The Genesis Vagabond has long been a staple of steel monstercrosser, blurring the lines between a rigid steel 29er mountain bike and dropbar tourer – since before gravel was a name for bikes. Now, years in the making, the Vagabond gets a modern adventure bike update – upgrading to premium steel and all (OK, most) of the latest standards for gravel, adventure, and bikepacking bikes…
2021 Genesis Vagabond monstercross bike in Reynolds 725 steel
You can call the new Genesis Vagabond whatever you want – monstercross, gravel, adventure, or maybe just a bikepacking bike. But at the heart of it, the Vagabond looks like a solid rigid steel dropbar mountain bike.
And with a new upgrade from Genesis’ own-branded chromoly to high-quality, butted & heat-treated Reynolds 725 CroMo steel tubing, there’s an even more compelling argument for tackling all kinds of off-road tracks on the classic ride of steel.
What’s new?
The thinner, lighter, livelier Reynolds 725 steel is a big part of the Genesis Vagabond’s upgrade – now a claimed 4.03kg for the complete frameset. But equally important is the adoption of 12mm thru-axles and flat mount disc brakes.
While those are arguably gravel bike standards, modern bikepacking & adventure bikes can attest to them being perfectly capable of building up off-road-ready bikes. And it also means plenty of lightweight build options if you so choose.
The Vagabond already had plenty of places to mount accessories, but now also adds bento box toptube mounts, triple anything cage mounts on the seattube & downtube inside the front triangle, plus triple cage mounts on the fork too.
Carry over braze-ons include full rack & fender mounts front & rear, including low-rider fork mounts, plus another cage mount under the downtube.
Geometry & Tech Details carryover
The Vagabond is still what Genesis calls “the illegitimate lovechild of a road and mountain bike.” The upgraded bike sticks with the same off-road proven geometry unchanged. This isn’t some modern trail bike.
But with generously sloping toptube you get plenty of off-road standover clearance, even with an upright front end. The 71° head angle lean it towards the steep side for modern off-road riding. But with big tires, plenty of BB drop, and a decent amount of fork offset, you should have no trouble piloting it over technical terrain, while still feeling quick on hard surfaces.
The Vagabond doesn’t go crazy on modern standards. It keeps a straight headtube for the 1 1/8″ external cup headset and all-steel fork, plus 27.2mm seatpost, BSA threaded bottom bracket, and classic external cable routing along the downtube.
Tire clearance is up to 29 x 2.2″, with room for UK mud. The complete bike is spec’d 1x, but it will still fit up to a 48/31T touring double crank setup.
Genesis Vagabond – Pricing & availability
The new Vagabond is offered either as a single complete bike build, or as this plum purple frameset for £700 with frame, fork & headset… and a lifetime warranty.
The complete Genesis Vagabond retails for £1700 built up with a SRAM Apex 1×11-speed drivetrain, 36T chainring & 11-42 cassette and mechanical TRP Spyre-C disc brakes. Finished off with flared alloy drop bars, Formula hubs, tubeless-ready WTB i25 rims, and tubeless-ready 2.1″ Kenda Saber Pro tires, complete bike weight is claimed at 11.73kg.
Both frameset & complete build are available in four stock sizes (S-XL) direct from Genesis, via their Freewheel online retail partner. There are even options for 0% financing on Freewheel.
