EB16: Haibike Affair & Seet expand Race road line up, venture to gravel with AllTrack

We know Haibike for producing some of the fastest and craziest e-bikes on the market, but they also produce a solid range of bikes that rely on your legs to push you around. On the road they introduced a new hi-mod carbon Affair Race disc brake bike last year that debuted a new quick release axle concept developed with Tune, and also came with specs that priced it out of most budgets. But for 2017 they are back with a lower cost carbon layup of the Affair Race, plus a new alloy Seet Race with truly affordable specs to get more riders introduced to the road. And for those of us who feel the need to get the tires dirty, even on a road bike, Haibike has tweaked a version of the aluminum bike into the Seet AllTrack, to venture off onto gravel roads and dirt tracks…

Affair Race

The new downspec’ed carbon Affair Race shares the same basic curved sloping look of the more expensive high modulus frame, but does get some tweaks to work with the less stiff UD fibers that make up its monocoque frame. Haibike says they worked to try to build in the same ride quality, and as a result ended up with slightly larger diameter seatstays, a bit of reshaping of the headtube, and an all new fork. The standard material meant that the carbon fork needed a more conventional arrangement, with a slight curve and tapered legs directly to the thru-axle dropouts, instead of the kicked back drops of the hi-mod bikes.

Naming of the new frame is a bit confusing, as it is not differentiated in the line-up. The lower modulus frames are just at the lowered end of the series – The Affair Race 5.0 down to 3.0 use the new lower-cost frame & fork, and get generally more affordable build kits to match. (Affair Race 9.0-6.0 use the hi-mode frameset.)

Like the hi-mod bikes, the new version comes in both disc and rim brake versions. Only one the Affair Race 5.0 gets disc brakes, with and Ultegra mechanical/hydraulic groupset to claim a weight of 8.1kg and a price of 2500€. That’s 500€ cheaper than the next bike up in the line (with Ultegra & rim brakes), but 2000€ cheaper than the next higher disc brake bike with the hi-mod frameset (and Dura-Ace.)

Three versions of the new standard modulus Affair Race are also available with rim brakes. The Race 4.0 gets Ultegra at 7.8kg & 2000€, while the Race 3.0 & Race 3.0 Life (with women-specific contact points) gets spec’ed with 105 for a claimed weight of 8kg and a price of 1600€.

Seet Race

Haibike give the name Seet to all of their aluminum bikes, so the new Seet Race takes the same endurance racing geometry of the Affair Race series and renders it in an even more affordable frameset. The look of these hydroformed 6061 aluminum bikes brings more of the angular aesthetic of their urban commuting bikes, but Haibike tells us that is mainly because they had developed good balance of light weight and stiffness that translates well to the road geometry as well. Also by dropping the seatstays down the seattube, they were said to build in a bit more comfort, even with the 31.6mm seatpost.

The aluminum frame also gets a full range of bolt on mounts to broaden its real world usability, including rack & fender mounts, an integrated rear light mount on the non-driveside seatstay, and even the kickstand mount that is quite popular in Germany. Unfortunately the fork does not appear to get matching fender mounts.

The Seet Race debuts this coming year in two specs and is disc brake only. Unlike the Affair disc bikes that get 12mm thru-axles and flat mounts, these alloy versions stick with quick releases and only the frame gets a flat mount, while the aluminum steerer fork still goes post mount. (It does still offer 140mm rotor compatibility, though.)

Price is the driver here, though. At just 1000€ for the Tiagra 2×10 Seet Race 2.0 (10.5kg), and 700€ for the Claris 3×8 Seet Race 1.0 (10.9kg), both with mechanical disc brakes and 160mm rotors, the idea is to try to get as many riders on road bikes as possible.  The Seet Races get spec’ed with 25mm tires, but there is said to be room for at least a 28mm tire.

Seet AllTrack

While the AllTrack looks remarkably similar to the Race frames, the frames are quite different. The biggest difference is in 15mm longer chainstays up to 430mm and the same height taller stack with the longer fork to accommodate bigger tires. They also get ever so slightly more relaxed geometry (in most places it’s just  0.25° slacker) to make the AllTrack more stable off-road. Tires are spec’ed at 33mm for fast rolling, but there is said to be clearance up to about a 40mm tire.

Like the Race, the 6061 Seet AllTrack sticks with quick releases, and also gets an aluminum steerer-ed carbon fork. The frame does also offer the same wide complement of braze-ons for things like a rack and fenders, plus it looks like it may add low-rider rack and fender mounts to the carbon fork. The build kits offer a bit more high-end, but still continue with mechanical disc brakes and 160mm rotors. The AllTrack 2.0 gets a 105 2×11 group and a 1300€ price tag to go with a claimed 10.7kg weight. The base AllTrack 1.0 opts for the new Tiagra 2×10 drivetrain for a price of 900€ and a weight of 11kg.

Haibike.com