UK bike maker Genesis introduced the women’s Zeal carbon road bike last summer without a lot of fanfare. They essentially played it down as a entry-level rim brake road bike based off their stiffer carbon Zero. But it turns out that the bike with its slightly relaxed geometry and more forgiving ride delivered a great value at a surprising weight. So now men get in on the entry-level carbon road bike too.
Zeal 10 & Zeal 10 W, entry carbon endurance road bikes
The Zeal is just an entry-level carbon road bike after all, but surprisingly the 24/30T carbon frame and its matching carbon fork with an alloy steerer build up into some respectable complete bike weights. At a claimed 9.04kg (19.9lb) for the men’s medium or 8.96kg (19.8lb) for the women’s small, it is lighter than the more road race oriented Zero with the same build and its stiffer 30/40T frame & full carbon fork.
The Zeals aren’t overly relaxed with 71.5-72° head angles and 73-73° seat angles. They still make for a pretty solid entry into the whole carbon road bike thing, as long as you are cool with rim brakes. The Zeals do get a tapered headtube, and full internal cable routing (even Di2 ready) , plus a threaded BB.
At £1500, their component spec is pretty basic too, but a full Tiagra 2×10 road compact groupset both looks the part and has the performance to back it up. The men’s Dark Duffin grey versions come in a broad five size XS-XL range borrowing the exact frames from the ladies for the three smaller sizes. The women’s Dever White bike’s range isn’t as wide with four sizes, but drops down to include an even smaller XXS to fit tiny roadies. And thankfully, none of the bikes are adorned with pink flowers or purple butterflies, so riders of all sizes can pretty freely pick whichever one suits them best.
Zeal 20 W, entry carbon endurance road bikes
While men only get the Tiagra build option, women get a second complete bike build this year in Burrator Blue, also with women-specific contact points. The £1700 Zeal 20 W steps up the drivetrain to a Shimano 105 2×11 road compact group, for a 8.76kg (19.3lb) complete bike that would be hard to beat.
The bikes were officially launched back in mid September, but they are just now shipping out to your local Genesis dealer, so you might be able to get on one before the end of the year.
