Jamis XLT bike review.............

As ya'll might know, my friend Will let me borrow his shop's demo bike this past weekend. Will said to ride the bike like it was mine so I basically beat the living snot out of it for a couple days. More on the bike........................

The bike I borrowed was a 17'' Jamis XLT 1.0

Here are the specs...........pretty nice specs compared to my regular rides.........

I ride a 4 year old Schwinn Moab 2 disc hardtail and a Redline Monocog as my regular off road bikes, so most of the parts on the Jamis are way nicer then what I am used to.

I rode the bike up at Rocky Ridge and managed to hit all the trails except T7. I also rode the bike at Lake Redman as well, hitting most of the trails with the exception of the Goat Trail and T7. Prior to me riding it, Will from Ed's Ski and Cycle set up the fork and shock with the correct air pressure but I'll get into that later.

The ride...........

Obligatory garage door shot.

Compared to my aluminum hardtail, this bike is plush. Not so plush that you don't feel all the rocks and roots but plush enough that you actually have more control of what's going on. The faster you go-the more it smooths out. I was amazed that the bike hardly bobbed at all during climbs. I put that down to the Manitou Swinger SPV rear shock.

Before I left the shop with the bike, Will got my weight and dialed in the air pressure settings on the positive and negative air chambers and we set the rebound about right in the middle of its range.

You really have to get out of the saddle and honk on the pedals to break through the platform valving. Never rode anything like this before-I was pleasantly surprised at how efficient the bike pedals.

This also the first time I have ridden an air front fork. The Manitou Minute SPV fork was dialed in similarly to the rear fork by Will with the rebound about halfway in. Another nice feature of this fork is that the travel is adjustable. I left it at the "full pull" position which gives you about 5 inches of travel. You really had to mash the pedals climbing in the granny for the fork to bob but it still sucked up the bumps. The bike could still easily be pre-loaded for jumps and such.

Not sure how all that stuff works but the ride could best be described as solid and in control. This isn't a bike you'd want to race XC with but it's something anyone with a little fitness could ride all day. It feels like it is carved out of a large block of aluminum. The bike has very little lateral flex.

The frame.........

I really dig the silver anodized color of this bike as it makes the main frame scratch resistant. Check out the downtube, it's huge. The rear subframe is beefy with square profile tubing the whole way around. Solid, solid stuff. The bottom bracket feels higher then what I am used to, in fact with the front wheel off-you can swing the pedals around in a 360 degree arc.

I have a 31 inch inseam, the frame was a medium and it was nearly very close to a perfect fit, if they made an 18" -it would be spot on.

One difference from my regular ride is that I was positioned a little bit back further on the bike.
Here's a pic with me in riding position on the XLT............

I happened to like this as it's really hard to go over the bars. This might not be everyone's cup of tea though as the front wheel tends to flop around some on steep climbs.

And here's a pic of my hardtail with me sitting on the saddle in riding position...........

See the difference? I am centered closer to the front wheel on my bike.

The cockpit.............

This is also the first time I've ridden a bike with 31.8 handlebars. Honestly..........I'm sold on the concept. The bars were solid with absolutely no flex. Coulda been a little wider though. The bike came with a fairly short stem, some folks are going to want to swap that out right away.....I happen to like it. I also like the WTB seat. Fits my ass like a glove. Err.......well, you know what I mean.

The drivetrain..............

First time using a SRAM front derailleur, nice very positive shifts.
The rear is equipped with a Shimano XT and both use Shimano Deore shifters. I would have liked to have seen at least LX grade but I suppose they could be replaced when they wore out. I don't wanna bag on the shifters too much but I have the Deores on my hardtail and I know that after a few months of use they are going to feel sloppy.

The cranks were Truvativ Hussefelt and they were probably the stiffest cranks I've ever ridden. I'm no light weight and I felt no flex whatsoever. Nice stuff.

Something in the bottom bracket area squeaked the whole time I had the bike, I'm sure this is something that just needs greased or tightened. It has cartridge bearings on all the pivot points so I don't think it was coming from the suspension.

The bike came with a 11-32 cassette, I like the 11-34 I have on my hardtail so I suppose I'm spoiled.

Brakes, wheels and tires............

This is also the first time I've ridden a bike with hydraulic brakes and all I can say is WHOA!!! Ya wanna stop in hurry? One finger on each lever is all it takes. I never could figure out how those North Shore guys could do nose wheelies..........now I know-the modulation is flat out unreal. Hayes brakes are the dog's balls.

If this was my bike, I'd swap the tires out immediately to something else. Probably to WTB Moto Raptors or a tire with a rounder profile. This bike is made for 2.5 tires as it has plenty of frame and fork clearance. I just didn't like the way the tires broke loose in turns with little warning and going over wet off-camber roots was downright scary. I ran the front tire at 30lbs for both Rocky Ridge and Redman and had the rear set at 38 for Rocky Ridge and 43 for the Lakes. The bike deserves better tires.

The wheels were nice, it's hard to go wrong with Mavic rims (although UST would have been nice), the hubs are high flange Shimano 535's and since I have some experience with these, I know that they aren't going last forever. The wheels stayed perfectly true the whole time I rode the bike and I'm not what you would call a "finesse" rider.

Front Fork............

This is the first time I've ridden a Manitou fork and also the first time I've ridden an air suspended fork. I'm really good at getting bike parts to flex, this fork put up with a few botched landings off of log drops at Redman without protest, so I'd say it was nice and stiff. I don't like a lot of rebound so it was nice that this was adjustable along with the travel.

Overall ?

Would I buy this bike?

It would definitely be on my short list. The bike specs out at a little more then 31 pounds and rides like it. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not a race bike. I am one of those "set it and forget it" kind of riders so I once I found the settings, fork and shock air pressures I liked, I probably wouldn't make much use of all the adjustability this bike offers, but it's nice to know it's there.

At some point before I buy a new bike next spring, I'd also like to look at a Specialized Enduro, a Giant Reign, a GT I-Drive and perhaps a Kona Stinky.

Gotta thank Will Mahler from Ed's Ski and Cycle again for letting me pound on one of his bikes, it was fun riding something different. Got anything else to test ride Will?

Here's a pic of the XLT with my buddy Greg's older version of the same bike.

The older version is still pretty cool................

Here's a gallery of pics..........and here's a sneak peak at Greg's chopper after paint.

Till later...........