Fairlight Strael 4.0

£3,909 (as specced) The perfect steel road bike - just make sure you don't tell my Strael 3.0

- Ashley Quinlan

This bike has a lot to live up to – its predecessors have earned cult status, and I bought a Strael 3.0 with my own money before I joined BikeRadar/Cycling Plus, after reading Jack Luke’s review of it.

I used to think mine was impossible to better, but then the London-based company launched the Strael 4.0. Not only does this have a completely new Reynolds tubeset, to save weight and improve strength, but Fairlight have also upped tyre clearance to a scarcely believable 39mm, turning it into the perfect allroad bike, in my view.

Big shoes to fill

The Strael 3.0 was highly regarded, industry-wide, for its handling and ride quality, while offering bags of practicality. You could ride one as a fast summer-special bike, an audax mile-muncher or a winter commuter, and probably even take it on some light gravel – I know I do.

Fairlight designer and co-owner Dom Thomas concedes that he approached the new version with some trepidation – after all, it’s hard to take a bike that’s already setting standards and “push it on in a meaningful way”.

This has been achieved mainly thanks to the use of new Double Zone Butted (DZB) tubes made from Reynolds 853 steel, for which Fairlight tasked Reynolds to develop new tooling. The tube walls are thicker towards the ends to improve strength and stiffness, and taper down to just 0.4mm in the centre, in places, to reduce weight and improve compliance.

Just as importantly, this construction has enabled Fairlight to modify the bottom bracket area, helping to boost tyre clearance. The frame still uses the 68mm BSA standard, but the walls of the BB shell are now thinner and lighter.