Genesis Col du Glandon Part 2: First Impressions

Continuing on from Part 1 which covered the selection of the Col du Glandon, this post will be written by my partner giving her thoughts on the bike.  After first buying it we have ridden a decent amount of distance around London as well as the Lake District which involved a mixture of different terrain and surfaces.  Here are her first impressions:


First Impressions

Having made up my mind to buy my first drop bar bike I was very excited about the prospect of picking it from all the different road bikes out there. I owned several different bikes before, however as they were mostly town bikes, used only for commuting I never worried too much about fitting. 

Generally with most wearables I am used to simply get the smallest size and be happy with it. However after a month of researching my options I started to feel like being told that small jumpers are unavailable so I should get a medium one with it's sleeves cut shorter. I didn't understand why would I use the same wheel diameter as a guy 20cm taller than me.



Probably if I hadn't gotten advice about all the details regarding size to consider, I would have just bought the small size of one of the few female road bikes available and wondered later why it handled funny, or why I am clumsier than usual. I might even have decided that I'm simply not good enough at cycling to ride a road bike.




Seeing how I am only slightly shorter than the average female I found it very surprising that in the end I had to narrow down my reasonable options to a single bike, as opposed to all the different ones most men could choose from.  I am really happy with the Col du Glandon, it feels right, it is exactly the bike I wanted, but I hope in the future there will be much more "small" bikes out there for all the people who might be missing out on riding adventures otherwise.





3 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your first impressions! I would love if you kept posting your experience as you keep riding the bike.
    So far, how is the braking power of the stock cantilevers? Do they feel powerful enough for going downhill with a loaded bike now that you changed the cable routing?
    Have you ridden it with panniers on the back and can you tell me if it is getting wobbly? That rack sits quite a bit higher than it would technically have to, it seems, but I understand that it might be made to clear large 700c tires.
    How do you feel about the gearing? Is the bottom gear sufficient for climbing or do you sometimes wish for it to be lower?
    Does the aluminum frame feel "rough"? I know that this will be hard to answer, given the limited possibilities to compare it to a equally sized steel frame bike.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey there,
    These are my impressions as well as asking my partner who owns the bike. The braking is a lot better with compressionless cables and a lower yoke setting. This gives plenty of power when in the drops and the bike can be stopped reasonably easily from the hoods as well.

    We haven't had any issues at all with loaded panniers on the bike, despite the rack sitting a little high. My partner would prefer an even lower bottom gear, but this is really personal preference and it depends on your power/weight ratio.

    The frame is reasonably stiff, however you don't feel any roughness as the tyres are 37mm wide so tend to soak up any bumps.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the additional info! Looks like it could be a good match for my gf, too!

      Delete