Welcome !!!

Welcome to my modest website

Here I’ll share some of my findings in building my bikes

Rather than spending too much on a readily made single and too specific bike, I've made a rather deep immersion in custom bike assembling.

In that blog, I would like to share this experience, that resulted in a 3 bike building adventure.

Every bike being quite different as to enjoy various scenarios and regenerate interest with every exchange.

Here's the birth of that famous trio : 

The Bee, the Wasp and the Hornet !!!

The Bee
Genesis Croix de fer
A very versatile 700c tourer/graveller

The Wasp Genesis Vagabond
A nice and funny 29" monster cross

The Hornet Genesis Tarn
The ultimate full rigid 27.5+ MTB ?

Preliminary thoughts
You’re about 45 and you would like to be a better cyclist and you love bike assembly, your preferred biking playground is quite varied … What’s the best bike for you ? An ultimate carbon fiber Gravel, a nice XC MTB, an Enduro MTB ???
And how it will cost, how much care and maintenance would it require ?
So, after various nice but limited bikes, I decided to go ahead on those base parameters : 

Sturdy and comfortable
Nice and sexy 
Steel (carbon fiber not very suitable for my 200 pounds, aluminum too fade and sadly Titanium too expansive …)

Also, I wanted to choose a brand with a real experience in those adventure bikes, the most interesting were Surly, Salsa, Soma and Genesis.

Genesis had the most complete line and experience, and the more affordable.

So, I started finding a very nice Croix de Fer 2018 frameset, then I assembled it with different components, and tried to make the most from the least, not getting involved too much in the latest trends but rather in proven solutions.



The best way to develop my skills is to read from the most experienced, Calvin Jones from Park Tool and Zinn and his famous complete books.

Internet is also an interesting option, but be aware to be very careful, as you find the best like the worst.

The gravel bike is quite new for me, I’ve been a long time bike rider, an experienced MTB rider especially in the late 90s and early 2000s, enjoying longer and longer rides.
I then paused my bike activities for about 10 years and when I decided to start over, in early 2018 I decided to invest in a brand new MTB.

I spent quite a lot in a nice Merida Full suspended bike with a 1x transmission…

What a bad move I made …

In the past years, bikes became so specific and over specialized, they’re almost unusable out of their own narrow field...

Even with an huge 11s cassette, the 1x is painfull on the flat and even more in downhill, especially if you’re not in perfect fit and shape. I’m about 200 pounds for 6 feet, and mountains and hills are tough by there, I’m riding the Montagne Noire in southern Tarn in Occitanie french region.

I didn’t enjoyed that short minded view of cycling.

I would like to get out of the road, but still able to commute and I love to visit my nice region.

So I decided to look after a broader way of biking, and gravel became an obvious option.

After a try with a ready made GT Grade AL, with a 2x11 105 transmission, with a 11x32 cassette and 34x50 crank set it’s still inadequate for my needs and capabilities, a sub compact 32x46 crank set helped a bit but wasn’t yet enough.

So I finally put my hand on that 2018 Genesis Croix de Fer frame set and that’s were it all started ...