A look at the gravel bike Chipps uses for his, er, style of gravel riding when he’s not mountain biking.

It’s all about stance, right?

• Price: £2,499.99 frameset, approx £5,500 as built
• From: Freewheel

This isn’t my first Genesis, having previously owned the singlespeed Day One cyclocross bike, a carbon Vapour ‘cross racer as well as the titanium version of the Croix de Fer a couple of years ago. As the whole Genesis range saw a pretty major overhaul and redesign in 2024, bringing lots of new touches to the bikes, I decided to trade in the Ti and go for 931.

‘Take me to your pizza!’ Chipps midway through a 23km descent to dinner…

While the Croix de Fer 931 actually looks like a titanium frame, it’s made of Reynolds 931 stainless steel tubing. It’s a fiendishly tough material to work with, but the end result is a virtually corrosion-proof bike with the ride of steel. Compared to the (now redesigned) titanium frame I’d had, there were many improvements, like sensibly ported internal cable routing and a move to a T47 BB standard to keep compatibility high. The new Amplitude G200 carbon fork also offers internal routing for brake hose (and dynamo) as well as a slew of accessory bosses.

Remove ads

External headset, internal cabling, but no internal headset cabling. Yay!

After consulting the size chart, and the Genesis staff, I ordered the frameset (frame, fork, stem and seatpost) in a size ‘S’ – which seemed counterintuitive as I’m normally as medium as you get. But it seems that bike companies have all started trying to include extra small and extra tall frames in their ranges, so what was medium is now small. As someone who rides a 54cm road bike and a M/L cusp mountain bike, I actually found the small Croix de Fer to fit perfectly, so prepare to do a lot of measuring or trying out if you’re not 100% sure of your needed size. To compliment the frame, I fitted the new Di2 2×12 GRX semi-wireless groupset, as well as the DT Swiss DiCut 1400 wheels. Bars and saddle were from Pro and tyres were initially Vittoria Terrano Muds.

Those bosses were probably the first thing I noticed. There just are SOO many of them, made more noticeable as they come fitted with a full set of dome-headed bolts. I’d rather they came with some blind caps, as it’s unlikely that anyone’s ever going to need all of them. However, it does show the versatility of the frame’s intentions. The next thing I noticed was that I didn’t have a BB tool to fit the T47 bottom bracket, but a quick trade with a pal and I was in business.

Time to fit some suppler hoops?

The bike build went very smoothly and the internal cable ports unbolt to allow easy access to the cable you’re trying to feed through. Unfortunately for me, the seatpost mounted Di2 battery precluded fitting a dropper post (though that’s not going to be the case with the latest generation fully wireless Di2) but I think that the 2×12 groupset regular user will fall into the ‘fast and aero’ gravel camp, rather than the ‘winch and plummet’ chunky trail, dropper post crew that most of my gravel riding lives in.

Remove ads

A dropper post port that unfortunately won’t get used until the Di2 battery is no longer in the seatpost.

While this is a bike check and not a review, after six months of hard use, I’ve been impressed at how versatile the Croix de Fer 931 has been. The initial build is still the one I’m running, apart from changing the tyres from Terrano Muds to Vittoria Terrano Drys, which better suit the dry conditions and on/off road riding that I normally do. I’ve done 100km fast road rides on it when my road bike’s been out of action, I’ve taken it mountain biking as a ‘self-limiter’ with novice riders so that I didn’t get too carried away in my trail choice and it’s been great. I’ve even loaded it up with a full frame bag (and then bolted bottle cages to the forks, which worked well) and gone on overnight jaunts that traversed mountain passes. It’s been mighty capable so far.

Sunset in a different town square, just before ordering everything on the menu. This is what it’s about.

Any plans on changing things up? Well, as I said in my DT Swiss wheels review, I have found that the deep section wheels, while being noticeably fast on long drags, are just too rigid for the kind of long, chunky descents I like, so I might look to fit some more supple hoops. I could always take advantage of the 47mm tyre capacity of the frame and fork, but I’m too much of an ‘anything bigger than 40mm and you’re mountain biking, not gravel riding’ stickler, so I’ll see if I can fit some shallower rims and see what the differences might be. One thing that potential purchasers should note is that the frame doesn’t have a UDH compatible derailleur, which will limit you in future gear choices to Shimano, rather than SRAM’s latest wireless Force, Rival and RED which need a UDH frame.

