What constitutes an all-road bike? Some are road-biased bikes that are capable of being ridden comfortably off-road. Others are gravel-specific with designs that enable them to be ridden at road-bike pace on tarmac.
The Fara F/All-Road is from the road-going camp. However, as the Norwegian brand explains, Scandinavian road rides more often than not include gravel roads and rougher surfaces.
That bodes well for a bike designed to take on more than tarmac, and I’ve discovered it has precious few weaknesses.
Versatility, great ride behaviour and value for money are all points in the F/All-Road's favour.
Fara F/All-Road frame
The frame and fork are among the best-finished I’ve seen in quite some time.
The paint finish is exceptional, while every bolt on the bike is anodised and anagrammed with Fara’s F logo.
Even the thru-axles are branded lightweight items rather than stock off-the-peg units.
The frameset can accommodate up to 38c tyres, and it comes with plenty of fittings to make the bike a versatile ride.
Four bottle mounts, hidden mudguard mounts and fork mounts all boost the bike's potential carrying capacity.
Fara has even partnered with bag maker Roswheel and smart-fitting experts Fidlock to make a series of bags designed to perfectly match the F/All-Road.
The frame has a claimed weight of 980g and the fork 390g, in an unspecified size. Even for a size small, that’s light for an endurance road bike frame, let alone one with this many fittings and fixtures.
It’s even more impressive considering the frame comes with full internal, channelled routing for the brakes and cables, which should make it easier to maintain and live with.
Fara F/All-Road geometry and ride impressions
The frameset’s geometry is very much from the endurance bike playbook.
The 610mm stack height on my test bike is what I’d expect, though the 395mm reach is a little longer than most.
A 72-degree head angle and steeper 73-degree seat tube are combined with a trail figure of 63.5mm in this configuration. The 1,030mm wheelbase is relatively short for a gravel bike.
Those are numbers that suggest well-balanced, neutral handling.
On the road, that’s exactly what you get from the F/All-Road. It’s as rapid as a road bike on tarmac, even with its 35mm gravel tyres, and can mix it up on faster gravel roads too.
| | 49 | 53 | 56 | 59 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seat angle (degrees) | 74 | 73 | 73 | 73 |
| Head angle (degrees) | 71 | 72 | 72 | 72 |
| Front centre (mm) | 590 | 592 | 609 | 626 |
| Rear centre (mm) | 415 | 415 | 415 | 415 |
| Top tube (mm) | 521 | 547 | 564 | 581 |
| Head tube (mm) | 115 | 137 | 166 | 194 |
| Wheelbase (mm) | 993 | 996 | 1,013 | 1,030 |
| Stack (mm) | 530 | 555 | 583 | 610 |
| Reach (mm) | 369 | 377 | 386 | 395 |
The ride is positive, reactive, quick and comfortable with it.
You can find smoother-feeling bikes – something such as a Specialized Roubaix comes to mind – but the F/All-Road, is truly in the realm of the Giant Defy, Cannondale Synapse, Canyon Endurace and Cervélo Caledonia 5.
It’s as quick as all of those very impressive endurance/all-road bikes, and just as light.
However, the F/All-Road is much more versatile.
On tarmac, I was impressed by its speed, but it was on loose surfaces where I was more surprised. It’s quick, slick and impressively nimble.
It’s never going to be a bike that’ll go as far off the beaten track as some full-on gravel bikes, but on point-to-point byways and unmetalled roads, it’s hard to beat.
Fara F/All-Road specifications
Starting with the rolling stock, Fara’s choice of Fulcrum’s Airbeat 400 carbon tubeless-ready clincher wheels is a good one.
These sharply finished wheels come with a 40mm-deep rim that features the brand’s 2-Way Fit design – it can be run with clincher or tubeless tyres.
The rim width is 21mm internal, which Fulcrum states is ideal for tyre sizes between 25 and 40c.
The wheels weigh in at 1,640g a pair. When shod here with Panaracer’s Light version of its popular GravelKing TLR tyres, it makes for a light all-round package.
I would have preferred the wheels to come set up tubeless, because the GravelKings suffered from a few thorn-induced flats over my test riding. These are just the sort of slow-burn pin pricks that tubeless sealant is designed to eliminate, so if I’d bought the F/All-Road, it’d be the first job on my list after unboxing it.
The Force AXS groupset comes in the standard road setup, combining a 46/33t crankset and 10-36t cassette.
That provides more than ample gearing for road and light gravel riding. It’s the equivalent of the standard endurance gear setup of a compact 50/34t crankset with an 11-34t cassette, except you have slightly easier and bigger gears at both extremes.
The Force shifting stayed quick and slick even in the rough, and the on-road performance is smooth and efficient.
Braking is powerful and full of control, though the dusty conditions in which I tested the bike off-road resulted in some vocal protesting after prolonged descents.
The 3T cockpit comprises a shapely handlebar. I particularly liked the flat triangular shape of the bar’s tops and it’s wrapped with thick, tacky tape that reduces road buzz substantially.
The stem’s design, with its reversed face-plate clamp (where the bolts enter through the rear side), looks slick and has some theoretical aero advantages.
The minor downside is it can be a bit difficult to get to the bolts without a long hex key to hand.
The Fizik Argo Tempo R5 saddle is excellent. It sits atop Fara’s own inline carbon post, but the saddle's short dimensions and cleverly channelled nose are well suited to all-road demands.
Although subjective, it kept me comfortable no matter what the surface or how long I’d been in the saddle.
Value
A special mention goes to the Fara F/All-Road’s price tag: compared to much of the competition, it’s very good value.
The brand's direct-to-market approach means it can hit a really competitive price point at £4,620.
For instance, compare Trek’s latest Domane. That’s an endurance bike with similar all-road capabilities in a very similar specification (carbon wheels, Force AXS gearing, carbon components) and you’re looking at a £9,500 price tag: more than double that of the F/All-Road.
Fara F/All-Road bottom line
When you add together the frame’s versatility, the low 8.64kg weight and the value for money given the excellent build, the F/All-Road is an impressive proposition.
The Fara certainly leads with an endurance-bike blueprint, rather than a gravel-specific design, but there’s plenty of off-road capability too.
If you spend most of your riding hours on tarmac and want the occasional jaunt into the dirt, the Fara F/All-Road is absolutely the way to go.
Product
| Brand | faracycling |
| Price | 4620.00 GBP |
| Weight | 8.6400, KILOGRAM (59cm) - |
Features
| Fork | Carbon |
| br_stem | 3T Apto Stealth 110mm |
| br_frame | Carbon |
| Tyres | Panaracer GravelKing Light TLR 35c |
| br_brakes | SRAM Force hydraulic disc with Paceline Rotors |
| br_cranks | SRAM Force AXS 46/33t |
| br_saddle | Fizik Argo Tempo R5 |
| br_wheels | Fulcrum Airbeat 400 carbon DB |
| br_shifter | SRAM Force AXS |
| br_cassette | 10-36tSRAM Force AXS |
| br_seatpost | Fara carbon |
| br_handlebar | 3T Superergo Pro alloy |
| br_availableSizes | 49, 53, 56, 59cm |
| br_rearDerailleur | SRAM Force AXS |
