Fairlight, a brand new British bike brand, enjoyed its launch recently and has bought two versatile steel bikes to the market, tailored to the demands of riding in the UK.
Key to the Fairlight ideal is the 'proportional geometry', which aims to cater for differences in body proportions as well as a rider's height, as well as a partnership with Reynolds tubing.
'I was the bike designer for Genesis (the bike brand) for 3 years,' says Fairlight director Dom Thomas, 'and followed that with 2 years custom building bikes for my own brand Wold Cycles. I co-founded Fairlight Cycles 18 months ago with Jon Reid, who owns the specialist shop 'Swift Cycles' in London, and we have been working incredibly hard to bring Fairlight to market.'
'Reynolds development staff have enjoyed working with Dom Thomas on a number of concepts,' says Reynolds managing director Keith Noronha. 'He uses his many years of experience to create bike frames that provide the kind of ride quality that keen riders will appreciate, and the result of these efforts will be seen in the current model line-up.'
The Strael is a disc road bike made from a combination of Reynolds 853, 631 and 725 tubing, with a 54cm frame coming in a 1,946 grams, and the Anraed carbon fork its paired with weighing 365g. Tyre clearance is given as 33c, but is knocked down to 30c with mud guards, which the frame is able to carry with front and rear mounts.
The Faran meanwhile is more of an adventure touring bike, made entirely from Reynolds 631 tubing. It's designed to accept up to 42c tyres, but is also fully compatible with the 650b standard that's becoming popular in the adventure bike category. Like the Strael the Faran has mudguard mounts, as well as bosses for a rear rack.
Across both bikes is Fairlight's 'proportional geometry', whereby each frame size has two iterations: regular and tall, with the 'tall' frames possessing a bit more height at the front end.
Strael build prices
Frameset - £899
105 - £1849
Ultegra - £2399
UltegraDI2 - £2799
Dura Ace - £2999
Faran build prices
Frameset - £599
Tiagra - £1399
105 - £1599
Ultegra - £1899
