Genesis unveils three fresh prototype bikes, including a new Equilibrium all-road model featuring custom Japanese steel. UK adventure and touring bike specialist Genesis rocked up to the IceBike show in Manchester with three prototypes, including a new all-road model that's likely to become the new Genesis Equilibrium. There's some very interesting stuff going on with the frameset, and its chief engineer was on hand to talk us through some of the key features.
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Genesis wouldn't 100% confirm the naming of the new models, but it seemed fairly certain the all-road prototype will become the new Equilibrium, the gravel one will be a revamped Fugio, and an intriguing-looking gravel bike with all the rage 32" wheels will sit in Genesis' Vagabond range. For clarity, we'll refer to them by those names rather than 'prototype' in this article and will be focusing on the new Equilibrium, this being road.cc and all.
Ryan Carroll – chief engineer at Genesis' parent company Madison – says the new Equilibrium project started out by thinking of ways different strength steels could be used in different areas of the bike to optimise it:
"We've combined different materials for different places instead of going with one super premium, ultra stiff front triangle.
"When you combine the materials together appropriately, you get a much more interesting riding bike."
Particular areas of focus were the down tube, bottom bracket and chain stays, which led Genesis to steer clear of stock options from the likes of Reynolds and Columbus, and instead having the downtube custom-made in Japan by its own supplier.
"This is a very premium heat-treated steel," says Carroll.
"Then the chainstays are a heat-treated chromoly, with those two pairing together to take care of the precision and power of the bike."
Moving up, the top tube is a chromoly to give the rider "the classic smooth feel" and compliance of steel, and there’s also a new carbon fork attached to that sizeable head tube. Genesis has gone with a taper of 1 1/4 inches at the head tube so that the proportions "stayed proper": an inch-and-a-half was just a bit excessive," adds Carroll.
The bike is optimised for 40mm tyres and wireless, electronic groupsets, with only the rear brake cable running through the frame.
Pricing and availability
We'll keep this short and sweet, because there’s not a whole lot to chew off – however we’re told fully badged up versions of all three prototypes should be available later in 2026. We didn’t get any word on pricing at all, although we can deduct from the new Equilibrium being built around electronic, mostly wireless groupsets that the starting price for this model won’t be at the lower end. A current Equilibrium with a mechanical 105 groupset has an RRP of £2,699.99, so we can say with certainty the production version of the prototype on display will cost considerably more.
The new Fugio gravel bike (above) will have a budget option in the range with mixed components, and there will be higher specifications with full Shimano CUES groupsets – all will have the same frameset. We’ve nothing to report on pricing for the 32"-wheeled Vagabond yet either, but hopefully, we’ll have more to tell you when we get some official info in the spring.
We’ve asked for test bikes of course, so hopefully we’ll have some full reviews of all three across road.cc and off.road.cc later in the year.