No UDH here, sorry. And the one fiddly cable stop on the bike. Bring on wireless GRX!

So, in all, the CdeF 931 is a bike that looks like Ti, but with the ride of steel, a massively versatile build-up range and a chirpy ride that encourages some big days out. And talking of which, I’m just about to load it up again and take the long way up to a mountaintop beer festival…

Remove ads

Staff Bike Check: Benji’s Calibre Bossnut (FFWD Upgrade Project) New arrivals

Pay in 3 option now available via Paypal in our shop

• About The Ride Enamel Mug £16.79 Select options
• About The Ride Organic Hoodie £47.99 Select options
• It’s About The Ride Tee £25.00 Select options
• Singletrack Organic Snug Hoodie £47.99 Select options

#mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_form { } #mp_form_below_posts5 form { margin-bottom: 0; } #mp_form_below_posts5 p.mailpoet_form_paragraph.last { margin-bottom: 5px; } #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_column_with_background { padding: 10px; } #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_form_column:not(:first-child) { margin-left: 20px; } #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_paragraph { line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; } #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_segment_label, #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_text_label, #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_textarea_label, #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_select_label, #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_radio_label, #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_checkbox_label, #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_list_label, #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_date_label { display: block; font-weight: normal; } #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_text, #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_textarea, #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_select, #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_date_month, #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_date_day, #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_date_year, #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_date { display: block; } #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_text, #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_textarea { width: 200px; } #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_checkbox { } #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_submit { } #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_divider { } #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_message { } #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_form_loading { width: 30px; text-align: center; line-height: normal; } #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_form_loading > span { width: 5px; height: 5px; background-color: #5b5b5b; } #mp_form_below_posts5 h2.mailpoet-heading { margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 0; }#mp_form_below_posts5{border: 1px solid #000000;border-radius: 0px;background: url(https://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07//issue-162-cover-clean-970.jpg) center / cover no-repeat, #ffc012;color: #000000;text-align: left;}#mp_form_below_posts5 form.mailpoet_form {padding: 25px;}#mp_form_below_posts5{width: 100%;}#mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_message {margin: 0; padding: 0 20px;} #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_validate_success {color: #00d084} #mp_form_below_posts5 input.parsley-success {color: #00d084} #mp_form_below_posts5 select.parsley-success {color: #00d084} #mp_form_below_posts5 textarea.parsley-success {color: #00d084} #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_validate_error {color: #cf2e2e} #mp_form_below_posts5 input.parsley-error {color: #cf2e2e} #mp_form_below_posts5 select.parsley-error {color: #cf2e2e} #mp_form_below_posts5 textarea.textarea.parsley-error {color: #cf2e2e} #mp_form_below_posts5 .parsley-errors-list {color: #cf2e2e} #mp_form_below_posts5 .parsley-required {color: #cf2e2e} #mp_form_below_posts5 .parsley-custom-error-message {color: #cf2e2e} #mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_paragraph.last {margin-bottom: 0} @media (max-width: 500px) {#mp_form_below_posts5 {background: #ffc012;}} @media (min-width: 500px) {#mp_form_below_posts5 .last .mailpoet_paragraph:last-child {margin-bottom: 0}} @media (max-width: 500px) {#mp_form_below_posts5 .mailpoet_form_column:last-child .mailpoet_paragraph:last-child {margin-bottom: 0}} Please leave this field emptySingletrack Weekly Word

Sports Newsletter of the Year finalist at the Publisher Newsletter Awards 2024.
Find out why our newsletter is different and give it a go. Keep up to date and get our best editorial in your inbox.

input[name="data[form_field_Y2MwODcxM2Q0NWZiX2VtYWls]"]::placeholder{color:#000000;opacity: 1;}

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Remove ads

Spread the word:

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
• Click to share on Threads (Opens in new window) Threads
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
• More

• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
• Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp

You may also like More discussion »