GENESIS VOLARE 40 £1999.99
› Well-specced, versatile and surprisingly smooth
efore it started making carbon fibre race bikes, Genesis forged its reputation on classy steel road machines. Thankfully, it hasn’t forgotten its roots and the new Volare 40 is a compelling mix of classic and current influences.
The frame is made from Reynolds 853 steel. It’s a heat-treated material that gains strength when air-cooled after welding. That means the build takes longer than with other materials, so 853 bikes tend to cost more but have a higher strength-toweight ratio.
The Volare uses larger than usual main tubes, an oversized bottom bracket shell and a burly 1½ inch head-tube. The geometry is sharp, with a 73.3-degree head angle and a 73-degree seat-tube. The drivetrain is a departure for Genesis, which up to now has only fitted Shimano. Here we get Campagnolo Athena with an FSA Gossamer chainset. The shifting performance is simply superb, with fast, positive changes. We also love how Campagnolo has reworked the thumb-shifter on the Ergolevers – it’s now lower than before and angled back towards the rider to make shifts from the drops easier. The brakes are excellent, too.
Out on the road we expected the 40 to deliver a tough ride but if anything the opposite was true. It seems to float over rough tarmac, while the frame has enough compliance to take the hard edges off of unexpected potholes. A lot of that is down to the classy pairing of the 853 frame and ADK carbon fork. However, some credit is also due to the Fulcrum Racing 5 wheels.
Durable and light, they’ve long been a staple at this price but this LG CX version raises the bar still further. The rims are wider (23mm external, 17mm internal), which maximises the volume of the Continental Grand Sport Race 25c tyres. This helps the Volare roll smoothly with loads of grip, making it a fast descender. Their cyclo-cross background means these get double-sealed hubs, and Fulcrum has added two oversized spokes to each wheel opposite the welded rim joint for perfect balance.
The only clear downside is the 8.9kg weight. The gearing combination of 52/36 and 11-27 offers a good range, but ratios could be closer for going uphill, especially given that weight. That said, climbing never felt like a chore, we just adjusted ourselves to ascending at a steadier pace.