At iceBike, the in-house trade show of Madison (the UK’s largest distributor), Genesis Bikes revealed their latest developments. There’s a significant push to 29in wheels for the latest range, following on from the first Fortitude and now extending to aluminium and steel hardtails.
The Mantle is an aluminium hardtail 29er (think a 29er Core). It’s designed around a 80/100mm suspension fork, to keep the handling sharp and stop the front from getting to high. Details include an XX44 head tube, so you can literally fit any headset/fork standard you want.
The High Latitude is the 29er version of the very popular Latitude, and comes in a choice of materials; Reynolds 853 if you feel like splashing out, or a plainer version of steel. Both, like the Mantle, are intended to be run with 80/100mm suspension forks, and there’s a choice of singlespeed or geared setups.
We like the attention to detail on the 853 model, where instead of a curved seat tube (as we’re seeing on the majority of 29er frames), Reynolds produced a custom drawn rolled seat tube to produce the necessary clearance the short chainstays necessitate.
These bikes are hot of the production line and as yet things like final specs and prices are yet to be confirmed, but we’ll update you as and when we find out those details.
Another thing you’ll notice from the photos is a new colourway. For the upcoming season the guys behind the brand, including designer Dom Thomas, have set up the ‘Genesis Guild’, a handy tag for the prototypes and for the company’s plans to attend a number of UK mountain bike events with a team presence. It’s essentially a nice name for a development programme that will allow for constant testing of the frames, with feedback from the team going straight into future editions. Watch out for them at the UK’s best events this year.
These new models stick true to the brands ideals, and to find out we chatted to designer Dom Thomas (who demonstrates one of the perks of working for a huge distributor above). Watch out for that interview in full next week.
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