Fara F/Road

The Fara F/Road is described as 'performance to go the distance', which it achieves by being stiff yet comfortable – all while being accompanied by an aero boost. I think it's a stunning-looking bike too, thanks to a range of paint colours and a fully integrated, clean cable- and hose-free design. Throw in a top-notch groupset, high-quality wheels and a well-chosen cockpit, and I think Norway's Fara has delivered a very good all-round road bike.

> Buy now: Fara F/Road for £5,873 from Fara

Ride

I reviewed the Fara F/AR about 18 months ago, which is basically this bike's slightly wilder cousin – and I was massively impressed with the quality of ride that it offered. And this is something that obviously runs in the family, as Fara's F/Road is exactly the same.

While different materials tend to have quite specific attributes when it comes to how they perform, there are also subtle little differences in frames constructed from the same material. Carbon fibre can come across quite harsh – or even a bit soulless – depending on how the material is laid up, or the grade of carbon fibre used.

Fara has certainly managed to avoid this, as its F/Road feels plush. It has a lovely ride quality that avoids any high-frequency vibration – and it has character too. The frame and fork offer you a huge amount of feedback and I found it great fun to ride. And what more do you want from a bike?

With the tyres pumped up firmly it still feels fantastic, and even a hundred-miler isn't going to leave you feeling battered.

Though don't think for a second that Fara has achieved this ride quality by dialling down on its stiffness. Thanks to the large bottom bracket area and the oversized tubing this is a very tight bike, responding well to hard efforts whether you're in or out of the saddle.

At 7.6kg it feels light too, and when you pair that with the sub-metre-long wheelbase it also feels very nimble and flickable.

This makes it a lot of fun on descents and around bends. The geometry is reasonably aggressive and handling on the fun side of fast, though you don't need to be a pro to exploit the speed on offer.

Fara doesn't make any wind tunnel aero claims about the bike, but it's clear for all to see that its F/Road follows an aero theme. It feels quick in real-world riding conditions, and when you add everything together this makes the Fara a proper all-rounder.

If you want something quick that doesn't compromise on ride quality and comfort, then the F/Road covers all of those bases.

Frame & Fork

Fara describes the F/Road as a bike that breaks the barriers between climbing and aero bikes, by using aero-optimised truncated airfoil tube shapes to boost efficiency, while still keeping the weight low.

It may not be the lightest on the market, but a claimed sub-900g frame weight for a full-carbon fibre frame is still impressive, especially when you consider its focus on larger, heavier aero tube shapes.

It's a very clean-looking machine too, with no external seatclamp and integrated and fully internal cable/hose routing. Fara has created a frame that caters for both mechanical and electronic groupsets, which is a bit of a bonus these days, when a lot of high-end frames are electronic only.

You get a choice of six colour option, all of which I think are tasteful and eye-catching. My personal favourite is the Morell Red with red logos, though as with the Fjord Green this will cost you an extra £89, which to be franks is a tiny fraction of the overall price.

In fact, I think the aesthetics work well. The tube shapes are chunky, but they flow nicely, transitioning smoothly from one tube to another. The subtle curve at the top of the seatstays add a little elegance, while the cutout for the rear wheel conforms to the arc of the tyres – a detail not achieved by all bike brands.

When it comes to tyres, the F/Road will accept rubber up to 32mm wide, which is roomy enough for most situations. This means you're not just limited to smooth tarmac, which is probably just as well considering the state of our roads these days, and you can ride the Fara down country lanes without wincing at every bump, pothole or cracked surface you encounter.

Fara has specced a T47 bottom bracket, which is a standard that is definitely gaining in popularity among today's bike designers. In a nutshell, T47 has the dimensions of a press-fit design, with a larger bottom bracket shell diameter and width – but it also has the benefit of using threaded bearing cups that don't rely on such tight mating tolerances between the frame and the bearing cups to avoid water/dust ingress and any creaking.

The benefit of the larger shell is that the tubes that meet the bottom bracket area can be wider, which increases stiffness and boosts power transfer. This is all achieved without affecting the Q factor – the distance between the crank arms – when using outboard bearings.

Other neat touches include the reversible seatpost design, which allows you to spin the seatpost around to give you either a 25mm or 0mm offset. This is handy if you want to use the F/Road for a time trial or triathlon, where a seating position that's more forward works well with tri-bars.

The F/Road is available in five sizes, which Fara says cover riders from 160cm (5ft 3in) to 2m (just under 6ft 7in), a range that should cover most of us.

Our medium/54cm test model has a 547mm top tube and a stack and reach of 545mm and 386mm respectively.

The 144mm tall head tube has a 73° angle that's matched by the seat angle. Both of these angles change in respect to the frame size, as does the fork offset, which keeps the ride quality and handling the same while avoiding toe-clip overlap, regardless of the size of the frame.

