New bike: Genesis CdF

A few thoughts about Genesis’ current Croix de Fer range, and a mini-review of my new CdF 20. P.S. I’ve used Croix de Fer = CdF to save me from RSI.

RIDE
So I’ve had the CdF20 for about a week which I think is enough time to garner a first impression. It feels lively and whilst it can go fast, it also allows you settle into a less-hurried rhythm if that’s your thing. With a wide gear range and comfortable geometry, it’ll pootle up long road climbs at walking pace and be comfortable doing so, if you want.

On the commute (~ 10 hilly miles each way, mainly in traffic), it feels plenty fast enough and I’m already sold on disc brakes. Combined with the bigger (than road bike) tyres, this thing feels instantly safer and stopping distances are far better (and I haven’t even ridden it in the wet yet). The Conti cyclocross ‘speed’ tyres roll really well and don’t feel draggy like knobblier tyres definitely would, which I guess makes it much zippier on the road than a traditional CX bike. The grip on dry rocks was actually really good, although I suspect the tyres’d be useless in mud. In the winter when it snows, I’ll swap out them for something spikier which is easily done given the massive clearances. I haven’t decided whether I’m going to use a rack yet, but the option is always there. I’ve had mudguards and rack on and off and they just bolt on, no problems.

In fact, the whole thing just feels like a great balance between being robust, safe and fast enough. If you’re in a hurry then a proper race bike might be marginally faster, but significantly less versatile. YMMV

It comes into its own when you steer off road though – I know this sounds like a cliché but it’s true. That sensation of zipping along a road at near-race bike pace, before diving off onto a bridleway that I’d only ever been up on my MTB is great! You just shouldn’t be allowed to do this on a road bike! I suppose this is just cyclocross bikes in general, but as a first-timer I am impressed. I haven’t tried to take it down anything especially technical or tight and to be honest, I don’t intend to either – I have a mountain bike for that. I did take it across Houndkirk moor (Sheffield locals will know it well) and it was a bit of a bone-shaker, but it was very fast. Disc brakes are great, but the lack of knobbly tyres means that braking is a lot scarier on loose gravel than with my MTB. The wheels seem to take the rocks without complaint so far, and generally everything seems to hold up with this level of abuse. The chain even stayed on the whole time! I do wonder whether the cheaper model would have complained more, but I don’t know.

<Insert picture here> I took a picture to accompany this mini review but my phone decided not to save it. Grrrr. Here’s a suitable one I pinched from the Genesis website.

Anyway, I really like this thing. In fact, I suspect my ‘race’ bike is going to get a lot less use now, since there are a lot of suitable bridleways locally for when I have an hour or two to kill. It’s also great having a ’fun’ bike on the commute – the long way home suddenly looks a lot more attractive!

So yeah, those are basically my inital thoughts. I suppose I might post a 6 month / 1000 mile review but I’m probably too lazy. Bottom line: I’m very happy with my new bike 🙂

Read below for a comparison which I imagine will be useful if you’re thinking of buying one, but otherwise please file under TL;DR.

I’d read the reviews of the Croix de Fers of past years, but there’s not a lot of information regarding the current line-up and I didn’t really feel I could choose between them based on what has been written online, so I thought I’d post my experiences. This is relevant since Genesis say they’ve updated the geometry a little bit, there’s a new (curved) fork, and the base model now uses a different type of steel. It’s now a bit less cyclo-crossey and perhaps half way towards traditional road geometry. Given that my main intent is commuting (as for most buyers, I’d imagine), this is A-OK with me. I have another bike (an aluminium Giant Defy 0) for ‘proper’ road miles.
I had a good look at both the CdF 10 and the 20 side-by-side and took them both out for a quick spin up and down the road. I agonised over the choice, and pored over the spec sheets, before settling on the 20 mainly based mainly on whimsy rather than any semblance of rational justification. So far, the CdF 20 has done a couple of commutes and a 30 mile mixed road / gravel ride. I haven’t looked at the CdF 30 in any detail as it was out of my budget, but from the spec sheet I think I’d be going for the frameset-only option and building it up from parts. So here are my thoughts on the CdF 10 and 20:

THE OPTIONS
The CdF 10 is £850 and has a ‘Mjolnir’ steel frame and fork, Sora drivetrain and TRP Spyre (cable) brakes.
The 20 is £1200 and has a Reynolds 725 Cro-mo frame and fork, Tiagra and TRP HY/RD brakes (cable / hydro hybrid).

Everything else, as far as I can ascertain, is similar between the two bikes. The wheels, tyres, finishing kit look identical, though according the website you get better (Sapim) spokes on the CdF 20. I must admit I’m skeptical – I suspect the wheels are identical. I’ve read online that the weight difference between the CdF 10 and 20 is only around 300g. I think this is probably fairly accurate – Both of them feel fairly robust to lift up and certainly I couldn’t feel a significant difference holding them up. My CdF 20 (in 56cm) weighs 11.6 kg without pedals. Looking objectively at the two, it’s kind of hard to see an extra £350 of ‘value’ in the CdF 20 (though this is what I ended up buying).

FRAME
The frames of the CdF 10 and 20 are very similar – you have to look at them side-by-side to appreciate the small differences. The main difference is the grade of steel used of course, but I’ll be damned if I could feel a difference in ride quality. They both feel quite similar – that is to say fairly stiff, planted and robust. Neither of them are especially flexy or springy-feeling, but will both happily clip along at a decent pace.

