Introducing Fustle, a new bike brand from Northern Ireland

Bursting through the gates and into the public's eyes for the first time today is a brand new bike from an equally fresh new company, Fustle.

Fustle hail from Northern Ireland. Actually just outside Belfast to be a bit more precise and it's presenting it's Causeway GR1 as the first model for sale.

Fustle are also approaching the whole selling bikes thing a little differently as well and will be offering a huge degree of customisation via it's online bike builder program. This isn't just about swapping colours or the lengths and widths of certain components. Fustle's USP will be the ability to tune the bike spec to suit not only you but also your riding style and the terrain in which you normally ride.

This new marque is the first in-house brand from parent company Redburn Design. You'd probably be forgiven for not hearing about this company either but it was founded and is run by Alastair Beckett.

Beckett has a long history in the bike industry predominately on the mountain bike side and has been a design engineer for Nukeproof as well as also co-founding innovative bike brand Forbidden - head over to our sister site mbr.co.uk if you want to see just how good Nukeproof and Forbidden are.

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Coming from a mountain bike design background has meant that the new Causeway GR1 is a little more influenced by proper off-road machines than just being a slightly beefed up road bike. It's been under development for approximately 24 months at time of launch and is based around an aluminium Gravel/Adventure frame with full carbon fork.

The Causeway GR1 is of course targeted at riders looking for a drop bar bike with MTB pedigree, so one that is going to be planted and capable even when riding in technical terrain.

Fustle Causeway GR1 Need to Know

• 6061 Aluminium frame, (tested to ISO 4210 MTB Certification)
• Full UD Carbon Fork and Steerer
• 12x142mm and 12x100mm axle spacing
• Dropped Top Tube for dropper-post compatibility
• Internal Cable routing and dropper post routing
• 31.6mm Seat post diameter
• Tyre clearance for 700x50mm (650bx 2.1”)
• Longer front centre frames for use with shorter stem
• Available in 3 Sizes. Further XS size available in Sept 2020
• Available in 3 Colours
• Chassis Kits: starting at £849.99 (frame and fork, seatpost, stem, headset, axles and accessories)
• Complete Bikes: starting at £1999.99

There are plenty of upgrade options available from a variety of leading brands via custom bike builder. Brands include Shimano, PRO, Hunt, ENVE and DT Swiss. Fustle also state that it is "continually working with different component suppliers to introduce some additional options that suit the needs of our customers. If you can’t find the part that you really want, get in touch and we will do our best to source it for you."

For more information and to have a go at customising your own Causeway GR1, head to Fustle's website at ridefustle.com

And if you're wondering about the unusual name, we spoke to Alastair and he had this to say, "My wife and close friends who helped me during the early stages kept on repeating that we wanted a name that stood for 'No Fuss, Less Hassle, a simpler way of finding the right bike..."

My son who had just started learning to talk at that time picked up on 'Fustle' and kept repeating around the house, so I guess it just sort of stuck from that point forward."