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Fairlight Cycles Secan - new steel adventure bike coming soon

Reynolds 853 frame, carbon fork, disc brakes and wide tyre clearance just some of the highlights

If you’ve been following Fairlight Cycles over on Instagram, makers of the Strael road bike that Stu gave such a glowing review to earlier this year, you’ll know it has been busy developing an all-new gravel and adventure bike.

It’s called the Secan and builds on DNA of the Strael in a number of ways with the aim to provide a bike for “fast byway adventures."

fairlight cycles secan9

- Fairlight Cycles Strael 2.0

Dom Thomas, the designer at Fairlight (and who previously worked at Genesis and Wold Cycles) explains the concept of the Secan as a bike that is fully capable of exploring the countryside with little compromise and was born out of a lifetime riding the splendid Lincolnshire Wolds.

“The Lincolnshire Wolds is the place that I’ve ridden my bike the most.  It’s where I grew up and  I’m deeply attached to its landscape. The Wolds  is a pocket of chalk hills running  for  about 60 miles from the Humber to the Fens. It is a highly  agricultural landscape and  between  the rolling fields and wooded  out-crops there are hundreds of lanes, farm-tracks and bridleways,” explains Dom in a Lookbook released

“The Secan was inspired by this type of terrain. It is a bike where a landscape like the Wolds  (or the Chilterns, or the Downs) can be fully exploited and with little  compromise. The fit and  efficiency of your all-season road bike but with the ability to run large high volume treaded tyres (27.5 x 2.2” fit easily) to allow you to transition from road to off-road with speed and comfort.”

That gives a decent idea of what sort of riding the Secan is designed for, and it’s the sort of riding that is proving increasingly popular with road.cc readers. 

fairlight cycles secan2

Like the Strael, the new Secan is made from Reynolds 853 custom tubes and features an ovalised top tube, Bentley x Fairlight 142x12mm flat mount dropouts, 68mm threaded bottom bracket, a new Cempa full carbon fork with tapered steerer tube, 3D printed external cable guides, mudguard and rack mounts, and three sets of bottle bosses.

fairlight cycles secan5

Tyre clearance is ample for all your gravel and mixed terrain requirements, with space for 650 x 57mm or 700 x 47mm, decreasing when fitted with mudguards to  650×50mm or 700×42mm.

Like the Strael, the new Secan comes with the company’s proportional geometry which includes a regular and tall version of each frame size, to help you get the perfect fit.

- 19 of the best 2018 gravel & adventure bikes — super-versatile bikes that are at home on lanes, potholed streets and dirt roads

fairlight cycles secan3

If you like the sound of all the new Secan, you can pick up a frameset for £1,099 with a Hope headset and seat clamp upgrade for £40. If you prefer a fully built bike, there will be three Shimano and two SRAM builds, priced from £2,099 for 105 or £2,299 for SRAM Rival 1x, rising to Ultegra Di2 for £3,399.

fairlight cycles secan6

Dom will be paying us a visit next week with a bike so stay tuned for a closer look at this exciting new addition to the gravel and adventure bike market.

You can view many more photos of the bike in the lookbook available to download here  

More info at https://fairlightcycles.com/

David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes

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11 comments

Avatar
matthewn5 | 5 years ago
1 like

Good work - much neater around the rear axle than the Strael with its chunky castings. Looks like they thought about it before welding it all up, too.

Secan:

//cdn.road.cc/sites/default/files/styles/main_width/public/fairlight-cycles-secan3.jpg)

Strael:

//fairlightcycles.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/FAIRLIGHT-2016-BIKES-STRAEL-ORANGE-Rear-Flat-Mount-52232.jpg)

Still a way to go to the simplicity and elegance of the past masters of steel:

//www.steel-vintage.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/T/o/Tommasini-Tecno-Classic-Bicycle-Frame-20131112-34.jpg)

Avatar
daccordimark | 5 years ago
0 likes

A very nice looking bike indeed and would be even better with a colour matched fork - but then I always say that.
I do wish the media (or is it just road.cc) would stop applying the adventure tag to seemingly any bike that won't fall apart if it strays off the tarmac. The lookbook has Fast Byway Adventures as it's tagline but unless I've missed it Fairlight don't tag the Secan as an out and out adventure bike themselves.
Mark.

Avatar
StraelGuy | 5 years ago
3 likes

On second glance, I think you might be correct. Of course, anyone in their mid-forties knows that purple ano is the coolest colour of them all smiley.

Avatar
wycombewheeler replied to StraelGuy | 5 years ago
1 like

StraelGuy wrote:

On second glance, I think you might be correct. Of course, anyone in their mid-forties knows that purple ano is the coolest colour of them all smiley.

no question, so happy hope still doing purple stuff.

Avatar
StraelGuy | 5 years ago
0 likes

I've got the original Strael in putty and orange but that putty and pink one is GORGEOUS heart.

Avatar
kil0ran replied to StraelGuy | 5 years ago
0 likes

StraelGuy wrote:

I've got the original Strael in putty and orange but that putty and pink one is GORGEOUS heart.

This is a fine example of why all bike photos should come with a colour calibration card in the shot. Pretty sure that's purple, not pink (and the gold accents on the blue bike are actually orange). It was the same with the Bowman Layhams, that bike is a much darker red IRL than in the shots on this site.

 

Colour perception is interesting, I've given up arguing it with my missus and son who are both artistically-gifted. Pretty sure they're winding me up most of the time...

Avatar
Gus T | 5 years ago
1 like

Just ordered a Strael 2, great service at the shop and well worth my trip down for a bikefit & test ride. Now waiting anxiously for delivery devil

 

 

Avatar
kil0ran | 5 years ago
0 likes

They're all lovely, and they have the right approach to customer service. Struggling a little with the success of the Strael I think but almost caught up with logistics now. My Faran deserves a better life than it currently gets as a commuting/off-road bike cobbled together out of spares. Might treat it to some 650B wheels.

Avatar
John_S | 5 years ago
0 likes

A lovely looking bike and if I had the money I could easily spend it on any of the Fairlight bikes!

 

 

Avatar
kil0ran | 5 years ago
1 like

Blue and gold, utter bikeporn. Not so keen on the grey one. Fortunately I don't have a thru-axle disc wheelset otherwise my Faran frame (which continues to be awesome ) would be getting nervous in the shed. 

Lookbook definitely NSFWallet.

Avatar
60kg lean keen ... replied to kil0ran | 5 years ago
2 likes

kil0ran wrote:

Blue and gold, utter bikeporn. Not so keen on the grey one. Fortunately I don't have a thru-axle disc wheelset otherwise my Faran frame (which continues to be awesome ) would be getting nervous in the shed. 

Lookbook definitely NSFWallet.

 

I have had a long running unhealthy obsession with the Strael 2 . I would spec it in deep grey with sliver hope headset and seat clamp, matched it with new silver 105 700 groupset, some nice carbon wheels from hunt and may be if it was not to much some tan wall tyres, so what more can a man in his mid 40s want??? Then I downloaded the look book for Secan first page bang, yes blue and gold!!! I need a moment to compose my self that is just lovely. Fairlight you know how to make some nice looking bikes. If I had the cash then this is where I would be spending it!

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