The 2019 Genesis Zero has now arrived into the UK and should be appearing in Genesis retailers any day now if they haven’t already. For the caliper braked Zero, the new model represents some big changes, while the Zero Disc sees a more subtle update. Both should be better than ever & boast new specs and more competitive pricing.
The Genesis Zero was the UK company’s first carbon road bike. For a company with a strong history and reputation for making metal bikes the arrival of the Genesis Zero back in 2015 was quite a surprise. It came to life as another option for the Madison Genesis Pro Cycling Team riders to choose to race. They’d started with the steel Volare and that bike has a place in the story of the new Zero too.
Over time the Madison Genesis Team switched pretty much completely over to the carbon bike. However the beauty of the steel Volare was that the team went through a number of iterations of the geometry and the now fully sorted frame design was used when Madison first developed the Zero Disc (reviewed on this site here: https://girodilento.com/genesis-zero-disc-review/)
I found the geometry of the Zero Disc very good indeed. It’s handles well and I enjoyed riding it. I was re-acquainted with Zero Disc earlier this year on a 100km ride in Wales with Madison that also featured 2,000m of climbing and again I enjoyed the bike on a tough but great day out.
For 2019 the Genesis Zero disc has an updated rear end of the bike, which should further improve ride quality. It’s available as a frameset in Black with orange highlights or in a fantastic orange colour with a Shimano Ultegra R8020 mechanical disc brake groupset.
Having seen the complete bike in the “flesh” I thought it looked fantastic. The Zero Disc frameset retails for £1699.99 and the complete Ultegra bike is £2,699.99
The new caliper brake Genesis Zero is a completely new bike and effectively sees the Zero Disc frame recreated to run caliper brakes. It has the same tube shaping as the Disc and importantly the same geometry as the Zero Disc (and Volare) bringing all of the Genesis races bikes into line with the same well-proven geometry.
Like the Zero Disc, the new Zero is available either as a complete bike in a stunning red paint finish featuring the new Ultregra R8000 mechanical groupset including direct mount brakes which help the new Zero run 28 mm tyres (which come fitted as standard).
The complete bike retails at £2,299.99 which I think is a strong price for a great looking bike. Genesis told me that the complete weight of the bike is 8kg compared to 8.45kg for the complete Genesis Zero Disc.
The Zero frameset is a new “super light” SL, which is made from higher modulous 30/40T carbon versus 24/30T carbon of the complete bike. As for how much weight is saved, I don’t know, but the Zero frameset is only available in the striking Madison Genesis Team colours.
The 2019 Genesis Zero should be a better bike than ever, regardless of whether you choose disc or caliper, complete bike or frameset. They’re a smart choice for someone who wants a quality carbon bike from a UK company without spending the earth.
For what it’s worth my pick of the range is the Zero Disc complete bike … but if you’d prefer caliper brakes that red complete bike is a stunner!
You can find out more about the new Genesis Zero models here: https://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bikes?categories=Road~Road%20Performance
The arrival of the new bike does mean (at the time of writing) that there are some bargains to be had on the last of the old stock. You can check out the deals on Madison’s Freewheel website here:
https://www.freewheel.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/index/?q=genesis+zero&product_list_order=price
Thanks for reading
