So the cockpit, cranks, BB etc. are relatively the same so the major differences are listed above. Are the 3 items worth $400 more dollars? I guess I don't care about 10 vs 11 speeds that much but is the wheelset and brakes worth the extra cash. I can afford it but could upgrade the 1.7 down the road and put the $400 on something different if needed. Thoughts?
Edit: the Jari 1.5 sits in between at $1300 but has SRAM 1x so I think I want to stick with shimano as I am used to it.
I'd definitely say it's worth it. The 105 is a big upgrade over Tiagra, the Grails are a nice upgrade over the WTB and the TRP HY/RD are excellent brakes. You're getting more than $400 worth of 'upgrade' in my opinion
I guess the big decision is whether you want 1x or 2x. I bought the 2016 Raleight Tamland 1 which was Shimano 2x. It weighs 25 lbs. I then bought the 2017 Roker Comp it is Sram 1x which I have got completely use to yet but there is 5 lbs. difference in the bikes. I see in your bikes the Jar 1 weighs 22.33 and the Jari 1.7 weighs 22.95 lbs so that isn't much of a difference. Good luck in whatever you buy. I know if you are lucky it will cost you around $600 to convert the 1.7 over to Shimano if you don't like the 1x.
Thanks for the input everyone. I can swing for the 1.3 and not worry about upgrades for a while with the stans wheels and 105 group. Looks to be a solid ride with some positive reviews.
Compared to my road bike the reach is 7mm shorter, the stack is 15mm taller, the head angle is 1 degree slacker, and wheelbase is 40mm longer so it should feel pretty nice and stable on the gravel.
I have the 2018 Fuji Jari 1.3 and I LOVE it. I also come from a roadie background and really enjoy the familiarity with the Jari's road-like geometry. I have a Trek 920 and it's a weird compromise between road and MTB, so it's geometry is more twitchy. If you've been on a twitchy bike, you know that you can steer with your hips and don't need much handlebar steering input. This is good for MTB and cross so you can barely think of turning and your bike is already doing it. On the road, or, on my local smoothish straight gravel, the Jari plows right on along so I can ride no handed and not have to worry about steering with my hips.
Things of note on it - the disc brakes take a while to bed in. I had to give myself plenty of distance for stopping for the first few weeks on the bike. I'm not a huge fan of the cassette. It's closely spaced between 11T and 19T, then it makes bigger jumps to get up to the 32T. The handlebars are also really wide in the drops, to me anyway - again the roadie background thing. Also, if you're ordering it online and putting it together yourself (I had to do this as there was no Fuji dealer in my area), get ready for a weird front derailleur. On all the pics of the Jari with Shimano, it shows the normal long armed front derailleur. Mine came with the newest version that has a weird routing around it's new parallelogram mechanism. I had to watch a few videos to get it right, but it's overall a good design as far as I can tell and shifts really smooth. Not sure how well it will withstand a lot of muck and wear though as it's not as simple design as all older front derailleurs.
Great parts about the bike are: the flat mount disc brakes(that's the way most road disc and GG bikes are going), the 5 water bottle mounts, and the 12mm thru axles that are screwed in with a hex wrench. It's annoying having rack and fender mounts, then not being able to use them on the side with a giant lever to close the non quick release thru axle - which is what I experienced on my Trek 920. Just make sure to have a 5mm hex wrench on your rides so you can change flats.
I will eventually get some nice wheels for an upgrade and maybe fancy Paul Klamper brakes, but other than that, I'm plenty happy with this bike's setup. I'm also really tempted to try out some 650b wheels with WTB By-Ways for extra cushiness. But for now, this will be my go-long bike.
cyclery88 wrote:I have the 2018 Fuji Jari 1.3 and I LOVE it. I also come from a roadie background and really enjoy the familiarity with the Jari's road-like geometry. I have a Trek 920 and it's a weird compromise between road and MTB, so it's geometry is more twitchy. If you've been on a twitchy bike, you know that you can steer with your hips and don't need much handlebar steering input. This is good for MTB and cross so you can barely think of turning and your bike is already doing it. On the road, or, on my local smoothish straight gravel, the Jari plows right on along so I can ride no handed and not have to worry about steering with my hips.
Things of note on it - the disc brakes take a while to bed in. I had to give myself plenty of distance for stopping for the first few weeks on the bike. I'm not a huge fan of the cassette. It's closely spaced between 11T and 19T, then it makes bigger jumps to get up to the 32T. The handlebars are also really wide in the drops, to me anyway - again the roadie background thing. Also, if you're ordering it online and putting it together yourself (I had to do this as there was no Fuji dealer in my area), get ready for a weird front derailleur. On all the pics of the Jari with Shimano, it shows the normal long armed front derailleur. Mine came with the newest version that has a weird routing around it's new parallelogram mechanism. I had to watch a few videos to get it right, but it's overall a good design as far as I can tell and shifts really smooth. Not sure how well it will withstand a lot of muck and wear though as it's not as simple design as all older front derailleurs.
Great parts about the bike are: the flat mount disc brakes(that's the way most road disc and GG bikes are going), the 5 water bottle mounts, and the 12mm thru axles that are screwed in with a hex wrench. It's annoying having rack and fender mounts, then not being able to use them on the side with a giant lever to close the non quick release thru axle - which is what I experienced on my Trek 920. Just make sure to have a 5mm hex wrench on your rides so you can change flats.
I will eventually get some nice wheels for an upgrade and maybe fancy Paul Klamper brakes, but other than that, I'm plenty happy with this bike's setup. I'm also really tempted to try out some 650b wheels with WTB By-Ways for extra cushiness. But for now, this will be my go-long bike.
