Ari Shafer 3.0 Long-Term Review: Huge Tires, Fun & Capable = Winner

ari shafer 3.0 review — Ari Shafer 3.0 in South Australia

Ari Bikes – Ari Shafer, “The Future of Gravel is Here”. – Ari Bikes Website

In this video, JOM of Gravel Cyclist presents his comprehensive no BS long-term review of the Ari Shafer 3.0 – Ridden and reviewed in Australia and the United States. Way beyond the other “reviews” you’ll see on YouTube.

Ari Shafer 3.0 Review Video

Alternative Video Link for those reading via email subscription

Ari Shafer 3.0 Features:

Adventure Ready – 29×2.25” (700x58c) tire clearance, internal frame storage, and 5 frame mounts for bottles or gear.
High Performance – Lightweight carbon frame with tuned ride quality, damping, comfort, and efficient power transfer.
Modern Gravel – Suspension-ready, stable yet agile geometry, and rider-focused positioning for comfort and power.

Written Ride Experience, or See Video Above

I mentioned this at the top of my video review (see above) the Ari Shafer 3.0 is absolutely farking mental, and I mean that in the best possible way. This bike is amazing fun to ride, and extremely capable over virtually any terrain you can throw at it, but without the typical pitfalls of slow handling big tyre bikes that are like driving a vintage sports car with crappy handling and no power steering.

Ari have really done their homework with the geometry, as I am normally not keen on bikes with longer top tubes, taller and slacker head tubes, shorter stems, you get the picture. Do your own homework with regard to fitting yourself to this bike, or any bike for that matter, because what works for me, may not work for you. With that said, this size small Ari Shafer 3.0 is dialled in for me, after I substituted the stock zero setback seatpost for one by Shimano Pro Discover in carbon.

I felt safe and confident aboard the Shafer, when I ventured onto dodgy tracks, historic railway bridges, and trails better suited to a mountain bike, especially when descending. The huge 180mm rotors are perfectly at home on the Shafer, their braking performance is so good, so effortless. The safety and confidence benefits alone you’ll feel riding this bike are something I feel will pique the interest of a lot of people.

Much of that safety and confidence are thanks to these huge 55mm wide Schwalbe RS One Pros tyres when set at the appropriate pressure, typically around 17psi front and 20psi, or sometimes less for my body weight, negated the need for suspension. While this bike is suspension corrected, I reckon you’re wasting your time and money when the pneumatic suspension effect gets the job done in supreme comfort without added complexity or weight.

The Ari’s fork is a perfect compliment for all of this large tyre casing madness but without being over built, or too stiff. Don’t let its appearance fool you, the fork tackles the rough and rugged stuff no farking worries. Pressing forward, I will likely post a review of these Schwalbe tyres separately, they certainly warrant it.

These Schwalbe are not light at near 680 grams a tyre, but I never felt slowed down by that weight, once they wound up to speed, which wasn’t much of an issue shod to the excellent and speedy Zipp 303 XPLR SW wheels, see my review of these wheels linked here. This combination really surprised me. In fact, the Shafer and I attended at least two speedy group gravel rides, and I hung comfortably in the second group at the speedier of the two, knocking out 75 miles or 121kms at the La Fleche Willistone, part of the 100% free grass roots no corporate BS, North Florida Freeride Gravel Series.

Tyre clearance is a huge selling point of this bike. The chainstay and bottom bracket design of this bike have been optimized for that purpose and are quite unique, with shapes that are only possible with a well engineered carbon frame design. I was pleasantly surprised the chainstays are 428mm long on this size small review sample, which typically differs from other bikes wishing they were an Ari Shafer 3.0, with 445mm chainstays.

With the 55mm Schwalbes fitted, there is still plenty of clearance for mud and the like. The Schwalbes aren’t what I would recommend for a mud tyre, but a narrower, mud-specific tyre would be advantageous to keeping this bike running in the slop. The trade off with all of this clearance around this area of the bike, it’s drivetrain is 1x only. The seattube shape is once again optimized for clearance, it isn’t round, and there’s no way you can mount a front derailleur.

