Opinions on Jamis Trail X Bike

JimmyRayUk

I'm planning to start going cycling again for general fitness, mostly down canal walks, hilly roads and some slightly hilly gravel trails near my house. I have a couple of groups of friends who also do more serious mountain biking that I may tag along with maybe once or twice a year, but not often, possibly never.

With a budget of max £300, a lot of research into what's on offer and temporary ownership of a b'twin Rockrider 520 (which I took back) I ended up going for a £300 "transport scuffed" Jamis Trail X Expert bike from Evans. https://www.evanscycles.com/jamis-trail-x-expert-2016-mountain-bike-EV245342 The specs on it to me look great for £300, but I can't find any reviews on them bar an older low end model.

Does this seem like a good buy to you at £300? Bearing in mind it's only going to have moderate-casual use?




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On a side note The B'Twin I had was the 2016 Rockrider 520, which i took for 1 ride and found it really struggled getting into gear. It was still terrible after myself and 2 Decathalon staff tried to adjust the front derailur settings. It would take 6-7 revolutions of the pedals to switch gear and wouldn't go into 3rd without holding the gear level. I eventually got told that to go into 3rd you're meant to hold the gear level down until it bites, then let go. We tried some of the shop ones and even after setting up they were the same. Lots of people seem to rate them highly, but I've noticed the new range has different parts to the older ones.

This has really made me wary of the new Rockrider bikes, especially the SRAM derailur and drivechain on the 520, shame as the frame etc was really nice.

The Rookie

That's a decent spec for the price, damped forks and hydraulic brakes are the bare minimum you want and it has both.

SRAM stuff shifts perfectly well, not sure what the issue was in this case, but it should have been fixable, no you shouldn't have to hold the lever to get it to shift.

JimmyRayUk

The Rookie wrote:

SRAM stuff shifts perfectly well, not sure what the issue was in this case, but it should have been fixable, no you shouldn't have to hold the lever to get it to shift.

I've got no clue what was up with it, but it was the same on other bikes in the shop despite attempts to adjust it by both myself and two of their mechanics (I followed a youtube vid after it wouldn't work on my first ride). I did notice The front Derailur (Microshift MS22) looked really poorly made and cheap compared to ones on other bikes though.

supersonic

For £300 it is a good buy, as mentioned above - was £550 new which is why you are going to find some better parts than the base level 520 for example. The entry level microshift can be bit hesitant, but no worse than comparable Shimano TX I find. The 540 is still a great buy at £340.

JimmyRayUk

supersonic wrote:

For £300 it is a good buy, as mentioned above - was £550 new which is why you are going to find some better parts than the base level 520 for example. The entry level microshift can be bit hesitant, but no worse than comparable Shimano TX I find. The 540 is still a great buy at £340.

I was looking at the 540, however it uses a similar derailiure to the 520 and was a bit over my budget.

I thought the components on the jamis bike were a step up from the ones on the 2016 540, or are there other parts that the rockrider excels in?

I'm completely new to speccing up bikes, so I'm not too sure which parts are the most important to have right.

supersonic

They are very similar bikes, spec wise, little to choose between them. The Jamis has a slight drivetrain upgrade, the Rockrider a better fork, but is splitting hairs, both are good for less than £400 and way better than an equivalent prices Specialized/Trek/GT or big brand name.