Bike Test: 2007 Jamis XAM 2

The Fox Air DHX and XAM linkage

My current terrain, however, has its fair share of wide open descents and when I really let the XAM2 pick up speed on those expressway logging roads, it felt a tad skittish at times. Nothing freaky, mind you, but on an all-mountain style bike, I would have appreciated a slower, more stable-feeling front end that better matched the bottomless-suspension feel of the rear-end.

After a couple weeks of riding, I perused the `07 Jamis catalog and was surprised to find that the headtube was angled at 68.5 degrees. I would’ve swore something more in the realm of 70 degrees…. Maybe the 73-degree seat tube was placing more of my weight forward than I’m used to. Who knows? Flummoxed, I tried a couple of different five-inch travel forks. No real change in the steering traits. Besides, I’d already spent much of the season on a 32 Talas and had never felt anything but confident on that fork model. Eventually, I found a happy medium by running some longer-travel models, but I imagine running a longer fork with extra leverage probably isn’t the smartest thing to do (as the headtube was probably engineered to withstand the stress created by forks in the five-inch travel range).

Having said all of the above, let me be up front about my biases: I like bikes with sloooow steering traits. Color me a spaz, but that, as the kids might say, is just how I roll. If you, on the other hand, favor an aggressive, quick-steering front end or if you live in tight and twisty terrain, you can dismiss the previous couple paragraphs as simple magazine guy wanking. Fair enough. Besides, there was a lot I liked about the bike.

For starters: braking was spot on and nothing shit the bed on the drivetrain front, despite some ugly rides through my Northwest muck. That’s saying something as I routinely see components go belly up out here. The rear suspension also performed damn well. I found myself cranking up the ProPedal on climbs, but truth be told, the MP3 system pedals pretty damned well without any extra low-speed compression damping added to the mix. And while I’m at it: kudos to the Jamis product managers for outfitting their All Mountain bikes with a robust air-sprung rear shock like the DHX Air.

For a five-inch travel bike, the weight was a tad on the hefty side at just a hair over 31 pounds. The bike climbs quite well as it sits, but there are plenty of bikes in this class that are equally stout, yet a solid one to three pounds lighter. Personally, I’d like to have seen the XAM 2 drop a couple pounds or gain an inch or two of travel.

As it turns out, Jamis has decided to up the travel in 2008. Next year’s XAM frame will boast an additional inch of rear suspension (making it six inches), burlier linkage, beefier drop outs and a more stalwart derailleur hanger. The `08 model will also be spearheaded by a six-inch travel, 20-mm thru-axle fork. Taken together, those improvements will likely resolve the few grumbles I had with this `07 model.—Vernon Felton

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