Jamis Parker Review

8 months, 21 days ago.

Jamis have really stepped it up in the freeride and dirt jump department for 2008. My son and I had the chance to extensively test the Kromo and Parker II at the demo day last week. I must say, I was impressed by both bikes… here’s my reviews.Both of these rigs were designed with input from slopestyle madman Jordie Lunn, and I’m pretty sure he’d feel comfortable doing his wacked out 360 flips and monster gap jumps on these machines.

Both bikes are in the 34-35 pound range, which is not so bad for a dual suspension freerider, but might seem a little hefty for a single-speed dirtjumper.

Versatility by Design

Review by Gilligan

Parker

The Parker II is set up as an all-mountain rig that leans heavily toward the freeride side. Other builds in the Parker line include a slopestyle jumper, 4X gate-racer setup (Parker III) and a 3-ring all-mountain ride (Parker I).

• multi-link 7005 aluminum frame with oversize, gusseted headtube
• Rock Shox Domain Fork, with travel adjust, 35mm stanchions, 20mm axle
• dual front chainrings with bashguard
• 31.8mm Syncros bar and stem
• Hayes hydraulic disc brakes with 185mm front rotor

The key to this formula is the Rock Shox Domain fork, which has a very simple travel adjust that takes it from 115-160mm. Raise the seat, and a few turns of the fork adjuster totally change the geometry from slacker freeride dropoff monster to aggressive trailbike, with the bars a couple inches lower than the saddle. Like the Kromo, there is no discernible flex in this beefy frame and fork, though the 100mm of rear travel definitely takes the edge off of all trail bumps and also does an acceptable job of soaking up dropoffs.

The RockShox Lyric fork’s enormous 20mm thru-axle really keeps the front wheel tracking true, and the 185mm front rotor allows the Hayes disc brakes to stop on a dime if you are too scared to hit the new gap jump at Raccoon Mtn. Yeah, I chickened out, but I can vouch for the bike’s jumpability because one of the teenage dudes who was swapping bikes with us sailed over the gap easily on his first attempt.

The Parker is not a downhill bike with 7 inches of travel, but for the majority of riders, the 4 inches of rear-end motion will do the job. I can see this bike as a fun trail bike, with the beef to handle anything you throw at it if you decide to hit a few jumps, drops or even blaze off-trail straight down the side of the hill. I can see taking this thing on all-day excursions… it’s so versatile and fun to play with. In short-fork high-saddle mode, it climbs like a bulldozer and rails like a bobsled. In long-travel mode with the saddle dropped to the frame, it just wants to go fast downhill and up in the air.

I will gripe about the pedals. The Parker is the kind of bike you want to ride with skate shoes, but the stock pedals are just not flat or supportive enough and they will kill your feet unless you are sporting hiking boots. The only other component choice I would question is the crank & bottom bracket. They don’t seem quite burly enough compared with the rest of the package, but they would be a fairly simple replacement item along with the pedals.

Check the full specs at JamisBikes.com

Posted in Jamis, bike reviews, demo days