Genesis Vagabond – anyone got one?

Been thinking of a vagabond frame to replace my drop bar MTB made from a charge cooker 3 hard tail as its a bit of a bodge to make the geometry work with drop bars. The other years purple looks ace 🙂

Would 100mm tapered steerer rockshox forks (off the above) work with this? I need the drops and prefer shocks due to wrist arthritis.

No – it’s a straight 1 1/8 external cup head tube. Needs a straight steerer.

Dag namit! Thanks for clarifying that. I was riding rigid drop bar MTB, but needed to go back to the front suspension for rougher stuff.

Anyone know of a disc ‘adventure’ frame with similar geometry and tapered steerer? Essentially need a shorter top tube and taller head tube so the drop bars aren’t too low and I can use a more regular stem.

Cheers

Stooge? Not similar geometry but the Mk3 will take a sus fork and you can pretty much set them up how you want bar wise.

Cheers will have a look see…

Firestarter, I have white 2017 frame fitted with Ultegra cranks 53/34 chainset in a slx bottom bracket. I have Google photos of the set up but have never been able to post them.

Interesting, as I’ve got xtr cranks with a 38t single ring in the middle, clearance is tight enough that I’m thinking of going down to a 36 for that reason alone.

Dag namit! Thanks for clarifying that. I was riding rigid drop bar MTB, but needed to go back to the front suspension for rougher stuff.

There’s meant to be a new Singular Swift in the offing but there’s nothing on the website at present. I believe that it’ll take a tapered fork but it’ll be more of a drop bar mountain bike than an adventure bike I suspect; I think that it’s also meant to be boost which may not be what you’re after.

Yeh, was looking and have been searching for a singular gryphon frame set (failed) and salsa fargo (can only find S or XS).

I might drop singular a line to ask.

Thing is I really like the look of the vagabond, but my wrist issues aren’t really fixable, unless you call fusing fixed, but that’s hopefully a long way off yet…

The Brother Cycles Big Bro might be worth a look; I don’t know anything about them but they do seem to be recommended on here. I’m pretty sure they’d take your fork and I’ve seen a few build on the ‘net with drop bars – I’ve no idea about the geometry though.

I don’t know if you could run something like a Rockshox Paragon with the Vagabond if you’re set on one.

first decent ride with the tubeless setup yesterday. Stock 2019 wheels, WTB Nano 2.1s in TCS flavour. Quite a transformation from the heavier wire beaded version of the same tyres, nicer feel, more grip, a bit faster. I also swopped the skewers out for DT Swiss bolt up’s. Loving this bike for easy off road miles and exploring 🙂

Sold my Vagabond last week.

No doubt it’s amazing adventure bike, but was just too much of a slog on the roads day to day.

In order to get any off road comfort the tyres needed to be super soft. In order to get any on road speed, they needed to be rock hard. Couldn’t find a decent compromise for my needs. My 29er XC bike did everything better.

On the upside, sold it for more than I paid for it.

Planning some longer offroad bimbletour now injury improving. For anyone interested, you can squeeze a 2.1 WTB Prowler in behind the front mech with a few mm to spare.

I also fitted some top-mount inline levers for sitting up to watch baby deer frolic in the glade and yet still emergency-slow for squirrels or snakes should things take a sudden turn 👍🏼 will see how I like them, never used any before.

Notes:
Birzman cable-cutters FTW. Being picky – the ‘handy’ awl is possibly not quite long enough for purpose, but they cut just fine. Really clean job. Wish had bought some years ago.

Anyone know of a disc ‘adventure’ frame with similar geometry and tapered steerer? Essentially need a shorter top tube and taller head tube so the drop bars aren’t too low and I can use a more regular stem

Drove/Bahookie Drop-Bar?

Now for sale:

Latest Classified Ads

2020 Vagabond has just been released. I’m a little sad that it’s gone to STIs instead of bar end shifters. £200 dearer too.

Linky Linky

Think i prefer the previous spec with Shimano and bar end shifters too..

^Looking nice still. I can see the appeal of not being occasionally kneecapped by a Microshift lever, but I do like the no-nonsense solid clickery of them. Agree on Deore kit being the better spec for an ATB.

I suppose I ought debrief on my Vagabond having recently sold it. Lump in throat. It was a matter of v. nearly right bike, wrong time. Then a MK1 Longitude turned up and I made the jump. One in one out. Couldn’t afford to keep both.

The stock Vagabond is supremely comfortable, rides light offroad with lower pressures, not too bad on paved with higher pressures, feels like a touring bike/ATB hybrid. Has a lot of ‘personality’ and IME inspires plenty of exploring which is worth so much more to me than the price of a midrange bike. It’s for that reason that I know I’ll miss it. That ‘hop on and go anywhere except home’ feeling. The very nearly almost in in invisibility of it. Excepting the occasional toe overlap or bump on the knee from a shifter, the bike IMO mostly ‘disappears’ as you ride it. Almost perfect. Just would like (for me) to be a little longer wheelbase. I think. It IS fun with a compact wheelbase, no mistake. But maybe a tad longer? Like the Longitude but no so much. I hope I’ll learn to love the Longitude, otherwise it’s back to a Vagabond amd recrimination. We’ll see. And I absolutely know that there’s no way they’ll ever make a ‘Vagitude’

That’s good enough me for me Malvern. Hopping to replace my FS and CX bikes with it. Will probably try to go the bar end route later on.

