Genesis Day One Cross

Sturdy enough to hit the trails or the odd 'cross race and cool enough to rock up to the pub on, the Genesis Day One Cross is a real all-rounder. As supplied it's a fun and capable road/path iron, and with a few tweaks it'll easily handle the rougher stuff. At £499 it's not going to break the bank either - if you're looking for an entry-level racer for the off season or just a winter hack it's a good buy.

The Day One is available as you see it here or in a flat bar configuration in less garish gun metal, but both bikes are built around the same heart, a Reynolds 520 frameset mated with a double butted cromoly fork. The frame is nicely finished – the dayglo orange paint is tough and the welds neat – and the 71/74 head tube/seat tube angles mated with a medium length cockpit make the bike nice and chuckable without it being too nervous off road.

At 1.89m my ideal frame is generally a 59cm and I'm usually faced with the choice of a 58cm or a 60cm. If I was going to ride the Day One predominantly on the road I would have gone for the larger frame but on the trails the tighter 58cm is more or less a perfect fit.

Genesis have hedged their bets somewhat with the spec on the bike. They're obviously expecting most of them to stay on (or near) a road and to that end the the Day One comes fitted with a 42/18 gear, effective 63 inches, which is a decent compromise between speed and climbing ability on tarmac. It's much too hot off road though: I geared down to 39/18 which just about got me round the Ashton Court Scramble but for proper off road excursions you need to go lower – my next step would be to swap out the chainset for a 32T and run two freewheels on either side of the rear hub, an 18T for off roading and a 14T for the tarmac. If you're running the bike as an on/off road winter fitness machine then that would give you two usable gears at the turn of a wheel (and a quick tweak of the rear brake).

Other compromises include the Conti Speed King tyres. They're a great fit if you want to ride roads and towpaths, but it's like wearing slippers to the ice rink if you're faced with leaves, rocks and roots. I swapped them out for Panaracer Cinder Cross 700x35s, which are a super all round trail tyre. The Mini Vs I'm torn about - on the one hand they do offer significantly better stopping than cantis in most situations, on the other you can't adjust them on the fly and the mud clearance isn't anywhere near as good as cantis. On balance I'd keep them, but add an inline barrel adjuster and maybe run them with linear pull ratio levers so I could have more pad clearance.

So what's the Day One like to ride? Well, it's fun to ride. On the road the 'cross geometry makes for a stable and comfortable steed. It's no coincidence that lots of folk use 'cross bikes (or 'cross inspired bikes) as their daily mount, as a do-it-all machine it's pretty hard to beat in terms of handling and position. The fairly upright riding position and relaxed head tube make the Day One very stable at speed but it's still agile enough in traffic.

Once you leave the tarmac the bike goes where you put it with a minimum of fuss. In a race situation it was easily as fast as the geared bikes through the technical sections, in fact that was where I made up the most time. On technical stuff you have to pick your line but there's not many places I'd take my hardtail that I wouldn't be comfortable riding the Genesis; It could do with a quick release seat clamp though. On the climbs you just have to push the gear you have. I found that harder effort had the rear rim rubbing on the brakes – not a big surprise as you have to set the Mini Vs pretty close – which was a bit annoying, a bit of tweaking with the spoke tension has helped but not eradicated the problem completely.

Overall I've had a lot of fun on the Day One. If you want to keep riding on the tarmac through the off season then it's great to have a bike you can abuse, and the Genesis fits that particular bill perfectly. When the off-road going gets really grimy the narrow profile of a 'cross tyre is preferable to wider rubber, so through the depths of winter the Genesis would most likely be my choice over a geared mountain bike – you need to be a bit more careful but you're more likely to finish the ride still in the saddle with the bike in one piece. There's no spec that perfectly suits both those uses and the kit on the Genesis reflects that fact: it's a compromise, but a fairly sensible one, and there's nothing you'll need to change that's going to add huge expense to what is a good value package. You can race on it too if you like!

Verdict

If you're looking for a winter all-rounder, look no further: the Day One can turn its hand to boosting your winter fitness on or off road, and at £499 it's a bit of a bargain.