Review: Genesis Longitude

By Chipps

First published in Singletrack Magazine issue 95

Hats off to Genesis for keeping the oddball and niche flag flying. The company is rapidly becoming the UK equivalent of American brand Surly. Genesis makes fat bikes, gravel road bikes, steel-tubed ‘just a bike’s and this, the Genesis Longitude: a pure adventure machine.

At its heart, the Longitude is a steel 29in-wheeled bike with options for just about everything. In stock form, it features a well-proportioned steel frame with a whole host of braze-ons, W-shaped mega-swept bars, a steel rigid fork with even more braze-ons and chunky Continental X-King 2.4in tyres on big rims with room to spare.

The idea of the Longitude is to make it whatever you want it to be. The base bike is a great, fun trail hardtail. There’s a full complement of 30 wide-ranging gears that will cope as well with road miles between trailheads as they do with grinding a loaded bike up an endless mountain. I’ve been using the Longitude for general trail riding, Monday night pub rides and commuting. The stock tyres have worked fine for me, running surprisingly low pressures without issue, partly helped by the girthy, stock Alex rims. Even with 2.4s, there is a ton of clearance in the stays and the bike would definitely benefit from some of the new generation of wider rims if you fancied going that way. If you’re 27.5+ curious, then WTB’s 27.5in wheels and 2.8in tyres should fit perfectly too. If you wanted to get a bit more fruity, though, there’s plenty of room for anything up to a 29+ (3in) tyre like a Maxxis Chronicle or Surly Knard – though you’ll need to one-by the drivetrain and lose the front mech to give yourself enough clearance at the seat tube.

Genesis has nailed its colours to the mast by fitting a non-suspension-corrected rigid fork. This isn’t going to be a bike that you’ll easily upgrade into a hardcore hardtail or cross-country race machine – it’s a rigid bike for going big in a map-crossing way, rather than in terms of air time. The steel fork carries triple bosses on the rear of the blades for water bottles and Salsa Anything cages, and there are more bosses wherever you look elsewhere, too: on the seat tube and a triple boss setup on the downtube, plus bosses for mudguards and racks too. The rear brake mount is neatly tucked between seat and chain stays for ankle and rack clearance and the dropouts are horizontal to allow for geared use or (both deliberate and emergency) singlespeeding.

The components are all sturdy, reliable bits of kit. Shimano supplies the 22/30/40T chainset and wide-ranging 11-36T cassette, while the brakes are TRP’s mechanical Spyke models, featuring a new mechanical caliper that pulls both brake pads in evenly, rather than the one-sided mashing of Shimano and Avid cable-actuated models. These worked well for the test, though did seem to romp through brake pads in the wet, needing constant barrel adjustments.

Trail notes

The general fit and finish of the bike was impressive and the satin paint job has subtle contour lines through the graphics, hinting at its potential. The very ‘Marmite’ bars were surprisingly easy to get used to and the whole rigid front end was easy enough to control on anything short of rock gardens, where a little bit of decorum was called for. The rigid fork and steel hardtail frame dictates a firm and direct ride on any trail that isn’t smooth or buff, but the wide rims and 2.4in Contis soften the shock a fair amount and it was only on eyeball-rattling descents that I had to rein the speed in.

Balance and position on the bike is very well thought out and I wasn’t tempted to swap the 20° swept bars for anything straighter. The comfy saddle and easy riding position encourages a steady, constant pace and it’s a bike that encourages ‘what’s over there?’ kind of exploration. Out the box, it’s ready to ride as a daily trail machine and ideally priced for the Bike 2 Work scheme; however, it’s also crying out for some custom Alpkit luggage, some Salsa Anything cages and a beady eye on the horizon. There’s nothing not to like on the stock spec, it’s as future-proof as anything is these days and I don’t imagine any two will look the same once individual riders start tweaking them to suit their disparate needs.

Overall:

The Genesis Longitude is a well-thought-out, blank canvas adventure bike. Well worth a look.

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