Fara Gr4 review: Norwegian sensibilities mate with an all-out race machine in perfect harmony

“It looks like a vape”

That was the verdict of my partner, who owns a Fara herself on the Gr4. Specifically, because I checked, it looks exactly like the Vapes Bars Lemon and Lime 3000 puff model. I nearly bought one for the bit, before remembering I have a worryingly addictive personality and thought better of it. This also doesn’t come across in the photos because, in my infinite wisdom, I decided to shoot the thing in an abandoned quarry which was essentially black.

I’ve not had a great time with gravel bikes this year. I appreciate most of you will be coming to this review standalone without the benefit of context, but for the 8 or so readers hanging on my every word you’ll have seen that I tested the Factor Aluto, which was too road-like and didn’t feel overly capable on the rough stuff, and the Stooge Rambler, which weighed the same as a mid-size aircraft carrier, neither of which translated into an overly joyful experience.

Now, though, I seem to have turned a corner with the Fara Gr4. Unlike its predecessor, it’s a totally modern gravel race bike, hitting all the trends but somehow still managing to stay surprisingly practical. I really, really like it. It may sacrifice a bit in terms of aero to the likes of the Argon18 Anti Matter, but I’d trade that for what you get in return.

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Design and aesthetics

I have a big soft spot for Norway; my second proper job was based there, and if you want a little vignette that I think encapsulates the character of a nation, then you need to look no further than its hardware stores. If we wanted to rent or buy some tools for some light construction work, we popped down to a shop called TOOLS. Simple, beautiful. This pragmatism is somewhat reflected in the Gr4, once you peel back the modern gravel race bike layers.

Looking at the old Gr3 model, it’s hard to believe this is derived in any way. The Gr3 was fine but pretty middle of the road; a do-it-all machine trying to be all things to all people by the looks of it. The Gr4 is very progressive by comparison.

The tyres are probably going to be what draw the eye first. My test bike came with 55mm Continental Dubnitals, but you can officially go up to a 57mm, which is a 2.25” mtb tyre. Mounted up to the massive Zipp 303 XPLR S wheels, they look enormous, and while in our little bubble of covering gravel racing they look sort of normal now, if you rock up to your local club gravel ride with these they’re still going to turn heads. It's also likely that a 2.25" tyre on these rims would be over capacity, looking at the room that's left around the seat tube in particular.

Up front there’s also a visually interesting (some have said ugly) cockpit. Personally I don’t hate the looks, and ergonomically it’s absolutely on the money. The swept-down tops put your wrists at a far more comfortable angle when riding in the tops, and it’s still novel to have something this narrow at the hoods on a gravel bike (38.5cm). I’m so glad the era of fitting the widest possible drop bars is behind us because these feel great for a narrow boy like me. They’re very much like the Coefficient bars of a while back.

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What I also like is the fact you can adjust the reach fore and aft by 1cm just by moving the tops back into a different pair of slots. It’s a less clean look, but if you’re embarking on an ultra and want a less racy position then you can back it off and raise the stem up the standard round steerer a bit to suit your needs in a couple of minutes without getting hydraulic fluid all over yourself. Or, like me, you can set it to as long as it’ll go and slam it.

The seatpost is carbon, and has a very good degree of flex in it, likely to some degree because it is a 15mm layback option, but I managed to get my saddle far enough forward that I found a very happy position over the BB. It is also round, meaning you could, if you so wish, run a dropper post. Most of the time I never felt I needed one, but on occasional hairy descents down steep, rocky and rooty gullies I did want for that extra torso clearance as I was hanging off the back of the bike.

It’s not to mark it down for not having one as stock at all, and definitely a plus that you can fit one, despite the likely aero penalty. It also means it has a normal external seat clamp which I love. So much easier to live with than wedges and internal systems.

Want to strap things to your forks? Well, there’s triple eyelets neatly blanked out with grub screws for those of you who want to ruin a perfectly good bike ride by going camping, or ruin a perfectly good camping trip by cycling there. Likewise, there are mounts on the top tube for a bento box; there’s talk of a frame bag for spring this year but that doesn’t seem to have materialised, and space for another cage under the downtube in front of a rubberised bumper to protect the disposable vape paint job (other paint schemes are available)

I am not a huge fan of internal storage, but the downtube has a non-rattling door that happily houses a TPU inner tube and a mini pump with relative ease, so I can’t complain much on that account. Also inside the frame are Ceramicspeed bearings, both in the bottom bracket and SLT (solid lubrication technology) headset bearings, which are especially a sensible upgrade on a mucky bike with internal hoses.

In terms of sizing and geo, it’s quite a long bike for a nominal size. I rode a large, which is quoted as a 56, and it’s 8mm longer and 12mm higher in stack and reach than the latest S-Works Crux. The seat tube is half a degree steeper to 74 degrees, and the head tube 0.8 degrees slacker at 71.2 degrees. These are all totally fine numbers, but comparatively the interesting things I think are the standover height, by function of a shorter seat tube (Fara is 26mm shorter, resulting in a 18mm lower standover) and a bottom bracket that’s 8mm lower, which is a lot. I don’t think I’ve ever ridden a drop bar bike with an 80mm bottom bracket drop. The latest Orbea Orca Aero has a BB drop of 78mm, and that’s the lowest of any road bike on the market.