On our frame Fara has also managed to keep the wheelbase just under a meter in length, which I find is a sweet spot for keeping a road bike feeling nimble and flickable – and the F/Road is both of these things.

Finishing Kit

Fara offers a range of pre-built bikes for instant dispatch based on the most popular groupsets and kit available, or you can use Fara's simple bike builder to spec your own bike from the ground up.

Our bike comes with Shimano's Ultegra 12-speed Di2 groupset that you can have with a 50/36T chainset and an 11-30T cassette, or a 50/34T paired with an 11-34T cassette if you want 1:1 ratio gearing for a bit more help in the hills.

It's a brilliant groupset by any standard, as our review shows.

Ultegra is now only available as an electronic Di2 option and is now 12-speed, like its top-tier Dura-Ace sibling. It delivers super-smooth shifting while still offering you good feedback through the lever, which lets you feel that the gear change is taking place.

The ergonomics of the lever and hoods are very comfortable, and the battery range is impressive.

I also love Ultegra's braking performance of. It's really powerful without being grabby, and the modulation is excellent regardless of the weather conditions. Fara specs 160mm rotors front and rear, so there is more than enough stopping power on offer.

The Zipp 303s wheels weigh around 1,550g per pair, feature a 45mm-deep carbon fibre rims and are great all-rounders. The rims are deep enough to offer an aerodynamic advantage when working with the frame and fork, and light enough not to hold you back to any noticeable degree when you hit the climbs.

My only real criticism is that their hookless design means you can only run them with tubeless tyres, which isn't something I usually bother with on my road bikes. You can still run them tubes, though these will need to be paired with tubeless tyres that work with those rims, and these are generally more expensive than their clincher counterparts. It's not a game-changer, but it is something to be aware of.

Thankfully, the Pirelli P-Zero tyres are some of the best tubeless race tyres out there, at least in my opinion. They are grippy, fast rolling and impressively durable for such a performance-orientated tyre.

As with the full-carbon reversible seatpost, the integrated handlebar/stem is also from Fara.

The downside to an integrated setup is a lack of adjustability, but with 16 bar width and stem options available, getting your position dialled in shouldn't be a problem.

I like this model. The wide aero top section is comfortable to rest your hands on, a comfort further boosted by the plush bar tape, and the drops are reasonably shallow, which allows pretty much any rider to use them. It's a firm and stiff setup, so there's no sign of flex when you're pulling hard on them for sprinting or climbing.

Fara gives you a choice of two Fizik saddles, of which we have the Vento Argo R1.

It's a short saddle design that I enjoyed using, thanks to the firm padding and curved shape.

Pricing & Competition

As mentioned above, you can go down the pre-specced route or create your own in the bike builder. Our build is one of the standard ones and comes in at £5,873. The least expensive option is based around a SRAM Rival AXS groupset, Fulcrum Racing 4 DB wheelset, 3T alloy bar/stem combo and a Fizik Tempo Argo saddle. That will set you back £4,538.

Fara offers four groupsets in total, and if you took the same build as ours but changed groupset you'd be looking at £5,517 for Rival AXS, £5,784 for SRAM Force AXS and £8,454 for Dura-Ace.

If you upgrade the wheels from Zipp's 303s to 404 Firecrests you're looking at an extra £712, while the two top-end paint jobs add another £89.

The F/Road reminds me of the Orro Gold STC in the way it rides, especially the high-quality smoothness to it. The only real difference between the two is that the Orro's taller head tube nudges it into the endurance category. With an Ultegra Di2 Tailormade build it costs £4,899, specced with carbon Vision SC40 wheels and the same company's Vision alloy stem/carbon handlebar.

A similar spec Fara costs £5,517 with Fulcrum wheels and 3T finishing kit.

The Scultura is Merida's 'aeroish' lightweight road bike. The Scultura 9000, which is specced with an Ultegra Di2 groupset, deep-section Reynolds wheels and an integrated cockpit, costs £5,950.

The Tarmac SL8 Pro comes with an Ultegra Di2 groupset, Roval Rapide wheels and a carbon handlebar – but it will cost you a cool £8,000. Weight-wise, Specialized claims it's lighter than the Fara, but only by a few hundred grams. The SL8 also focuses on aerodynamics and low weight, and though I haven't personally ridden it, I rated the SL7 very highly.

For more options check out our best road bikes buyer's guide for bikes from £300 to £12,000.

Conclusion

At the forefront of everything I like about the F/Road is the ride quality. For such a stiff, race- orientated bike the Fara exudes comfort and a complete lack of harshness. It's definitely quick too, and that comfort allows you to exploit that speed over a longer distance than some race bikes.

Verdict

Quick, nimble, fun, an impressive ride quality and excellent comfort – and I think it looks stunning