Some adventures are about taking your time and drinking in your surroundings, others are about getting there fast. This bike is designed for lightweight bike-packing, able to tackle ultra-distances on mixed terrain. Despite being already expansive, the Genesis Bikes brand continues to grow, with the British company striking out even further to the gravel/adventure cross market. If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation.
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 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.
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 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..
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.
Part of this is down to the different frame material, but cheaper components are also a factor. Gravel bikes are what everyone wants right now, says Erin Fagan, the events coordinator (and more) at Genesis Bicycles in Easton. For Erin, being so close to the trail is a huge advantage since beginners are nervous riding on the road with cars. Often, they tell us that Walmart gave them our number, and we also get calls from employees building the bikes at Walmart looking for parts, since we are the first thing that comes up when you google Genesis and Bikes. During the cycling season we get about a dozen calls a day from people with a Genesis brand bicycle.
On our 16.5inch frame, which is a virtual 17.5inch, the effective top tube length is a shortish 578mm, chain stays are 425mm and the wheelbase is 1120mm. It looks like some Arabian prince would ride once in front of his mates then keep in gold plated toilet in a palace he never stays in. Plus, plus that headtube/stem/fork is just, well there are no words. We showed you 3T’s Strada ICR a couple of weeks ago, with a ‘nose’ extending forwards at the front of the head tube.
None of these things alone would be an issue but add them up and they mean you have to push hard to get the bike really moving. You get out what you put in though and once up to speed the bike is a different animal. The adjustable Revelation forks up front give you the option to wind down the travel to sharpen up the handling through singletrack and help you up the steep stuff, turning the Alpitude into a true all mountain steed. Steep technical drops are taken in its stride and on fast smooth downs the Alpitude feels stable so long as you stay out of the saddle. Genesis give their geometry figures with the bike at 25% sag, so you can take just over a degree off the stated numbers to give you the figures of the bike unweighted.