Visually, there are a few differences. The CdF 20 frame has a slightly different downtube gusset, and has cable routing for Di2 (which I doubt I’ll ever use). Maybe the welds look nicer, too, though the paint is thicker on the 20 which made it hard to compare. Certainly, there’s nothing that jumps out. I’m 99% sure they both share the same rear dropout and I’d guess a number of other bits too. Someone on the Singletrack forum suggested that they may even be identical frames (Perhaps Genesis had paid for the Reynolds ‘license’ only for the more expensive version?) but I can confirm that’s not the case.

FORK
It matches the steel frame and feels robust enough, but apparently it’s very heavy which I can well believe. It actually feels quite stiff and unforgiving, even with the 35mm tyres. I can’t help thinking that a carbon fork would probably be more comfy and would save a couple of pounds. (The CdF30 and the frameset come with a carbon fork)

COLOUR
The white is fairly impractical for a commuter. Even on a short (wet) test ride, it got all dirty. If I could be bothered to wait for the “Croix de Fer Ltd” (a limited edition graphite colour scheme version of the CdF 20) I might have gone for the more sensible grey. The white looks nice when it’s clean, though. I like the brown bar-taped version of a few years ago, and I suspect I’ll brown-ify the bar tape and seat at some point, but I’m not enough of a tart to change it immediately.

The CdF10 looks nice, it’s a real deep blood red which looks a bit darker or lighter depending on the viewing angle – almost a sort of anodised appearance. It’s definitely a bit different.

DRIVETRAIN
I was pleasantly surprised at the Tiagra on the CdF20. Shifts were light and crisp, and the brifters felt nice in the hand. I have 10 speed Ultegra on my race bike and, blindfolded, I think I’d struggle to tell them apart. Clearly there will be weight and perhaps longevity differences, but in terms of accuracy and feel, the Tiagra was a nice surprise. The Sora on the CdF10 on the other hand still feels a bit cheap to me. There were few rough edges on the brifters and shifts were heavy and agricultural, though accurate. Visually, the FSA chainset on the 10 looks a bit low-rent, although this is very easy and fairly cheap to swap. Anyway, this isn’t a review of groupsets, so I’ll leave it there. Feel free to mull over whether Tiagra on a £1200 bike is acceptable.

BRAKES
SRAM / Shimano still haven’t sorted out disc brakes for road bikes. They’re definitely getting there, but there’s a little way to go. The main issue being that you can’t get hydro discs for less than about £400 per set, and even then they’re only compatible with 11 speed drivetrains (I.e. 105 upwards). There’s no obvious commuter option here which is a shame. So most sub-£1500 (disc-equipped) road bikes have cable discs.

I was initially very skeptical about the TRP HY/RD brakes. I thought they were a heavy, over-engineered solution to a problem that wasn’t there… and then I used them! Perhaps the Spyres (TRP’s cable disc) that I tested on on the CdF 10 weren’t bedded in properly etc, but I’ve used a few cable discs in the past (BB5, BB7) and the HY/RDs just felt nicer. They feel more controlled and more powerful, with greater modulation and a smoother lever feel. In fact, they really feel like hydro discs, and I was surprised by this. Of course, they’re still cable-operated and they’re still not immune to wet gritty cables so time will tell how I feel about these. Visually, they look suitably premium, too, with a Shimano XT-a-like black and silver finish. So, first impressions of the HY/RD are very favourable.

COST
AKA The elephant in the room.

A couple of years ago, I bought a Giant Defy 0 road bike which I love. This cost just over a grand (still less than the CdF 20), but weighs 9.2kg and has a (mostly) Ultegra drivetrain. On smooth roads there’s no doubt it’d be significantly faster than the CdF, and it’s comfy enough for 100mile+ rides. So why would you buy the CdF? For me, there are a number of reasons. The steel-framed, comfortable timelessness of it is quite high up the list. The wide-tyred versatility and the off-road / gravel bike abilities of the CdF also feature.

I’d always wanted a comfy steel commuter, but I always thought the CdF was fairly poor value for money. Certainly a Planet-X London Road (for example) would be both cheaper, lighter and have nicer kit. Of the CdF 10 and CdF 20, the cheaper version definitely looks better value to me – Very similar ride quality, very similar weight. The logical part of brain said I should buy that one, but the heart wanted the better brakes / shifters and the nicer frame, so I ended up splurging the extra cash. I took advantage of Edinburgh Cycles’ sale and got 15% off which, for me, brought the cost down from “too much” to “a bit pricey, but what the hell?” Whether the Genesis is worth it to you depends on your needs, and ultimately whether you want it.

P.S. Edinburgh Cycles in Sheffield were great, they definitely come recommended.

That is a lot of words, must have taken ages.

I love my CDF 10, going slightly off the rails with it though it’s still perfect for my commute which is the sole reason I bought it. Currently running the stem flipped with some flat bars and I stuck a 38t narrow wide on the front the other day. Drive train is gonna be swapped to 1×10 and I’ve got some Pro 2’s waiting to be built into a replacement wheelset.
Awesome bikes, highly recommended!

I bought a CdF 30 for the Mrs. She loves it and so do I. Stable, fast enough in most situations, handles off road really well, comfortable and the fully hydraulic discs are a revelation. Great bike. Highly recommend for anyone wanting a do anything adventure type thing. It’s not as urgent or as fun as my Genesis Fugio off road but it’s better on the road. Genesis really do make some great bikes.

Had a test ride on one of these to size up for a CDA (none in stock at that time). Is a lovely bike but my budget didn’t stretch that far, looks great in the flesh, I’d keep it black for the saddle and tape. Looking forward to picking up my CDA in a couple of weeks.