Fuji Jari Carbon 1.1 Gravel Bike Review: Gravel tourer for adventurers

Test: The Fuji Jari Carbon 1.1 comes across as very high quality at first glance with its matt black finish and elegant golden details. With various mounting options, this gravel bike should feel very comfortable in our touring category. Here you can find out how it drives and what we noticed.

Fuji Jari Carbon 1.1: The Facts

Frame material: Carbon
Wheel size(s): 700c (650b mobile)
Maximum tire clearance: 47mm / 2,2″ (650b)
Axle dimensions (v/h): 12 × 100/142 × 12
Mudguard Eyelets: Ja
Luggage carrier eyelets (v/h): Yes / Yes
bottle holder: Down tube up, down tube down, seat tube
Other: Bento box on the top tube

Weight wheels v/h/total (with tires and brake discs): 1.550g / 1.725g / 3.275g
Weight complete bike without pedals (size M): 9,24kg
Price: € 2.999

Fuji Jari Carbon 1.1: From importer to manufacturer

The Japanese company was founded in 1899 under the name "Nichibei Fuji" (Nichibei means Japanese-American) as an importer of American and English bicycles. In 1919, however, the company started to produce its own bicycles and over the years, through close cooperation with teams and athletes, it was possible to conduct innovative research and initiate design processes in order to develop high-quality bicycles for the end customer.

Fuji Jari Carbon 1.1: Adventure Ahead!

At first glance from the side, the carbon monocoque frame of the Fuji Jari Carbon 1.1 appears in an elegant matt black, which is decorated with golden details. These golden design elements ensure a noble and high-quality touch and extend from the frame to the fork and wheels to attachments such as the saddle and handlebar tape. When it came to the frame material, Fuji used C15 carbon for the Jari for the first time, to enable an even stiffer bike than the aluminum model. The carbon fork is already known from the Fuji Jari 1.1 in the aluminum version.

Quite apart from the design, gravel bikes are often difficult to assess at first glance, as their all-round capabilities mean that they cannot be assigned to just one clearly defined area of ​​use. But not the Fuji Jari 1.1, which quickly shows where it should go. Because with first-class accessory compatibility and mounting options in abundance, the Jari emerges more as a travel-friendly tourer than as a pure sports device.

The geometry was also designed to match. Because the Fuji Jari 1.1 ensures a more upright seating position, which can be adjusted to be more sporty to a certain extent, but is still aimed more at tourers. Nevertheless, with a slightly steeper steering angle and a slightly steeper seat angle, you still want to create a bit of sportiness and thus offer a pleasant mixture of comfort and liveliness. The gravel bike is available in the sizes 52cm, 54cm, 56cm and 58cm, with the head tube and top tube length being increased in 10 and 20 mm increments.

Fuji Jari Carbon 1.1: Everything is possible, nothing is mandatory!

As already mentioned, the Fuji Jari Carbon 1.1 clearly demonstrates its versatility. Because the Gravel Tourer, with an enormous number of eyelets and mounting options, ensures extremely good accessory compatibility. So you have a total of up to five different ways to attach your water bottle or tools. Also included is a small "bento box" which is screwed to the top tube. There is space here for various utensils that often get in the way in the jersey pocket and are safely stowed away here.

With sufficient screw connections and eyelets on the frame and the option of attaching a luggage rack with additional bags, the Fuji Jari Carbon is a suitable companion on multi-day tours and bikepacking adventures. In addition to tidy luggage for a longer trip, a compact commuter bag can also be attached. In addition, there is the possibility to attach various accessories to the fork, also here, thanks to many mounting points.

So that cables and lines do not get in the way when installing the accessories, they are almost completely laid in the frame and only come out of the frame when they have to. This is not only worth its weight in gold from a purely functional point of view, but also ensures a modern and clean look.

Fuji Jari Carbon 1.1: Sophisticated equipment for Gravel use

The Fuji Jari Carbon 1.1. Comes with Shimano gears and brakes. Here, Shimano Ultegra components are used as far as possible. With the Shimano Ultegra RX rear derailleur, thanks to the Shadow RD+ technology, you have a friction damper known from the MTB sector, which brakes the forward and backward movement of the rear derailleur. This significantly reduces the risk of a chain hitting and falling off in rough terrain.

The WTB KOM Light TCS 2.0 wheels in connection with the Panaracer Gravel King complete the equipment. Both the impeller and the tires have good rolling properties, which should be of particular benefit to the driver on longer trips and especially when "making the distance". However, the tires have a relatively smooth profile, which will quickly reach its limits in more extreme off-road use. However, this setup should be completely sufficient for normal gravel routes.

Depending on the air pressure, the tires also provide very good self-damping and the necessary comfort on longer tours. If you like it even more comfortable, you can fit 650b tires up to two inches wide on the corresponding wheels.

Other add-on parts such as seat post, saddle, stem and handlebars come from our own brand Oval Concepts. The handlebars and stem are made of aluminum, the seat post is made of an aluminum-carbon combination and the saddle struts are made of CrMo steel.

Fuji Jari 1.1 – Let's Gravel

Even at first glance, the Fuji Jari 1.1 is a real eye-catcher with its golden design elements. But not only in the frame itself, but also in various attachments you can see a lot of attention to detail. Here, for example, the nipples or the tire wall were color-matched to the design. Just as much attention to detail was also applied to the compatibility with accessories and the mounting options, which clearly predestine the bike for a particular area of ​​application. 

The upright seating position on the Fuji Jari Carbon 1.1 ensures comfortable rides. This orientation was also confirmed when we were allowed to sit on the Jari Carbon for the first time. With its geometry, it also ensures an upright and short sitting position in practice, which should be of particular benefit to us on longer tours, as we were quite relaxed on the first few meters.

When it comes to relaxed driving, of course, driving comfort must not be neglected. Fortunately, the Fuji Jari Carbon 1.1 surprised us with first-class comfort. Probably due to the special construction and the curved shape of the rear end, hard impacts can be better absorbed and don't go directly to the driver. The aluminum-carbon seat post also seems to do its part here and puts up with quite a bit. So you sit comfortably and can stand it for a long time on the Jari.

The good rolling characteristics and smooth running of the Jari Carbon are particularly pleasant on longer journeys. Both ensure a pleasant driving experience and provide enormous support over longer distances. But even when things get a little faster, the Fuji gravel bike really doesn't have to hide. The steep steering and seat angle gives the bike a certain sportiness, which is reflected in agile steering behavior for a touring bike.

Nevertheless, it is clear that this type of graveler is not a super athlete and we had to make a few compromises in terms of acceleration. Although the total weight wouldn't even be that high at 9,2 kilos, the Fuji just doesn't pick up quite as well and takes some time to get up to speed.

The heavily flared handlebars seemed a bit unusual. You really can't go wrong with the in-house oval attachments, we've always had good experiences with oval parts. However, the extreme shape and the ergonomics of the handlebars meant that the brake levers felt a little strange in the hand at first. You can definitely get used to it, and if you have little or no racing bike experience, it probably doesn't bother you that much, but it was very unusual for us at first.

A nice detail, which we only noticed while riding, is the integrated silicone element, around two millimeters thick, in the frame triangle directly on the underside of the top tube. The Fuji Jari Carbon can also be shouldered comfortably in the style of a cyclocross bike. This shows once again that Fuji wants to be prepared for every adventure with the Jari and also doesn't want to rule out carrying passages.