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Performance

I’ve not been this impressed with a gravel bike in a while. My stance on gravel bikes has changed in the last couple of years; where previously I would prefer my gravel bikes to be as road-like in their feel as possible, optimising for the road and just relying on bigger tyres to get through off-road sections, I am now very much minded that gravel bikes should be optimised for the off-road sections, and the Gr4 feels very much optimised for the rough stuff.

It isn’t an enormous machine by any stretch, but it feels bigger than it is when you venture off the tarmac. The longer, slightly slacker feel of it versus bikes like the Aluto makes it feel incredibly stable on really very bumpy terrain, even to the extent that I managed to bag a KOM on a descent (for all of about 9 minutes until someone else hit ‘upload’ back at the pub). All joking aside though, the Gr4 is a joy to send down both fast and open descents, and when things get narrow, rocky, and rooty as they often do near me, it performs valiantly there too.

Part of this is absolutely down to the lower bottom bracket, and while an 80mm BB drop sounds a lot, this needs to be viewed in the context of the 55mm Continental Dubnital tyres, which up the ride height considerably to the point that pedal strike was never an issue. Regardless, it feels hunkered down, squatted even, and I suspect with a dropper post it would be sensational for longer, steeper descents. The seatpost as it is, though, is lovely and compliant, visibly moving underneath you, and when combined with the higher volume tyres you get pretty incredible comfort. I could happily spend all day on this thing.

This lower chassis also means it corners really very well indeed. The Dubnitals aren’t the most grippy of the MTB tyres, and while they are fast I’d probably swap them to something like the Maxxis Aspen if I was blessed with more time on this machine, they’re more than grippy enough when combined with the frame geometry and a set of wheels with sidewalls wide enough to support the tyre carcass in hard, flat cornering. Oddly, the bike isn’t sold with Dubnitals; this seems to be some media setup. You’ll get Thunder Burts, which are good, and more knobbly, but maybe not the ones for summer, or you’ll get Schwalbe G-One RS Pros if you get the Campag build, which I haven’t ridden but look an absolute hoot in a 55mm.

On the flat, on and off-road, it may not have the aero chops of the Argon18 Anti Matter, but the cockpit is also narrower, and so all in it may well be faster than the test Argon we had in recently. We haven’t aero tested it, so it’s all subjective, but you don’t half barrel along, aided and abetted by the big tyres gobbling up bumps that would perturb other bikes and cause you to have to back off the power to take evasive action, which also rings true on the road with our numerous and interesting collection of potholes in the UK.

I was surprised to see the geometry charts in all honesty, because it doesn’t feel sluggish at all on the road. The narrow cockpit and fast tyres mean I can hold a speed that’s only barely below what I can on a road bike, and while the front end is a little more languid and the tyres are a bit more squirmy I never begrudged it at all on road sections, which is a rarity. It feels more playful than the silhouette would have you believe.

I have no complaints about the weight (8.7kg with cages, computer mount, and a sensible glug of sealant in each tyre, but no pedals), and the gearing. In reality, unless you want the absolute top-tier Red XPLR (and can afford the replacements when things wear out), then Force is the place to be for gravel. The shifting is good, the hoods are brilliant, the braking incredible, you still get the bonus buttons on the hoods, and in this case you get a power meter too (ooh big number go up), and the gear range sufficient to tackle just about anything.

I also love this cockpit, even aside from the adjustable reach. The ergonomics are brilliant, and the tops being at a better angle for your wrists is a real plus, even if visually it isn’t the best-looking thing in the world (‘it’s got a cupholder’, was remarked).

In fact, as I write this, there isn’t really anything I dislike about the Gr4. It’s excellent.

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Value

In this guise (swapping the tyres to Thunder Burts, of course), it’ll cost you $8,500, or €8,000, or whatever either of those converts to in Great British pounds (about £5,900), as it’s not a bike you can really buy in the UK.

This is Crux 5 money, though not S-Works Crux money, it must be said. Compared to the Crux 5 Expert (£5,999) you get broadly the same things, but with the Fara you get a fully integrated cockpit not a separate system, you get modern 55mm wide tyres on deep and wide gravel rims, internal frame storage (which may not be your thing), a power meter (which probably will be) and an aero 1x chainring, which looks cooler. The Fara frame may be less aero, but I’ll bet overall when you factor in cockpit and rider position, the Norgs have the Yanks beat. You also get ceramic bearings throughout, and dropper post compatibility.

It ain’t a cheap bike that’s for sure, but it’s hard to argue you don’t get more for your money with the Gr4, and in a package that delivers a ride experience that’s pretty bloody great, too. There’s also an argument to be had that this delivers some intangible rarity points. In a sea of Cruxes and Grails, it’s always kinda fun rocking up to the group ride on a bike from a small Norwegian brand, provided it can cut the mustard.

Verdict

The Fara GR4 really was a pleasant surprise. It looks quite cumbersome and ungainly, but it rides like a dream. Off-road is where it shines, whether that be extended rolling terrain (Kansas, I imagine), or the sharp climbs and rocky gully descents of my local loops; it's taken it all in its stride, all with the bonus of not feeling like a barge on tarmac. It’s thoroughly modern, but without losing sight of the sensible touches that make owning certain bikes a lot less of a headache than others, and for that I really do think it needs applauding in the loudest way.

Ultimately, I think it’s very much in the conversation when discussing the best gravel race bikes out there right now.