Review: Louis Garneau Gennix R2 Elite
“There is so much voodoo talk about carbon fibre,” said Pierre Perron, the global marketing director at Louis Garneau. We had been talking about the Gennix R2 Elite, which I had been testing, and started to discuss the material in the frame. I must admit, I found his candor about carbon fibre refreshing.
“It’s always a question of, ‘What kind of reaction would you like your bike to have?’” he said. “Is it comfort you are looking at? Is it stiffness? Is it a combination of stiffness and weight? Lightweight? So, then it becomes a matter of how you layer the carbon-fibre fabric. In most of our bikes, we use intermediate-modulus and high-modulus carbon fibre. The higher the modulus is, the lighter the bike will be, but the more brittle it will be. So that’s why you need to blend it with intermediate-modulus fibre that will at least give some resilience to the bike as well.”
Simple enough, right?
With the R2, the focus of Garneau’s Quebec-based design team was to keep things light and stiff. The medium-size frame (not including the fork) is said to weigh 925 g.
But as you know, the material and the weight of the frame don’t tell the whole story. I found the stiffness was in fact dialed quite high, but not to the detriment of the ride quality. As I took the bike over long distances with rolling terrain, the frame didn’t amplify any roughness in the roads unnecessarily.
The Gennix R2 and R1, the lighter sibling with the same geometry, are built for racing. But unlike frames designed in other parts of the world, the Gennix bikes are designed for the types of competitions you find most frequently on this continent. “The R series frames make perfect North American crit bikes,” said Perron. They’ve seen a lot of action with Garneau-Quebecor, one of Canada’s few UCI continental teams. In August, Garneau-Quebecor’s Simon Lambert-Lemay won the final round of the Mardis-Lachine series and set a new course record, lending some credibility to Perron’s claim.
The R2 definitely feels best with your hands on the drops of the 3T Ergosum Pro compact bars as you crank away at the pedals. Working in conjunction with the frame’s stiffness, the Shimano BB71 press fit bottom bracket did a good job of keeping the power transfer smooth. The 405-mm-long chainstays make the bike nimble, but the front end, which is designed to set the rider’s centre of gravity low, prevents it from being twitchy.
The groupset is all Shimano Ultegra 6700, with 53/39-tooth rings up front and a 10-speed, 11-25 cogset in the back. The Shimano WH-RS61 wheels and the 700x23c Vittoria Rubino Pro Slick tires did a good job keeping the machine planted and stable in the corners. The 3T Dorico Team carbon seatpost has a diameter of 27.2 mm for added compliance and comfort. It’s held in place by clamp that’s nicely integrated with the frame, which helps to keep gunk out if you are riding in the rain. The whole package costs $4,200, which is top value for the performance.
I must confess that the bike didn’t feel like a great climber. But after I took the R2 up some of my favourite hills, I found my times were better than average. I suspect the bike’s good behaviour when it comes to handling masked its actual pep on the climbs. I should have also remembered that Bruno Langlois of Garneau-Quebecor won the KOM on the Gennix R1 (same geometry as my R2, just a lighter) in the 2012 edition of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec.
According to Perron, attention garnered by Garneau-Quebecor has one U.S. team inquiring after the Louis Garneau bikes for its team. And who knows, maybe in a year or so when Colnago’s contract is up with Europcar, Louis Garneau, who is already the team’s clothing sponsor, might realize his dream of having his bikes in the Tour de France. While they’re designed for North America, they wouldn’t be out of place in Europe.