Not sure Vagitude is gonna work from a Marketing POV. It sounds a bit girl-power!

I don’t suppose anyone knows if the shimano GRX crankset will fit? The chainline is 2.5mm wider than standard road so almost the same as MTB.

Single or double?

Double, single would be fine I think but I have a 105 groupset and it seems a shame not to make use of the left shifter (also may need a different front derailier but hoping the 105 one I already have has enough adjustment).

Also aware that genesis say the maximum number of teeth is 44 but hope they being a bit conservative.

Am thinking of buying a Vagabond frameset. Hoping to go with the ‘GRX 400 groupset. Does anyone know if The ‘Shimano GRX 30/46’ crank would fit? It states its for a 68/70mm shell and has a Q factor of 151 with a chainlink of 46.9. My other option would be a ‘SRAM X5 42/28’ or ‘XT 28/40’ but I would prefer the higher gearing of a GRX crank. Thanks in advance.

I had a 38t in the middle position of an mtb chainset, there was a smidgen of clerance (plenty for a singlespeed, catastrophic if you had chainsuck).

Depending on cassette a 46t would be giving you a REALLY big top gear though. My winter road bike has a top gear of 50-13, and thats perfect for road riding with non superhuman legs and 25c tyres giving a gear inch of 101.

46:11 and 2.1 tyres is 120 inches. To match my roadbikes gear range would be a 39t chainring and a 11-36 cassette. I’d go with something like 26-38 double and 11-32.

Its not a bike for heroic big ring breakaways and 500W efforts on alpine descents.

The GRX crank fits fine but bear in mind you might need the GRX front derailleur as the offset is somewhere between road and MTB.

Genesis themselves state that 44t is as big as the frame allows but that maybe with road crankset chain line and certainly when I tried a 105 crankset it fouled on the chainring.

I think that would be a 44 mtb tripple, a road outer ring is about the same as an mtb middle and theres no way you would get more than a 38 in there without spacing it across.

You might be able to get a road tripple in there with the outer removed though?

Thanks for the speedy replies. I don’t mind a 28/40 XT and 11-36 10 speed cassette as that is what’s on my 29er hardtail. I just wouldn’t mind a smidge more at the top end. The GRX 10 speed 30/46 with 11-36 cassette sounds perfect but if all the frame would take is a 44t then I’m not sure I want to chance it an be stuck with a crank and mech. I plan to be running 45-50mm gravel tyres, nothing too knobbly. I will do a bit more digging and report back. Thanks.

I suppose as long as its not sacrificing the other end of the gears then it may be an advantage. Not having to have the chain go to either end of the cassette as often. But that assumes you dont end up in Big-Big all the time which is the problem my road bike has, the 50-28 gear is enough to gurn over most of the shallower climbs so i only use the granny on the steeper ones. Whereas an oldskool 38-52 Id probably use the 38 a lot more and 52:14 would be a straighter chainline than 50:13 on a 13-28.

Question to Vagabond owners –

I saw this for sale on ebay today, and the forks are different

I like them! But what’s the story? Think I saw such forks before on a 2016 Genesis trade-stand pic, possibly in this thread soemwhere – but mine of that year were just unicrown :-/

have a vague memory of pics of a prototype with that style of fork.

That’s it! Gah, good job my wallet is still in lockdown.
😎

*Edit – Not quite it – see the nice extra set of double-sided mounts on that trade-stand pic

does anyone have a Vagabond in L for sale? I’m looking for one and would be happy to buy yours 🙂 PM me if you got one! Thanks!

Anyone have more information on the 2021 725 Vagabond bike and frameset?
I can only find it on two webshop sites

Woah, hadn’t realised they’d changed it. Is the 725 a special-edition option or a whole new model? If the former then the one price I can find (£1700) also means the Vagabond has stepped away from being a mid-range/budget choice to something half a grand more expensive than last year?

I see it has lots of mounting points added all over, brakes now flat-mounts, 12mm boltthru vs the old QR

Which means if I decided to switch my Longitude build back to a Vagabond build (was considering it) then components might not even be compatible. bookmarked.

Anyone have more information on the 2021 725 Vagabond bike and frameset?

I’ve just grabbed a 2021 Genesis brochure – saved them from the skip in work.

The new frame is Reynolds 725 with 12mm thru axle F&R. It weighs 4.03kg.

The complete bike has SRAM drivetrain with STI shifters, Spyre cable discs, WTB rims. Claimed weight is 11.73kg, which is lighter than mine feels so I’d guess is a guess!

There aren’t any further details on the B2B site either, so when they are due, or exact spec, is anyone’s guess.

The only appreciable difference from older models seems to be the thru-axle and more bosses on the frame and fork. Certainly not worth me changing or upgrading, especially as the price is showing as £1700 or £700 for the F&F.

The updated Genesis website went live this morning with the 2021 range on it –

https://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/search/?q=vagabond

Bikes and framesets are currently due into Genesis at the start of October.

happy new year to you all!

has anyone who bought the new vagabond here in the forum? i would be interested to know how the chain ring clearance is on this version.