Why this boring carbon fork will make your old bike great again

Plus 2019 highlights from Genesis and Saracen

Published: February 22, 2019 at 2:45 pm

It might not look like much, but this fork was one of the geekier delights at this year’s IceBike show, the annual gathering of all things Madison in Milton Keynes, UK.

Released by Genesis as an aftermarket option for the evergreen Croix de Fer, the CGR One fork is a bit of a unicorn thanks to its spec: full carbon construction, a straight steerer, disc brake mounts, thru-axle and a glorious excess of bosses to which one can bolt things.

Genesis CGR One fork specs

The fork is drilled for mudguards too

Matthew Allen / Immediate Media

24T carbon construction
12mm thru-axle
Dynamo cable routing
Flat mount
Internal hose routing
All the bosses (including Anything Cage and mudguard mounts)
40mm tyre clearance
50mm offset
1 1/8in straight steerer
Axle, fork expander plug and top cap included

RRP £349.99

Why is this significant?

The rubber grommet is covering up a hole for dynamo cable routing

Matthew Allen / Immediate Media

For starters, Genesis stopped speccing the Croix de Fer with a carbon fork a number of years ago, so existing owners with steel forks now have the option to upgrade.Perhaps more importantly, the new fork will work on any number of other bikes thanks to its very standard 1 1/8in straight steerer. And you could even fit it to frames with tapered head tubes with an adaptor.

There’s a boss for everything here

Matthew Allen / Immediate Media

So if you’re looking to add extra mounts to your bike up front, want to shed some weight, or just fancy some disc brake and thru-axle action, the CGR One could be the solution. At £350 it’s not exactly cheap, but the price doesn’t seem all that unreasonable when you consider that there isn’t anything else quite like it on the market.

Those external bosses will accept Anything Cages if you like

Matthew Allen / Immediate Media

The main rival we can think of is the Rodeo Adventure Labs Spork, but that’s got a tapered steerer so it won’t work in older frames with skinny head tubes (it’ll fit 44mm ones with a specialist external headset, however).

Genesis and Saracen 2019 bikes

We’ve already covered the main highlights from Genesis and Saracen’s 2019 ranges, but the brands brought a handful of more recently updated models to the show.

Genesis Croix de Fer 10 FB

The Genesis Croix de Fer 10 FB looks perfect for upright commuting or touring

Matthew Allen / Immediate Media

£999.99 gets you this rather tidy looking flat bar version of the Croix de Fer with Sora components.

Yep, they’re flat!

Matthew Allen / Immediate Media

Genesis Equilibrium

The retro vibe is strong here

Matthew Allen / Immediate Media

The Equilibrium range will now comprise just two models, one of which has rim brakes. This tasty retro-styled machine gets 105 R7000 shifting and has a Reynolds 725 chromoly frame with a carbon-legged fork. It costs £1,399.99.

Genesis Equilibrium Disc

The Equilibrium is a cheerful road all-rounder

Matthew Allen / Immediate Media

The disc model’s spec sheet listed 105 5800 components but the bike on display featured R7000 too, and comes in at £2,199.99. We’ll amend this when we know which is the correct spec.

Saracen Levarg FB

At what point, you may ask, does a gravel bike become an XCer?

Matthew Allen / Immediate Media

This flat bar version of the Levarg gravel bike has a 1×10 Deore setup and costs a rather reasonable £899.99.

Saracen Myst Team 29

The Myst is a proper DH race bike

Matthew Allen / Immediate Media

This delightfully lairy machine is the latest ride for the Madison Saracen Factory Race Team. Punters can’t buy this exact paintjob but they can have this near-identially specced bike for £5,799.99.

Matthew Loveridge

Senior Writer

Matthew Loveridge (formerly Allen) is an experienced mechanic and an expert on bike tech who appreciates practical, beautifully-engineered things. Originally a roadie, he likes bikes and kit of every stripe, and he's tested a huge variety of both over the years for BikeRadar, Cycling Plus and others. For a long time Matthew's heart belonged to the Scott Addict, but he's currently enjoying Specialized's sublime Roubaix Expert and having a torrid affair with a Giant Trance e-MTB. At 174cm tall and 53kg, he looks like he should be better at cycling than he actually is, and he's ok with that.