A Genesis Vagabond build thread - mostly continent crossing & commuting

Nice one! Do your thighs hit that orange dry bag much?

That's awesome. So jealous you're going to ride the divide.

Is your seat baggage all on a carradice style support?

See the Omnom thread or those countless 'which GXP BB is betterer' threads.

Simple, hope or chris king, with an adapter shim. Running one of each on my two best bikes

This bike is awesome. That is all.

fantastic bike

nice bike
I'd move the bottles below the saddle as they'll get covered in filth from the paths
and yeah, that orange bag will rub your legs no?

I just drink from one or two then when I finish one I tip the contents of a dirty ones into it. I can only reach some of them anyway so not like I'd be able to drink from the rear ones or under DT. Saves a bit of time if you can keep them all clean in the first place though and just swap the whole bottle over.

Not sure I'd like to drink the contents of the one under the downtube tbf..

Why not, might lighten things up

Meh, it's fine. Lid keeps the dirt out so the contents are safe. Take the lids off, transfer to clean bottle, jobs a good'un. It ain't perfect but it's fine

Edit: oh, just clocked that it isn't a bottle haha. When I'm gasping for water up a hill I'd probably try to take a swig in my delirium. What even is it? Fire extinguisher? CO2? I've no idea

Edit: ohhh it says Trangia on it, fuel I guess then. Did I learn nothing from video games? Red bottles are always explosive.

hi all. now back from a great week riding through some beautiful countryside, albeit mostly in the rain...

to answer a few questions:
the orange bag under the saddle is my tent and yes my thighs do touch it at the bottom of the pedal stoke but it doesnt rub and i dont find it annoying at all.

the blue dry bag and the rear bottles are supported on a minoura sbh-300 turned upside down with crank bros "the claw" bottle cages. The claw bottle cages hold 1litre water bottles very securely and the blue dry bag (containing sleeping bag, mat, pillow and towel) is bungee'd to the top side of the minoura. it still needs a little refinement but holds everything securely with no swaying.

yes its not ideal having the water bottles so close to the rear tyre but ive got to carry lots of water somehow! i just emptied these into the bottle in the frame when needed but they didnt actually get that dirty.

ive also decided that id like to change the mtb shifter to a bar end shifter so i can mount a second fuel cell type bag for snacks/camera/bear spray. anyone got a sram 10spd bar end shifter for sale!?

looking for some advice regarding footwear...

before now ive always done trips with a pair of shimano spd shoes and flipflops for off the bike however i've no idea for the divide. I cant imagine too many times i'd want to be in flipflops when i'm not cycling. should i take a spare pair of off-bike shoes or should i maybe switch to flat pedals and take a proper pair of hiking shoes?

While i think i'll spend most of the time cycling, there could well be times i'd like to go for a hike or spend a few days chilling in a town. I also gather there could be quite a lot of pushing the bike!

I always go trainers and flat pedals.

My mate always wears something similar to these and swears by them:

Look horrid, but the pleasure of not having to wear socks and having one all purpose bit of footwear makes too much sense. (Unless it's cold).

Great bike btw, done coast to coast, but would love to do the divide. Will be following your progress

also looking at tyres and keep coming back to these:
https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYTERCH29/terrene-chunk-29-tyre

mostly for the price! theyre folding and tubeless and the right sort of width.

otherwise i like the look of the vittoria mezcal 29 x 2.25 at £35.

now with big boy shoes on :)

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Did you go for the light version? They fit alright do they?

these are the tough version. plenty of room in the fork but less than 5mm around the rear stays.

now ive put the tyres on, its really starting to hit home that i'm going!

Damn that is looking nice af. I am so so close to pulling the trigger and getting one of these badbois on the work's cyclescheme. Although I can't get it in that red if I get the hole bike; only a rank off green/turd color :(

Just rediscovered this thread. No updates after the ride makes me worry you were eaten by a bear 🐻

Both rider and bike survived and are rad

Now I've read the thread for the first time I want to know how it went.

I didn't get eaten by a bear (though I did see a few 🐻)

Some photos and brief write ups can be found here
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm6EeisHXAd/?igshid=1h2qf9yxkxmr
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnQ_GMXn9se/?igshid=19ss70tssfn6z
https://www.instagram.com/p/BngrbglH9C3/?igshid=1begaj7l92t5d
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn4zhKIni2B/?igshid=1slkub5b79vb6
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoGJZrkHnvn/?igshid=1xxnrp54x4olh
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bob7M0vH6fj/?igshid=y4d4jranso8d
https://www.instagram.com/p/BozDkaYHB5X/?igshid=17u02gzwqyc8a
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo7BsnSHJ-L/?igshid=1ju5zxe8175bc

(I had an epic time)

Perfect.
How was the setup? Anything on the bike you’d change if you did it again? (Hypothetically)

A few things but not much.

1. I would use normal drybags on the forks rather than those slightly odd alpkit toliero things that didn't fit the cages very well.

2. I would have water bottle cage mounts added to the seat stays. It was a pain sometimes to carry extra water in a foldaway rucksack.

3. I would use a carradice saddlebag for food storage. The nature of cycling for multiple days between food stops means your food bags fluctuate in size a lot and a drybag is not well suited to this as they go very floppy when they're half empty.

But other than that, nothing! I had no punctures or mechanicals of any kind and it only rained on the final day to antelope wells :)