SRAM’s superb Force XPLR AXS 13 speed with its 10-46T cassette, matched to the 40T chainring on this review sample, is good for not so steep climbing. When you start seeing 12+% and even 20% in some places during my review rides in Australia, the larger and taller 55mm tyres negate the lower gear, to the point where I was screaming out for a 38T chainring, or a 2x drivetrain…. at some point these grades are too steep where traction and keeping that front wheel on the ground becomes an issue, so you end up walking anyway.

This isn’t a 1x review, but these drivetrains are still compromised by not low enough gearing dependent on the cassette, chainring, or derailleur, and with annoying caps in the cassette, particularly towards the top. I don’t find the cassette gaps too annoying riding solo, but in a group environment, you will notice them, particularly with smaller chainrings. This is evident when you’re riding gears towards the bottom of this cassette where the cog gaps are one tooth, but those jumps in gear inches can be large, chainring size dependent. The point here is I really wish the Shafer could accept a front derailleur for a 2x drivetrain, as it would make this already excellent bike, even more versatile.

With all of this said, if you’re not ascending mega steep grades, just your usual 5 to 10% stuff, you’ll love a 1x drivetrain configuration similar to what I have happening here on my review sample Shafer.

That gripe out of the way, the Shafer loves to climb, and easily navigates loose gravel, ruts and other rubbish at slow speed, when you have to pick your line and be a little more reactive. The larger tyres steamroll just about everything, and with the weight at about 20lbs or 9 kilos in a size small with King Cage Titanium cages, K-Edge computer mount, Garmin 1040 solar, and Shimano XTR pedals, the bike’s weight is very competitive considering the huge tyre advantage.

More about that Big Tyre Advantage

If you’re nervous riding loose gravel or sand, relax, and let the Shafer and those 55mm tyre casings do their thing. The Shafer just crushes these road conditions, and I mentioned this earlier, comfort all around.

Corrugations or washboard as they are known in the USA, that ultra annoying phenomenon we all dislike greatly, are well handled by the Shafer. You’ll still feel them, but nowhere near as badly as a bike shod with narrower tyres. Once again, it comes down to these huge volume tyres just steamrolling across this type of road surface. Pneumatic suspension is the perfect solution to corrugations or washboard, as no suspension fork, particularly that aesthetic abomination known as the Lauf fork, simply cannot rebound fast enough to offer any advantage. In my mind, keep it simple, the tyre casings big and your pressure low.

Internal frame storage aka the Cache as Ari calls it. Space inside is tight, you would need to fold a spare tube pretty flat, or chuck some tools in there that are of a flatter form factor. I don’t find this feature on bikes to be particularly useful, as you can see from the saddle bag I ride. I’m always switching between review bikes, but for riders who don’t have this first world problem to worry about, you may appreciate the Ari’s cache.

I didn’t take advantage of the additional mounting points for bike packing, slack packing, etc, but the standard bottle cage mounts, I particularly like how low they are mounted to the frame. You can utilize huge bottles with plenty of room to pop bottles in and out, and in my case, reminder, King Cage Titanium Bottle Cages are my #1 choice, they don’t eject bottles ever… they are the best…

Wrapping up, I didn’t think I would enjoy riding and reviewing this bike, but I absolutely farking love it. I began tinkering with wider tyres way back around 2013 when I built myself a titanium drop bar mountain bike fitted with 50mm Schwalbe Furious Freds. That bike had a bunch of compromises, the Shafer, not so much. Ari are touting the Shafer as the Future of Gravel, and I have to agree. Not everyone will need 55mm tyres in their life, 35’s, 40’s or 45’s may cover your need well, but bigger tyres belong, and I hope, here to stay.

I don’t say this too often during my reviews, but this is a bike I really do not want to return. This review sample as you see it, will run you somewhere around $US 6,600 which isn’t absolutely insane, when you consider the prices of bikes that are far lesser when compared directly to the Ari Shafter 3.0 – learn more at the Ari Bikes Website.