The biggest complaint with this bike is that you can’t upgrade much on it. Again, this is not a problem for the beginner, but for a more experienced rider, this will be problematic. Let’s put it this genesis mountain bike way – this won’t be the last bike you ever buy. With a new bike, I don’t think the front forks should be squeaking. I wasn’t totally sure if that was just how it was, or if they were actually bad.
So it is a little lighter than the Genesis 26″ V2100 Mountain Bike, and a little more flexible when dealing with off-road climbs. And as the brand has genesis bike always insisted, a lower stand-up height would be more suitable for women. Mountain bikes are not just a means of transportation for daily travel.
The Core range is based around a 6061 aluminium tube set that is butted where needed with some gentle manipulation to ovalise the down tube as it meets the seat tube at the bottom bracket shell. There are strengthening gussets where the down tube and top tube meet the tapered head tube and the seat stays are an old school wishbone style, the lack of a bridge gives ample mud clearance. Explore, search and compare thousands of the world’s best mountain bikes here on Mountain Bike Database. Brandt’s broadening of the application of the bicycle to all sorts of surfaces was his chief contribution to the concept of the mountain bike – it was a bike meant to go anywhere. “People said ‘your work is good, it’s as good as I’ve seen anywhere’. To me, people like Peter Johnson and Albert Eisentraut set the bar very high as far as their top level bikes.
And the guys that were building for other companies weren’t racing. But then racing became a part of the whole sport of mountain biking. We had NORBA, by 1983 we had a national championship, and a bunch of companies that had grown up around mountain biking in a very short amount of time. Brandt’s understanding of physics as an engineer meant genesis bicycles that he encouraged Ritchey to use the largest diameter wheel he could manage, to embrace the inherent efficiencies of a larger wheel. Ritchey is quick to credit his neighbor Peter Johnson for providing inspiration and new ideas in frame design and componentry – concepts that Ritchey would develop further for use in mountain bikes.
Not too long and well balanced with none of the ‘too much weight on the wrists’ feeling that sometimes comes on trail hardtails. Kit wise the Genesis is sensibly specced, Shimano Deore takes care of transmission duties with a SLX rear derailleur, brakes are Deore too. Genesis are a British brand that have been building decent bikes and a decent reputation so I was looking forward to a chance to see if the positive buzz about the company and their bikes was well earned. Over ten years the range expanded beyond commuter bikes to include road, mountain, cyclo-cross, gravel, kids and fat bikes. The Vapour is Genesis’ CX race machine and there are three models available (10, 20 and 30). There’s the option of having a full carbon frame at the higher end of the spec too, or a more affordable version with an aluminium frame and carbon fork.