I only had the chance to ride the Fara F/Gravel bike for just under two weeks before it was whisked away to another reviewer/press day but in that time I pretty much covered all the local trails that I regularly ride on my own gravel bike which I thought would be a good comparison.
Fara Cycles is based in Norway so they have plenty of rugged off road riding there to be able to design a great riding bicycle. Fara say their F/Gravel bike is “our go anywhere, ride anything, adventure bike. Ultimately, it can handle nearly any type of off-road riding you feel comfortable throwing at it. It has nimble handling and 50mm tyre clearance, meaning you can cover rough terrain with confidence and in relative comfort. Wide tire clearance and a rugged carbon frame empowers you to tackle the roughest terrain. Ready to take you to incredible places. Shred ready, Both lightweight and responsive, the F/Gravel’s geometry is oriented towards the “fun” side of gravel riding with a shorter wheelbase and sporty handling“
The frameset is carbon, the frame has a claimed weight of 1300g, not superlight these days but certainly lighter than any of my own bikes. With a stock Sram Apex AXS XPLR 1×12 build with a Fulcrum Rapid Red 900 DB wheelset, ritchey Butano bars (42cm) and stem (100mm) and a Fara carbon “2 flex” 27.2 seatpost the bike weighed in around 24LBs (10.8k approx) so not exactly heavy!
The frame has internal cabling from the bars that go through the headset and because of it being wireless shifting this means only the brake hoses making the bike look very clean indeed (until I rode it in the UK weather!) there are triple fork mounts on each fork leg, three sets of bottle cage mounts and a top tube bag mount and eyelets for mudguards if required. there are also mounts under the tip tube to enable strapless fitting of Fara’s frame bag, a very neat touch. the frame bag costs £88 as an optional extra.
The clearance for tyres on this bike is a claimed 50mm and with the 43mm gravel kings that came fitted to the wheels there was acres of room both in the fork and the frame. There didn’t seem to be provision to fit a dropper post. The bottom bracket is a thread in T47 unit, no pressfit bearings in this frame I’m delighted to say. both axles are bolt through as you’d expect.
So how does it ride? well first of all just scroll back up to the bold text where I quoted Fara’s mission statement for the bike. “shred ready, Adventure, Go anywhere, Confidence and comfort” this is great, just what probably 90% of the riders buyibg a gravel bike want but here I have a problem, well two problems really…
The first is easy to fix and totally understandable. The gravel king tyres (old style not just launched version) just do not work in UK winter/spring or autumn, they clog up with mud, don’t clear and do not inspire confidence on wet terrain, that sort of terrain you might encounter on an adventure say, while you are going “anywhere” etcetc, you see my point. Well, as I said it’s understandable, Fara can’t specify tyres for each country they seel bikes too. GK tyres are probably perfect for California or a desert country so I can forgive them that. What I don’t get is the narrow aero profile handlebars, 42mm on a bike designed for someone tall enough to fit a 56cm bike is just too narrow. There is no flare and the reach is fairly long. If you pitch a bike for adventures and laden bike packing you need to spec a wider, more confidence inspiring bar, especially if that rider is tired and doesn’t know what trail obstacle is around the next corner. Plus if you are bike packing you are only getting a tiny bar bag inbetween those drops. Now you can, if not buying the off the peg bike but are using the bike builder portion of Fara’s website choose a different bar and stem but even then the bars are only 2cm wider and the stem 20mm shorter if you follow their recommendation. This obviously adds to the price though.
Well, sorry if that came across as a bit of a rant, it wasn’t meant to be but that bar did annoy me and that is because THE FRAME AND FORK IS VERY VERY GOOD! It’s responsive, push on the pedals and all the power goes to the rear wheel but the rear end doesn’t feel stiff, that carbon seatpost absorbs a lot of trail chatter. the head angle is just in the sweet spot of great handling without being ponderous on the tarmac and despite Fara saying the bike has a short wheelbase there was absolutely no toe overlap. this is a great frameset just let down but a simple bit of specification. Pop a shorter stem and a 440-446cm bar with some generous flare and a short reach, something like a Ritchey Corralitos bar and this bike would absolutely fly!
I should say something about the AXS groupset, but there’s not a lot to say, it performed faultlessly and silently throughout the test in both mud and dry…..as long as you remember to charge the battery!
So the Fara F/Gravel bike. it’s got an outstanding frame and fork, the geometry is sorted for what Fara have designed the bike for, it’s just failed at the final fence by speccing it with a bar more suited to road racing or gravel racing. Something that I hope Fara will notice if they read this review.
I’d have a Fara F/Gravel in an instant, but the next instant I’d be replacing the bars whith something to really make it into the ultimate gravel bike.
you can find more details on the Fara Cycles Website
Check out my ride review on YouTube
UK GRAVEL COLLECTIVE 