Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
This week’s Reader’s Rig comes from Max in France, the lucky winner of our Fairlight Faran 2.5 giveaway last spring. He shares the completed Faran he built for bikepacking getaways and races around his corner of Europe. Check it out here…
Words and photos by Max Garenne
Hi there! I’m Max. I’m a 29-year-old filmmaker living in Capbreton in the southwest of France. I’ve always lived by the ocean, and surfing was my first love. But having to often go away to Paris for work, I had to find something to keep me stoked on those days without waves. I fell in love with cycling and off-road riding seven years ago. A knee injury stopped me from hiking and running, and I discovered the endless possibilities of riding a bike. After starting on an aluminum hardtail, a good friend convinced me to purchase a steel gravel bike in 2018 for long-distance riding and weekends away on the road.
I am lucky to live close to the Pyrénées and Spain, places that are heaven for off-road riding and bikepacking. I discovered the bliss of long days on remote gravel roads in the Bardenas Desert a few years ago, then rode the Desertus Bikus event twice, a not-too-serious bikepacking race starting at the French border and finishing in southern Spain and Portugal. I like long-distance cycling a lot, but discovering routes like the Montanas Vacias and Iberica Norte, thanks to BIKEPACKING.com, made me seek more experiences than performance gains.
Going alone or with some friends on overnighters or week-long adventures and taking some time to use my film camera is simple but priceless. Thanks to this passion for exploration, I integrated cycling in my everyday life and started commuting as much as possible on my vintage 90s MTB. And I found something I lacked in surfing: a true sense of community. I often rode on my own in the beginning, but with time, I met more adventurous riders looking for the same non-competitive adventures. I’m grateful to call them friends now.
Before the Faran, I was riding a Ridgeback Ramble steel gravel bike that I bought in 2018, knowing nothing about bikes. I upgraded it with time, but I was missing some utilitarian features on the bike, such as fork mounts, bigger tire clearance, etc. The Fairlight bikes were on my shortlist for my next bike when I had the surprise of being the winner of the spring 2024 Collective Reward grand prize!
As for my riding, I love to go to nice places, whether on the tarmac or not, and I love the concepts of all-road and randonneuring. Being the lucky owner of this beautiful Fairlight Faran 2.5 frame, I could finally build the perfect bike that could handle everyday riding around home, including sandy singletracks, gravel fire roads, and multi-day trips on unknown terrain. I chose to build it with a double crankset because I live in a pretty flat area, but not so far away, the Pyrénées are waiting with steep climbs.
- Frame/Fork: Fairlight Faran 2.5 (58T)
- Rims: DT Swiss G1800 650B
- Hubs: DT Swiss 370
- Tires: Ultradynamico Mars 2.2???
- Handlebars: Ritchey Venturemax Classic
- Headset: Hope
- Crankset: Shimano GRX 820 2×12
- Pedals: MKS XC III
- Cassette: Shimano 12-speed 11-36
- Derailleur(s): Shimano GRX 820
- Brakes: Shimano GRX 820
- Shifter(s): Shimano GRX 820
- Saddle: Brooks C13
- Seatpost: Ritchey Classic 2 bolts
- Stem: Ritchey Classic 120mm
- Front bags: BXB Piccolo
- Frame bags: By Marion & Quentin custom half frame bag
- Rear bags: Restrap Saddle Bag
- Accessory bags: By Marion & Quentin tool pouch, food pouch, and top tube bag
- Other accessories: Minoura bottle cages, BIKEPACKING.com finishing kit by Bentley Components
The friendly team at Fairlight helped me choose the right frame size and the geometry of the bike is really unique. I find it’s at its best when riding with a front load. The highlight of this rig is its versatility. I use two sets of wheels: a pair of tough 650B alloy wheels with 2.3″ mountain bike tires for full off-road comfort and a lightweight 700c wheelset with slicks when I know there will be more distance and tarmac. I think this bike really shines as a do-it-all modern rando rig and complements my steel hardtail (a Niner Sir 9) very well.
As a little bonus, the frame color blends in perfectly with the woods in my backyard. Also, check out the gorgeous exclusive BIKEPACKING.com details, including the bar end plugs and dropout plates made by Bentley Components! On the tall sizes, the big head tube allows for a nice big custom frame bag (made from Marion & Quentin in Dijon, France), with plenty of room for gear.
You can follow along with Max on Instagram.
Send Us Your Bikepacking Rig
Use the form below to submit your bikepacking rig. We’ll choose one per week to feature in a Reader’s Rig Dispatch and on Instagram. To enter, email us your best photo of the bike (preferably at a 90° angle), your Instagram username (optional), and a short description of you and your rig. If your bike is selected, we’ll need a total of five photos and a little bit more info.
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Further Reading
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