Glad to hear you like the bike. I actually mountain bike far more than road ride but do have plenty of road miles in regardless.
You feel the Jari is more road-like in geometry? Are you basing this off of your Trek 920? Looking at the numbers it appears the Jari should have a fairly relaxed ride geometry vs a typical road bike (at least comparing it with my Orbea road bike).
Are you fairly happy with the Stans grail S1 wheels on the 1.3? I won't really plan on upgrading these for quite some time.
As far as wide bars, I should be fine as I am broad-shouldered. What size jari do you ride? what is your height?
With regard to geometries and such I should mention I have a Surly Ogre and have had a couple mountain bikes in the past, but again, most of my lifetime miles have been road. Also, I use bags or baskets on the front of both the Trek 920 and Surly Ogre for commuting or bikepacking, so those could definitely be influencing the steering characteristics. I'm definitely not an expert when it comes to geometry and how it affects handling. I just know I can't easily ride no-handed on my 920 or Ogre, but can on my Jari and old Lemond roadie.
The wheels seem ok. The hubs, I think, are typical cheap stock ones. I don't think true Stan's Grails use the same hubs. Probably better quality. I would also recommend going through and truing/tightening the wheels. I didn't do that on mine as I was too anxious so I just rode them. They are a little wobbly now, so I need to address that before too many longer rides (it's deep winter here in Nebraska, so probably not for a while). I haven't tried tubeless, being a roadie and all, so I can't comment there. Plus I think the Clement USH tires (which I love) aren't rated for tubeless.
The bars are 44cm, which is what I normally ride. I'm 5'10" with a 32" inseam so I normally ride 56cm bikes, so I went with the L 56cm Jari. Most 56cm bikes come with 42cm bars, so I was happy with the Jari's 44s. But again, with 25° flare to the drops, that puts them out more toward the 48cm wide range, I think.
I have the Jari 1.4 LE from Performance Bike. I am a big guy at 6'1" x 260 lbs and I find the Jari to be pretty flexy in the bottom bracket. Of course most aluminum and steel frames are flexy with me in the cockpit. If you are a big strong guy, keep that in mind. Otherwise, its a pretty comfy bike to gravel on, probably due to some flex in the seatstays and I added a carbon seatpost. Personally, I think the 1x11 is probably better for the gravel we have around here but like you, I wanted to stay with 2x so that I could swap wheels between the Jari and my Domane. Mine came with the WTB 23s and TRP mechs. The brakes suck compared to my shimano hydros on my Domane. Maybe the HY/RDs are better.
"You feel the Jari is more road-like in geometry? Are you basing this off of your Trek 920? Looking at the numbers it appears the Jari should have a fairly relaxed ride geometry vs a typical road bike (at least comparing it with my Orbea road bike)."
With respect to the geo, I found the Jari 56 to be an almost exact match to my Domane 58 if that helps. Just slightly shorter cockpit and a tiny bit more handelbar drop with the Jari, and less BB drop, but almost seems to give me equal cockpit dimensions.
Soonerinfrisco wrote:I have the Jari 1.4 LE from Performance Bike. I am a big guy at 6'1" x 260 lbs and I find the Jari to be pretty flexy in the bottom bracket. Of course most aluminum and steel frames are flexy with me in the cockpit. If you are a big strong guy, keep that in mind. Otherwise, its a pretty comfy bike to gravel on, probably due to some flex in the seatstays and I added a carbon seatpost. Personally, I think the 1x11 is probably better for the gravel we have around here but like you, I wanted to stay with 2x so that I could swap wheels between the Jari and my Domane. Mine came with the WTB 23s and TRP mechs. The brakes suck compared to my shimano hydros on my Domane. Maybe the HY/RDs are better.
Thanks for the info.
I am also 6'1" but weigh 190 and am a fairy strong rider. I am sure I will flex it under power some but that is to be expected. I am in the mountains of NC and likely would be ok with a 1x setup but just not sure how I will get along with the SRAM doubletap as I am used to Shimano shifting (which I will still have on my road bike.
I still might go with the low end 1.7 and just upgrade to really nice wheels and brakes after a season. not sure yet...
If I had to do it again, or if I could have found it cheaply available back when I was shopping in the fall, I would have bought the frame only (which is the 1.1 color/paint) and built it from the ground up. I got a real good deal on the 1.3 at $1300, which is why I went with it. I really like the glossy champagne color of the 1.1 and the gloss fork too. The Matte finish of the 1.3 is ok, but I prefer a gloss finish in general - seems easier to clean up.
In fact, I almost went with the 1.7 with plans to immediately pull all the parts/components and rebuild it with my own stuff. But that would've been a lot of work and figured looks didn't matter when I was going to be putting it through the wringer with gravel rides. Just wanted it to function well, which it does. I may look to a 1x system in the future if the front derailleur becomes a problem.
Hope all this back and forth doesn't give you conflict on which way to go. : )
+1 on recommendations to get the 1.3. The upgrade to 11spd, TRP brakes and Stans wheels are well worth the $400.
IMO frame flex/stiffness can a pro or a con. It really depends on where/how the bike flexes and how the bike is being used. Sure during a sprint finish a stiffer bottom bracket helps deliver more power. Conversely on a long gravel ride the difference in BB flex will be negligible but reducing the vibration to the rider is important. The frame is one part of the flex/stiffness in the entire bicycle. Wheels, tires and fork are major components in the flex and ride of a bike.
If buying from Performance they do triple back points for team members. I think it happens twice a year.I could not wait and bought A Gran Fondo on sale.
Yeah big fan of 105 11sp. Had it on my rain endurance road bike and really performed great.
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