Our Favorite Road Bikes

by Greg Schulte

This year there is a theme with our favorite road bikes. They are all made by Jamis! Although very rarely mentioned with the big boys of American cycling, Jamis is fast making a name for itself with their unique design, bang for your buck product offering and their bikes supreme ride qualities. If you are looking for an excellent ride on a not so ordinary bike, Look at Jamis!

Entry Level

Looking to upgrade that old Peugot or Schwinn Varsity? Don't want to break the bank? Look no further than the Jamis Ventura Comp.

Even the entry level Jamis road bikes come with what Jamis calls Size Specific Tubing (SST), "an engineering design where smaller frames (48-54) are constructed with smaller diameter tubing to retain resiliency and ride quality, larger frames are constructed using larger diameter tubing to retain stiffness for larger riders." (www.jamisbikes.com) This is a feature few other companies offer in this price range. The Jamis Ventura Comp also comes with a full carbon fork with carbon steer tube, another feature that is unheard of in bikes at this price, so no ugly steertube extenders are needed here!

The Ventura Comp comes with a compact geometry which gives the rider a slightly more upright seating position than a bike with dedicated race geometry. (Many pro riders ride compact frames for the amount of time they spend in the saddle) Jamis also provides plenty of room on the carbon fiber steer tube to adjust the handlebars to fit your body geometry.

The 18-speed Shimano Tiagra/Sora drivetrain offers plenty of gear options to get you over the top on a town line sprint or spin up the steepest of hills. The compact gearing of the front chainrings reduces weight from a standard triple, improves front derailleur shifting and is easier on the knees than a standard 52x39 front chainring set up.

While this is by no means an "out of the box" racer, it is the perfect bike for the recreational rider who enjoys riding fast and riding hard.

Middle of the Line

Looking for old-world feel with the latest components? Made with Reynolds 631 Chromoly, the Jamis Quest provides the classic ride of a steel frame with all the modern day luxuries. The Quest is equipped with a 20 speed Shimano 105 drivetrain, Mavik Aksium wheels and Shimano brakes. Many other companies skimp on the brakes to save money...but not Jamis! The Quest also features an FSA crankset with an external bearing bottom bracket, a feature that makes pedaling smoother as well as providing a stiffer bottom bracket area.

When some people think steel they think of their old 40 pound Schwinn. Not anymore! With the size to strength ratio of the "new" steel or chromoly, a chromoly road frame is only fractions heavier than its aluminum counterpart. A difference that can be accomodated for by switching from a steel bottle cage to a carbon or plastic cage! While steel may have lost some of its luster with new bike advances, there are still many rewards to it. As long as it is well taken care of, a steel frame will last forever! While not as stiff as an aluminum or carbon fiber bike, the Quest is stiff enough for those of us who are not strapping on a race number every weekend. The vibration-absorbing ride characteristics of steel also make the Quest much less jarring than than its aluminum counterpart.

High-End

Whether you want to smash the competition on the race course or just enjoy flawless performance on your weeknight club ride, it's hard to beat the full-carbon Jamis Xenith Team. Created with a Triad carbon fiber layout, a process using 3 different types of carbon fiber, the Xenith is the pinnacle of race bike engineering at a fraction of the price of its competitors!

One step on the pedals and you realize that this bike is about one thing: SPEED! This bike is stable at low and high speeds and feels right at home in a day long breakaway or on a sprint lap of a local crit. The larger driveside chainstay and seat tube helps elimiate power-robbing frame flex in even the hardest of sprints. This is also helped by the FSA external ceramic bearing bottom bracket. Ceramic bearings are used to increase the life span of the bottom bracket as well as virtually eliminate bearing friction as they are round and symmetrical within a millionth of an inch. Also, this bike is equipped with a full Dura-Ace component group (including brakes) and Mavic Ksyrium SL wheels.

To top it off Jamis uses the industry leading Easton handlebars, stem and seatpost and a Fizik Arione saddle which uses Fizik's patented Wing-Flex technology.