Fairlight Holt XT review

The Holt is Fairlight’s first mountain bike, with the brand already offering a range of drop-bar bikes.

With Fairlight founder Dom Thomas having ridden a range of mountain bikes, he gravitated back towards cross-country, being able to make the most of his local trails.

The Holt is a popular choice for long-distance XC racing, with a number of notable riders and results hinting at the bike’s natural home.

The Holt is constructed predominantly from Reynolds 853 steel at the front, with 4130 steel stays further back.

The bike is comfortable and well-equipped to take on adventures, smoothing out tiring trail chatter while providing a comfortable position for long rides in the middle of nowhere.

The standard XT build comes in at £3,299, plus £30 shipping. The frame is £999 on its own.

Fairlight Holt XT frame details

Fairlight has clearly put a lot of time and effort into the design of the Holt, with a bucket load of neat touches bringing a classy flourish to the frame.

The tube profiles are well-considered, with swaging and ovalising done to add comfort or stiffness in the right places.

The 27.2mm seat tube might be old-school, but it’s there to boost comfort when a rigid post is inserted.

There are a number of 27.2mm dropper posts on the market (my test bike had a PNW one), usually offering 60-125mm of drop.

Fairlight says if you want a really deep-drop dropper, this probably isn’t the bike for you.

The seat tube is offset forward by 8mm over the centre of the large-diameter T47 bottom bracket shell, and is done so to ensure there’s space for 2.6in tyres.

The frame has plenty of bag and accessory mounts, as well as external routing for Shimano Di2 cables and dynamo lights, further boosting its capabilities.

The bolt-on dropouts are a work of art and enable you to pick between Flat Mount and Post Mount brake mounts.

All frames get the down tube gusset, while the Large and XL frames also have one at the top tube/head tube junction.

Cables run externally to ensure maintenance is easy, while the bosses have spacers so you can attach cages without interfering with the cable runs.

Holt's online Design Notes page gives a fascinating insight into the detail Holt goes into with its frame design.

Fairlight Holt XT geometry

The shape of the bike is in line with other cross-country bikes of this ilk, with a 66-degree head angle, and my Large featuring a 461mm reach.

These numbers are with a 120mm fork fitted, although Fairlight says forks from 100-120mm are suitable.

The bike's geometry chart provides figures for 100, 110 and 120mm forks (angles quoted are different from mine because Fairlight shows angles with the fork sagged).

Four sizes of bike are offered, built to suit riders from 160-195cm tall. Larger frames get correspondingly longer stems, with the brand recommending from 40-80mm on S to XL bikes.

Fairlight Holt XT specification

My test bike was the XT build, with a dropper post and headset upgrade.

This means a full Shimano XT groupset, including two-piston brakes, is present.

At the front of the bike, a RockShox SID Ultimate fork offers up 120mm travel, although Fairlight lists the standard bikes with a 110mm fork.

Hunt’s Trail Wide wheels give a broad bed to the Vittoria Barzo (front) and Mezcal (rear) tyres.

Finishing kit includes an upgraded Chris King headset and Hope seat clamp combo, and a 125mm PNW Rainier dropper post, adding £180 and £175 respectively.

A range of other options are available, including wheel choices and bottle/adventure cages.

The price of £3,299 feels very fair for this bike. The frame is beautiful, with a host of excellent design features contributing towards it being one of the nicest framesets I’ve reviewed.

Add in a decent groupset, top-end fork and mid-upper range finishing kit and the price is impressive.

Fairlight Holt XT ride impressions

Setting up a hardtail mountain bike is generally an easy affair, with only the fork and tyres to deal with.

I've typically found RockShox SID forks easy to set up well, with the air-pressure chart on the rear of the fork a great baseline from which to tune the spring.

Fairlight Holt XT climbing performance

First impressions count, and the Holt is an impressively comfortable place to be on climbs, traverses and descents.

Sat down, the 75-degree seat angle and moderately roomy front end feel natural and comfortable, with a nice balance fore to aft, not placing too much weight on either my wrists or sit bones.

The relaxed seated position doesn’t feel unnecessarily aggressive, leaving you free to take in your surroundings, while the internal dimensions of the frame maximise potential frame bag carrying capacity.

Pedalling responsiveness is good, and while it might not have the directness of a super-stiff pure-bred race bike, there’s a fine blend of pedalling performance and forgiveness.

On long climbs, the frame doesn’t rob you of your efforts, while the smooth-riding nature helps the rear wheel cling on to slippy surfaces far better than you might imagine.

The Vittoria Mezcal rear tyre rolls along really nicely – its low-height, closely treaded blocks buzz nicely on smooth surfaces, helping keep the bike feeling eager to pick up and maintain speed.

Shimano’s XT drivetrain is a lesson in smooth mechanical shifting, even under moderate power.

Fairlight Holt XT descending performance

Fairlight isn’t shy about the cross-country intentions of the Holt and that shows in the bike’s ride.

The steel frame’s tubes are picked and then shaped for compliance, and this is immediately obvious because the Holt has a beautifully smooth ride over lumpy ground, where it deals deftly with harshness from below.

This makes the process of covering miles wonderfully composed and comfortable, ensuring it's a fantastic option for riders looking to explore their local area.

Take the bike onto more challenging terrain and it’s not quite as at home, with the high-feeling top tube, longer stem and moderately tall seat tube leaving it feeling perched and a little nervous if you really tip it into a corner.

The frame’s feel helps mute jarring impacts, though. Swapping to a shorter stem and wider bar than fitted on my test bike might unleash a little more trail tenacity, especially given just how comfortable and forgiving the steel frame is.

Shimano’s two-piston brakes do an ample job on the Holt. They offer good power and a snappy feel through the bar that I’m a fan of.

Likewise, the addition of a slightly burlier front tyre, in the shape of a Vittoria Barzo, gives the bike a little more bite in looser surfaces.

If you wanted to make it a real trail-ripper, even chunkier tyres would further enhance the Holt’s descending credentials, at the expense of the mile-munching performance I enjoyed with the standard build.

Downcountry hardtails | How we tested

This bike was reviewed as part of a round-up of four do-it-all hardtail mountain bikes.

The bikes all had 120 to 130mm of fork travel, with two internationally known brands – Merida and Yeti – providing carbon machines, while two UK-based brands – Mason and Fairlight – supplied their steel frames with a custom build suited to the job.

Some might now call these downcountry bikes, but the reality is they’re simply bikes built for getting on with the job of crossing off-road ground quickly and efficiently.

As such, they were tested on a broad range of tracks and trails, from trail centres to wooded paths, covered during both short blasts and long laps.

Bikes on test

• Fairlight Holt XT
• Mason Raw Deore XT
• Merida Big.Nine TR 8000
• Yeti ARC C2

Fairlight Holt XT bottom line

The Holt isn’t a bike that’ll thrive on those sneaky trails kids built in the woods during lockdown, feeling a little more tentative than some of the more aggressively shaped ‘downcountry’ hardtails, certainly in its stock form.

But, if those long drawn-out days inspired you to explore forgotten paths and bridleways, and you’d rather enjoy the control of flat bars and suspension than the skinny rubber and curly bars of a gravel bike, the Holt will keep those adventures alive – even if you don't have so long to explore them these days.

With a few choice alterations, there’s nothing to suggest the Holt couldn’t make the most of those cheeky lines through the woods, too.