Genesis Croix de Fer (2013)

Great to see those changes!

loved it with drop bars, but whatever works for you. Still lovely bike!

I converted too flat bar from a drop bar and my time going to work is about the same 8 miles in 32 mins .
But on a longer distance dropbars are definitely faster.

Thanks @Madhias and @Shl!

@Shl, my set ups rarely last more than a year...perhaps the drops will come back at some point! :D

That's interesting...do you have a sense of the minutes/mile speed gains with drop bars?

Yeah doing 8 miles in 32mins i am flat out i will not be able to do this speed over my sunday route which is around 35 miles on a dropbar bike where i can hit average 16.8mph .its much easier holding a faster speed on a dropbar.

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Endless tinkering never ends...big changes on the front end this time.

New fork, uncut steerer, crazy amount of spacers, crazy woodchipper bars, bar end shifter...and probably the most comfortable set up so far! I liked the flat bar set up, but wasn't thrilled by it.

Since I'm still playing with handlebar angles and lever positions I haven't re-taped, but I plan to use the old grey Newbaums tape I had on the previous drop bar iteration.

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Now taped

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Looks great, tape matches the seat well.. I have another CDF coming my way..

I thought I was done with this bike. I had stripped it and was going to sell, but I never got round to it. Since my last update new children, a pandemic, and two moves have happened.

Now I live in a place where my Panaracer Paselas nearly killed me on loose gravel and sand, so WTB Nano's have gone on and I've reverted to a flat bar and wide range cassette. I've also gone back to the Thorn fork I had in an earlier iteration and used a lot of the same components from earlier builds. The new bars are Nitto Jitensha. I love them aesthetically but the jury's still out in terms of comfort. Perhaps wider, proper, MTB bars, are the way to go. The XT mech and wide range cassette are giving me trouble; the cable gets so tight I can't shift into the last three cogs. It's strange because I've used this same combination of mech, cassette and shifter before!

In any case, I think it looks pretty cool and I will work out the niggles in due course. More than anything I'm just happy I kept this bike and I love how adaptable it is.

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More pics

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Lovely - where is that?

Makes me wish I hadn’t sold mine.

Just discovered this thread. Started from the first post up until here, love the journey! Don't sell it, after all this time you'd regret it instantly

Out of interest, did you change the fork since the Genesis one twists when braking? This is what I find on mine unless I tighten the skewer super tight.

Thanks for the comments!

@S_b This is in the outskirts of Madrid. Really nice riding around here. What year was your Croix de Fer?

@Marcootsee Hah! Thanks for the joining the ride :D You're absolutely right, I don't think I'll ever sell it now. This was the bike I really learnt about bikes on...it will be a keeper, maybe my kids will ride it some day. I may have it resprayed some day though.

@Alan_tbt I bought the frame second hand, it had a carbon fork at the time. I didn't trust it, so I used changed it for a Thorn fork first and then a Masi one for a while. I've now gone back to the Thorn, which seems really robust.