Marcus' World Tour Bike

Late last year when Oli and I started thinking about this project, I began scouring the internet for a good deal on a potential touring bike. I was primarily looking for two things: steel and versatility. I found a relatively new (two or three years old) Genesis Croix de Fer bike for sale on eBay, with plenty of clearance for tyres and mudguards, as well as attachment points for all my touring gear. After surviving a nightmare with the delivery service, it finally arrived and after a few fixes, changing the gravel tyres and adding my own saddlebag, lights and mudguards, I was ready to get used to riding the bike up and down the (quite brutal) hills of Surrey.

The steel frameset is purposefully over-engineered weighing in at about 4kg, which is perfect for a world tour, where a ‘bomb-proof’ bike should avoid any severe mechanical failures. The Frame also has three bottle cage mounts and disc brakes, handy for carrying the extra water I’ll need and stopping the bike when we’re flying down hills with all that extra weight!

The bike came with Shimano’s Tiagra 4700 groupset, which I have been very happy with in training so far, but I will eventually be replacing these with a simpler and more serviceable, bar-end shifters for the tour. The main thing Oli and I need now is a new set of wheels with enough spokes to see me around the world!

For the techies out there, here is the full spec list:

Frameset Genesis Croix de Fer 853

Groupset Tiagra 4700 2x10

Cassette Shimano 105 10-speed 11-28

Bottom Bracket Shimano Ultegra Hollowtech II

Wheelset DT Swiss C1800 Spline

Tyres Continental Grand Prix 4 Seasons

Handlebars FSA Omega Compact

Brakes Shimano mechanical disc brakes