Any experience with the Jamis Dakar BAM?

[grabtindy]

8" FR/DH bike, 65 HA, 14.5 BB height.
http://jamisbikes.com/usa/thebikes/f...arbam_geo.html
http://jamisbikes.com/usa/thebikes/f...rbam_spec.html

Work wanted to thank me for a project I took on and offered to buy me a new bike. They have a relationship with a newly opening dealer and it sounds like the only brand they carry so far is Jamis. I currently ride a yeti 575 and could use something for resort riding. Seems like a pretty vanilla, straight forward design, but who knows how it rides.

[grabtindy]

Not overwhelming response. The alternative would be one of their road bikes and I'm not sure I'm ready to make that kind of lifestyle change.

[mbizzles]

My old roommate had some sort of Jamis. It was in the 5 or 6" travel range. His kept breaking components. Brakes. Derailluers. But the frame seemed good. I road it around the parking lot a bit and liked how it fit. I didn't do any real riding. He took it to Winter Park and had fun.

I'm not very knowledgeable about the smaller components, but these seem ok. Having a Boxxer and a Van as the squishy parts is pretty good!! Too bad it's not the World Cup. I'd take the bike just for that. I have dreams about that fork.

It's not a Demo/V10/Session etc etc but for free I'd certainly take it over a road bike. As it was said in the thread with the video of a backflipping bike...road bikes are only cool when ridden like mountain bikes.

[frorider]

pretty basic build kit but should be fine. if you get it, consider getting offset reducers for the shock mounts (to effectively shorten the eye-to-eye length) and drop the fork crowns as much as possible (to minimize A to C) and the resulting BB of about 14 inches should help the handling.

the older 7" jamis bams had a chainstay breakage issue but this frame has more travel and appears totally redesigned.

[lph]

take the bike.

if you want a road bike, go buy something used/cheap.

[philth]

Just saw one actually. Looked fine. Take it.

[grabtindy]

Thanks all. I feel much better about myself now that I don't have to go shopping for bibs and shoe covers.

[DirkaDirkaJack]

wow...some long ass chainstays and a high BB for today's specs...

[reidhresko]

if I were in your shoes, I would gladly accept the brand new rig with a smile, not even swing a leg over it, and turn around and unload it for whatever you can get out of it brand new (maybe +/- 2K) and then buy a legit rig not made by what is widely considered to be one of the shittiest frame manufacturers out there today.

[XXX-er]

sell it as is because you would make you more $ than a road bike Jamis is not one of the big names kind of a B line

[grabtindy]

Yeah, very aware of the Jamis reputation. I worked at a shop for 6 years and am quite conditioned to turning my nose up at their stuff. But a free $3400 bike is a free $3400 bike.

I'll probably ride for a season, figure out what I like and don't like about it and go grab a new frame next year.

[XXX-er]

yeah Jamis is the line you take on when all the other lines are taken which would make sense since it is a new dealer with 1 line, if you can flog the bike without riding it right NOW in the start of riding season that would probably be the best $ return rather than trying to sell last years used bike next year

OR how about parting it ?

[chatton18]

They sponsor a guy at my home mountain who rips on it, but who knows how many mods he's done on it and what not. He obviously has a much nicer build up on it. I'd say go for it if you have easy access to some lift/shuttle runs. Then again, if you can get any of their bikes and you just want to sell/part it out, you'd probably make a whole lot more with one of these
http://jamisbikes.com/usa/thebikes/r..._xenithsl.html

Could also just wait until the dealer partners up with another bike company. They're not going to last too long with only Jamis.

[reidhresko]

Then again, if you can get any of their bikes and you just want to sell/part it out, you'd probably make a whole lot more with one of these http://jamisbikes.com/usa/thebikes/r..._xenithsl.html.

If you can get any rig, get this and immediately sell it. It would be worth enough to buy any number of top notch DH bikes. If not, take the BAM and still sell it. I saw one of them at Angel Fire this weekend and it looked super awkward. Within the industry, Jamis is generally known for terrible tolerances, shitty welds, and bad geometry. But, free is free, so take it, say thanks, and go from there.

[BrianH]

His kept breaking components. Brakes. Derailluers.

Huh. I've been having similar problems. Some I attributed to operator error (shifting under load? Dumb!), but when the rear hub has had two major issues in relatively few miles (well under a 1000) I was tempted to say WTF WTB?

Of course in all fairness, Jamis doesn't make the WTB components, but it does seem as if they spec'ed their bike with Ye Cheape pe.

[BrianH]

WTB came through with a new wheel, so good on them.