Genesis Grapil, any one spent some time riding one?

I’m interested in one of these but I can’t find any shop who has a demo in the south.
I would really appreciate if anyone can give me a bit of review and comparison to anything else they have ridden.
Cheers

Genesis had a couple of Grapils available at a Glentress demo day last month, so hopefully someone on here was able to take one for a ride.

Some thoughts here: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/new-bike-very-exciting

Thanks for the link, I did do a search but nothing really found.
There must be a few of them on the trails by now, they really look the part.

I’ve had mine for 6 weeks or so now and love it (that’s my thread above). I’ve ridden it up to my own ability (and got some strava koms!). What would you like to know?

I’d buy one in a heartbeat.

The Bike Chain had one back in the day, went for a mince around and it felt like a riot.

Aside from stair-set cobble mincing, not a clue. Nice green in 1.0 and excellent kit in 2.0.

Edit: 1.0’s full of SRAM, 2.0’s full of Shimano. Your poison ,your peril but SLX wins for me.

daveh, how’s the bike going after more time riding, is there any thing negative, how’s it handle fast singletrack?
Cheers

I’m really enjoying it, ‘riot’ is a good word actually, it certainly encourages you to push hard! I could describe it as the best hardtail I’ve ever had, and I know that’ll sound odd, but if you get it you’ll get it! Full suspension wise I’ve owned a Heckler, borrowed a Blur (LT?), Rocky Mountain 120mm thing, and a Whistler bike park bike for a day each, all very different and capable but all to my mind devoid of the character and feedback that makes you want to loon everything. To that end, the Grapil might even be more of a bad influence on me than my beloved 06 Rocky Ridge. It really is a fun bike, I guess ultimately not as capable on rough stuff as 140-160mm bikes but because its relatively taught its very playful. If you ride for kicks then its well worth a look, there isn’t much info out there on it but geometry wise its remarkably close to the Blur TRc, ASR5, Bandit etc., the comments in the reviews of those bikes pretty much sum up my feelings on the Grapil, plus its a good chunk cheaper. If fast singletrack is your thing (its mine!), I think you may well love it.

The only downside so far is I had a warranty issue with it, but that was sorted and turned around in 1 week.

Must also mention UKBikeDepot, they (particularly Matt) have been superb throughout and I’d really recommend them, excellent prices (BESTPRICE is your friend!) and excellent service.

Thanks, can I ask what the issue was?

Email sent SoWhat 🙂

I have had a Grapil for 6 months now – it is my first full suspension bike and has been great -riding Swinley, and the North/South Downs. Loves single track -is fast and fun – and for stable and easy to control at speed.

However – I’ve had an issue which also lead to warranty claim – which has now happened again – could you me know what problem you had – I also got great service -from 18Bikes around my issue.

any reason yous are wanting to keep warranty issues a secret?

might help someone looking for buy one if you let on what the problems are

There’s a problem with one of the chainstay welds that ultimately can fail. As I understand it the Grapil has been pulled from the market until a resolution/new part is sorted. Hope this helps.

Ive had a grapil for 4/5 months now and also love it.
Just abit of balance, not had an issue with mine, and I use it for singletrack round Brighton and Surrey Hills etc, with some jumps thrown in.
….However I am keeping a close eye on the stays since DaveH mentioned it…and check over the bike after every ride. I guess you can have weld issues with any frame.

The geometry makes it one hell of a hoot, and I got a great deal from Plush hill cycles. I think its a well priced all rounder which can be used for a lot of riding. The suspension feels taut and very solid at the back, makes it great for climbing. I do think the stock bikes needs some upgrading though. – Wheels and tyres weigh an awful lot – the rubber queens are wire bead. I also changed the bar and stem. If you have big feet you can get a bit of rub on the seat stays although when I put on wide platform pedals this has gone completely.

@Sowhat you can always have a go on mine if you want.

Cheers Robbonzo but I went for a Mega TR instead.

no worries. Enjoy the ride.

My issues was with chain stay – basically both side snapped at the weld at Swinley Forest on a gentle section of the blue run about 3 months ago….had them replaced seemed OK and then yesterday after about 20 minutes riding it happened again – just one side this time again at the weld- frame sent back.

Basically much as a love the ride – I’m not asking for a fix this time – I want a different frame as it clearly needs sorting.

Just ran out and checked mine , on the non drive side I can see a hairline crack on the weld , wasn’t sure if it was the paint cracked , is this what the issue is ?

Oh dear, I was just thinking about getting one of these frames. Feel sorry for you guys!

I bought the Grapil 20 Frame only option -then built the bike bit higher spec than standard XT etc.

On inspection everything looked fine -then essentially on a compression rather than jump or bump the welds on both sides snapped clean through. I thought it was just a faulty weld and Genesis and the guys at 18Bikes replaced it all within a week.

Yesterday very similar looked fine before I started – going through small compression and again weld snapped clean through -only on chain side this time though.

I don’t ride particularly hard -but I have done several drop offs (about 1-2ft) with no problems -but both breaks happened more with stress than impact.

Genesis are doing the correct thing by their customers with failures and as I said earlier, as I understand it you can’t presently buy a Grapil as Genesis have taken all the stock back and won’t sell you one. Trouble is the problem is insufficient weld penetration, you dont get any warning like a fatigue failure (crack growth), one minute its fine, the next not. I loved the bike but likewise after 2 frame failures I moved on to a different brand.

Same thing happened to the first run of Mega’s and one or two Hemlocks. My Hemlock didn’t fail, despite the odd six footer to flat.
My Mega has the replacement stays (I think), and is still in one piece.

All failed in roughly the same area so presumably it’s a hard weld to get right. As usual it’s how a firm deals with it that shows their ‘metal’.

Weirdly, I really like the Grapil so I might let somebody else choose my next frame….

Good luck folks.

DaveH
Can’t see how to mail on forum -wondered what response you got from dealer or Genesis really as I’m going through process now.
Different dealer -but so far 18bikes have been great.

Distributor tried to put me on a Saracen Aerial 2 or a Kili Flyer. Didn’t fancy the Aerial, bit heavy and bobby I thought, residuals not good and were being offered less than half price by one shop. Kili Flyer was more interesting but didn’t want 650B and neither of the Saracens were the right seat tube size for my reverb. Shop suggested something from Scott as that’s their other main brand but nothing tickled my fancy there either. In the end I said I needed to end up with a bike that I wanted or it would have to be a refund. The 2 other bikes I considered when I bought the Grapil were the Mega TR and the Transition Bandit – they couldn’t do me a Mega TR but they could do me a Transition Bandit. So I went for the latter, with all the bits from the Grapil swapped across, plus some addition monies. 18 Bikes do both the TR and Bandit so you could possibly also go that way.