You only have one handhold position
MARIN DESCRIBES ITS FAIRFAX range as 'built for the flat-bar fitness road rider'. It has a wide gear range, wide tyres for comfort and some rough-stuff aspirations, but perhaps most significantly, it has hydraulic disc brakes. You won't find a drop-bar road bike with hydraulic disc brakes at anything like this price, but this is one of two modestly priced 'hybrids' on test with hydraulic stoppers. And they make a world of difference.
The frameset, not surprisingly at this modest price, is an all-aluminium affair. But there's a bit of shaping going on with the flattened top-tube, and the semi-compact frame features dropped seatstays which, along with the 35mm tyres, promise a decent amount of comfort. I'm a big fan of fittings on budget road bikes, which might well be pressed into commuting or shopping duties, so it's great to see a full raft of bosses for front and rear mudguards and racks, including separate bosses for the lower rack strut and low-rider fittings on the front fork. You could argue that top-tube 'bento box' mounts would have rounded out things nicely, but that would just be the icing on the cake...
The hydraulic disc brakes are excellent
Generous gears
This story is from the March 2023 edition of Cycling Plus UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 2023 edition of Cycling Plus UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Objectives of desire
Ned ponders his affection for cycling on a ride from London to Minehead
ONE OF A KIND
Project One combines premium-quality customised bikes with an endless palette of colours and designs from the creative experts at Trek. It's a winning formula. Here's why...
Trek Checkpoint ALR 5 Driftless
£2,700 Aluminium bike-packing-friendly gravel bike
Gower Peninsula, Wales
A rider powers up the Cefn Bryn ridge on south Wales' Gower Peninsula.
Slow commotion
Downing Street targeting 20mph zones is attacking popular policy
Black Series Multistrada
£5,629 British designed, all-road speedster
Helmetcam militia
Hey, bad drivers! Want to be in the movies? Then smile as you close-pass us while on the phone
Rolling horizons
2018 Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas tells us about the joy of discovering new routes
ENTER THE DRAGON
It's one of the toughest sportives in the UK, but did climb-loving cycling author Simon Warren have the legs to slay the beast of a sportive route in 2023?
LOFTY GOALS
Higher, harder, longer... the road-sportive calendar gets ever more extreme. Here are 10 of the toughest single day rides to enter for 2024