The Alpitude is a serious bike built to handle serious terrain but not many of us get to ride truly hardcore trails all the time so it is important that your bike can handle your every day trails well. Rob Hayles is another former racer, of course – a double world champion and three-time genesis mountain bike Olympic medallist on the track, and a national champion on the road. These days he works with carbon, hence his involvement with this bike. Product PresentationFrom free-ride, long-travel mountain models to fun city bikes, the presentation is a key attractor on the sales floor.
Given the versatility of this frame, it is perhaps to be expected that there is a large number of different builds on offer. It is available with flat bars and drop bars, carbon forks and steel forks, there’s even a titanium frame option. For each of the builds, there are different spec levels donated by a ‘10’ for the entry level and ’30’ for the top line.
This—paired with a lifetime warranty—makes the Zero line a strong contender in the high-end road category. The basics are there in full length mudguards, a rear pannier rack, and puncture resistant tyres. With clearance for tyres up to 38c and a steel frame that will be robust and help genesis mountain bike deaden the road chatter, this is a bike with the stamina to match your own. The bikes are available either with rim brakes or hydraulic discs, but there is only one spec level with these bikes. The rim brake version can take tyres up to 28c, whereas the disc version can handle 30c.
It employs easily adjustable rim brakes, a single 42×17 gear, and it has mudguards to keep the spray off. Although the frame is steel, it’s relatively lightweight with a carbon fork and no excess components weighing it down. This is a bike that will zip around town without a second thought. There are, however, a number of points that make this a more versatile bike than the carbon alternative. Tyre clearance is increase to 38c, there are discrete mudguard and pannier mounts and an extra set of bottle bosses is present on the downtube. Due to being disc brake only, the bridge between the seatstays could be removed.
Some practically remains, with downtube bottle bosses (useful for holding extra water or a tool keg) and discrete mudguard mounts. The frame is fully carbon and the cables are integrated into the frame for a cleaner look and better aerodynamics. If there’s one thing UK-based Genesis Bikes knows, it’s humility. The brand makes no mistakes about its place in the bike industry. They describe themselves as not the biggest, not the oldest, not the most technically advanced, but always striving to make honest bikes that perform and look good—fresh out of the showroom and for years to come.
The big plus with the Alpitude is that it handles truly rough terrain well, the faster you go you better it rides and at no point do you think you are going to break it. Wheels are built around SLX hubs with Alex XED-44 rims, these are shod with Maxxis High Rollers genesis mountain bike 2.35 tyres. Transmission duties are taken care of by Shimano, shifters are Deore, there is a double SLX chainset, SLX front mech with a short cage XT mech at the rear, brakes are SLX as well. It’s a little bit bling but positivly understated compared to Blytheys..
Singletrack uses affiliate services called Skimlinks and which means we may earn revenue if you buy a product after clicking a link to a retailer on our site. The site said a retirement sale would begin Thursady and the store will be closed May 4-7 as trek prepares to re-open under the new ownership. For commuters and city-dwellers, Genesis has several bikes to choose from. Genesis has a lot of bikes in its ‘other’ category, so we’ve broken them down into Adventure, Cyclocross and Urban.
The cockpit felt a little cramped and we found that our knees clashed with the bars round tight hairpins. Grip out back is reliable rather than amazing and a determined effort will see you up pretty much any hill. The rear triangle is a beefed up to deal with the hammering that this bike is intended for and the seat tube is shortened so that the lower top tube gives bags of standover room.