url] by Peter Atkin, on Flickr

Freebie!
[url=https://flic.kr/p/EWv9hq]IMG_5748[/url] by Peter Atkin, on Flickr

e-Bike rims
[url=https://flic.kr/p/Eamnab]Tour de Fer[/url] by Peter Atkin, on Flickr

Hiding the wiring
[url=https://flic.kr/p/FfERfn]IMG_4108[/url] by Peter Atkin, on Flickr

Shrink wrapped for neatness. And that’s the trailer hitch there
[url=https://flic.kr/p/FdopkG]IMG_4107[/url] by Peter Atkin, on Flickr

That is very nice … I like! 😀

The only thing I would change is the handle bar coz I like those like Mary bar.

Nice work and great attention to detail.

Nice shiny bell

It’s got a golden bell, a golden bell!!! I love it!
Looks a really neat bike ready for some miles, brilliant.

Tidy, and it’s just what you want, therefore perfect. 🙂

That’s lovely.
I might be after some wiring advice when I get mine.
🙂

What guards are they? The build looks great, really purposeful.

your pump peg is empty.

Other than that looks like a nice tourer.

looks perfect to me.

your pump peg is empty.

That was my thought, a bike like that is crying out for a frame pump I reckon.

woodnut – Member

Nice work and great attention to detail.

Detail-shemtail, there is a peg for a top-tube pump and instead he bolted a plastic bracket to the downtube! spoils the whole thing, shameful, go chuck it in a canal and we wont bring it up again 😆

I have been getting really tempted with this bike as my commuter (13 miles each way), your pics have really not helped!

Were you not tempted by the complete bike, or did you have enough bits around to make it practical to go frame only? Looking at the spec of the complete bike, there isn’t much I would change!

Good work! That is a very neat build. Like it.

nice 🙂

Very well executed.

Were you not tempted by the complete bike,

Yes, but I already had most of the components and I didn’t want 10 speed.

there is a peg for a top-tube pump

There is yes. But I like Topeka Morph pumps as they work so well. I do have spokes in the spoke holders though, does that help? 😉

Great little write up and I am tempted myself buy one of these frames. The question mark for me being that I haven’t quite ruled out drop bars yet

I think Genesis got it correct to do a flat bar tourer. The must have seen that quite a few people were adding flat bars to their drop bar models.The Old Tour Def fer overlapped with a lot of similar bike Trek 520, kona Sutra etc. This year bike is more of an addition to the choice on offer across all production bike. I suppose the Kona Big Rove is the closest but they don’t do a frame only option

I hope you get lots off happy miles from your new bike

Its too new! 😉 Needs miles

We’re lovers not haterz!

I like it a lot! I don’t get on with drops either. I have an old Kona Phd with Easton Haven low rise, mud guards and pannier rack known as my Gentlemans Commute Conversion.

I don’t get on with drops either

I don’t mind drops. Just not for touring. I like to sit back and look round, I need some powerful brakes, and as far as I can see, bar end shifters are just making things difficult for no reason. I do more miles on a drop bar bike than anything else but rarely more than 20 at a s time!

What guards are they?

SKS Single U stay
http://www.zyro.co.uk/sks/products/detail/SKMBMUMB

ampthill – Member
Great little write up and I am tempted myself buy one of these frames. The question mark for me being that I haven’t quite ruled out drop bars yet

I think Genesis got it correct to do a flat bar tourer. The must have seen that quite a few people were adding flat bars to their drop bar models.The Old Tour Def fer overlapped with a lot of similar bike Trek 520, kona Sutra etc.

I’m really glad that the new bike covers all the bases for those who prefer flat bars.

Prefer drops (just personal preference) and the 2015 looked sensibly specced and much much better value than the bikes you mention.
Much better value than a Surly Disc Trucker too, the obvious competitor.

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to find a 2015 drop bar in my size, after a bit of digging around, at Cycle Gear in Halifax.
They’ve a few larger sizes too, if anyone’s interested.

Nice people and a nice bike (at a very silly price too), but really bad toe overlap on the small.
A problem which was non existent on the Vagabond and much less pronounced on the 2016 Tour/Croix De Fer.

Gutted, I really wanted to love that bike.
Brilliant bargain if you like drops and you’re not a dwarf though.
🙂

Lovely

Looks good to me

I like that a lot, where’s it going to take you?

Why would you be worried about the haterz? It looks great.

Lovely!

Just the thing for a few weeks touring in NZ 😉 Loving the saddle that’s beautiful, the rest is very functional 🙂

This is a really lovely build, OP.

This is exactly what I’m after to replace my Escapade, which I’m running as a long-stem flat bar build since I built a more road focused drop bar machine.

I’m deliberating over this or a Roadrat, to play the role of wet weather commuter, urban hack and tourer. Since the TdF has better dropouts and ancillary fittings I’m more tempted by the TdF.

Hoe have you ran the dynamo wire out of the fork? Have you drilled the inside face of the upper fork?

Your build looms spot on though

Lichen starting up on the path needs sorting and the grass looks shit.

Hoe have you ran the dynamo wire out of the fork? Have you drilled the inside face of the upper fork

Firstly I practiced on my CdF. 🙂
The holes are already there although I did enlarge the lower one a couple of millimetres.
It’s a fright jeffing faff to get the wire through though. First you start of with a brake cable (has to be brand new and sealed at the end, mind you) bending it and poking all around the place until it goes through. Then you tape a single, thin, electrical wire to that and pull that through very carefully because you really don’t want to loose the tape inside your fork leg! Then you solder the actual dynamo wire to that and pull it through. Cut to length (I’ve left some spare inside the fork leg) and protect each end with heat shrink. That can be an hours work, even second time round!

Excellent use of parts, £12 for rims that are E bike specific, laced with DT DB Spokes which you know are gonna be solid, King headset, stainless bolts, and the shiniest bell ever……….

Plenty of knowledge and experience gone into that and it shows, well done.

Now get out and ride before the weather turns, another 2 days like today and that’s it! Summers over.

I like that a lot, where’s it going to take you?

Oddly we’re not doing a tour as such this year but we are having 10 days in the Channel Islands, arriving and travelling by bike. Next year I’m hoping to do a proper tour, maybe the Western Isles or down the Rhine. Something like that.
It will also be my shopping bike too. It pulls the trailer, see?

Xyeti- Thanks for the commitment. 🙂 I did spend far too long thinking about it, I ordered the frame in Novemeber!
These are the rims but theyv gone up a quid!

Nicely built. Didn’t realise Genesis had started doing flat bar versions. I’ve been thinking of a flatbar road type bike for a while. I was set on a Cotic Roadrat. Not too many frames out there long enough to take a flatbar without feeling too upright (like my Charge Filter).

£400 for the frame is a lot though, especially compared to the £350 for the roadrat?

Peter – I actually have 3 of those bells now but I’ve not used any of them to my shame.

My TDF is lovely, just a bike you can get on and ride anywhere.

Nice work, very practical and with some nice shiny bits 🙂

Great thread. Just the kind of bike I’m looking for, so good to read some user experiences.

Seems like a heavy build; I’d be after a significantly lighter build, but then I won’t want it to be quite so ‘utilitarian’. So lighter wheels and components. Curious as to why anyone would want to use a dynamo system when even cheap LED lights are so good these days. Seems like a lot of faff and fuss, not to mention heavy and not as mechanically efficient as a standard hub.

Nice to see a manufacturer offering a decent ‘hybrid’ style bike for those who don’t want drops. Would like to see something similar made from 853 or even 931/953 tubing. The Ti Croix De Fer looks lovely, but a bit expensive.