Genesis Volare MY2015 range

Genesis added the Volare to its range last year: a classic steel racing bike with a proven winning machine at the top of the tree.

Roger Hammond’s Madison Genesis squad has notched a host of victories aboard the Reynolds 953 stainless steel flagship this season, and this year the Team Issue offering raced by Pete Hawkins et al will be offered as a frameset only, paired with an ADK full carbon fork, in Di2 or mechanical configurations, and priced at £2000. The beefy headtube from last year has been retained, but there’s a tapered unit on the drawing board (less surface area required for the junction with the toptube than with the downtube, and so lighter), which Genesis hopes will be drawn rather than machined, which may help to control costs.

A different stainless steel frame lies at the heart of the Volare Stainless Steel, which heads the range of complete bikes. It’s made from a stainless tubeset from KVA (the MS3 DB), a replacement for the Reynolds 931used for last year’s chassis, and paired with the same ADK full carbon fork with tapered steerer as the Team Issue (1.5” to 1-1/8”, since you ask).

The Volare Stainless Steel is offered with Shimano’s Ultegra 6870 Di2 group. The electronic transmission goes some way to explaining the additional £400 commanded by this year’s bike (last year’s model came with 6800-series mechanical Ultegra).

Fulcrum’s new Racing 5 LG wheel provides the rolling stock, with LG seemingly signifying ‘large’ as a reference to the rim’s ample proportions (internal diameter 17mm; external 23mm). They’re laced to Fulcrum’s new hubs, branded CX and billed as suitable for cyclo-cross, courtesy of uprated bearing seals.

You’ll find the same hoops on the Volare 40, a machine built around a Reynolds 853 frame, and the same ADK full carbon fork. There are some significant changes from last year’s iteration, however, the greatest of which is its dual transmission capacity, for riders interested in mixing a traditional steel frame with a modern electronic groupset. Those who are may be encouraged by Genesis’ decision to move the cable stops from the downtube to the headtube, to lend them a certain ‘camouflage’, if left unused.

The second significant change to the Volare 40 is the introduction of Campagnolo components to the spec. The brake calipers are Athena units designed around the Vicenza firm’s ‘skeleton’ profile, and actuated by dual control units from the same group, paired with Athena mechs front and rear.

There’s another outing for the FSA Gossamer Pro chainset featured on the stainless steel Equilibrium to complete the drivetrain. It rotates around a BB86 press fit bottom bracket, contained within an 86.5mm shell, whose greater surface area Genesis has used for beefier chainstays, the better to resist flex, spaced sufficiently to prevent clearance issues.

The Volare 40’s Reynolds 853 chassis will be offered as a frame-only option too, priced at £900 with a full carbon fork and FSA integrated headset, and finished in black or an unmissable red that Genesis calls ‘chilli’.

At £1,500, the Volare 30, built around a Reynolds 725 chassis, dressed in a full helping of Shimano’s new 5800-series 105 group, and rolling on the same Fulcrum Racing 5 LG wheelset as the upscale Volare 40, looks like a lot of bike for the money. The full carbon ADK fork is the same that appears on the flagship Volare Stainless Steel, too.

Genesis has deployed the same Reynolds 725 frameset on the Volare 20, but substituted a Racing 7 wheelset for the Racing 5s, and swapped the Shimano 105 components for a 10-speed Campagnolo Veloce drivetrain (in black), with an FSA Gossamer Pro chainset. The net effect is a £200 saving on the Volare 30, and a price tag of £1,300.

The range opens with the Volare 10, built around the double butted chromoly tubeset used for the chassis of its Equilibrium 10 sister, and a further deployment of the full carbon ADK fork found at the top of the range. The components come from Shimano’s Tiagra collection, with the exception of the chainset, which is FSA’s Omega. It rolls on a new iteration of Fulcrum’s Sport wheelset, with the previously described CX hubs. It costs £1,000.