poprad

I've recently started "working" (hanging out and doing the occasional repair more like) at a local shop, and have been thus exposed to some of the newer offerings from Raleigh, Jamis and Kona. We just built up a Jamis "Aurora" and it is one of the nicest production bikes I have seen in a long time. As soon as I saw this thing I thought of the C&V crowd. If you're in the market for a newer machine with a vintage ethos, this could be your new bike!

(I don't get any kickback from Jamis or the shop, just wanted to draw the C&V crowd's attention to newer models we mostly ignore)

JAMIS BICYCLES



Hope the whole forum has a great xmas!

likebike23

Nice bike indeed. I recommended it to a neighbor who ended up buying one. He's happy with it. His is a few years old and has canti's instead of disks. It has a classic look that I can appreciate.

Flog00

Here's mine. A great bike! And for sale

IMG_4589 by flog00, on Flickr

The Golden Boy 

Kinda goofy when a level top tube and a design towards utility make it "retro."

That is a cool and fun looking bike.

likebike23

Yeah, I hadn't thought about it that way. I always liked Jamis, they've been doing it this way forever and not to fill a niche.

Pompiere

No, it's the white-wall tires that make it retro!

I have a Jamis Quest that I really like. It was one of the few new steel frame bikes that I could find in 2011.

poprad

I had no idea just how many "practical" bikes are being made nowadays. I hadn't really hung out in bike shops for quite a few years, buying most of my stuff online or through e-bay. I'm very happy to see the whole gravel-grinder interest (Raleigh Tamland for example) and that the concept of buying a bike that just does most things well is coming back around. I don't think there's been a better time to be a vintage bike enthusiast.

That said, my only new bike is a '83 Ross Mt Hood I'm polishing up and throwing studs on for the coming icy trails here in DC. Stand by for a post-holidays post of that one, she's going to be sweet!

Pompiere

It is nice that instead of having to choose from "road race", "mountain race", or "bike path hybrid", you can actually find a bike for the way cyclists ride in the real world.

AZORCH

This has absolutely nothing to do with functionality, but I really like the simple lettering on the top tube with no graphic splashed across the DT, the silver crank, and the color matching in play between the tubing, rack, and fenders. Really, the furthest thing from ostentatious that I've seen in many new bikes.

old's'cool

The bikes depicted so far in this thread fully fit the term "classic" and hence definitely are not out of place in this forum.

The Golden Boy 

With the functionality as an added bonus!

poprad

Yeah, the lack of a downtube decal was the first thing I noticed when we unboxed the frame. We actually thought maybe they had mistakenly forgotten it, and had to look up the model online. It's really a very well thought out integrated unit for a production bike. If they came out with a gen hub version with an Edelux on a front rack it'd be perfect.

My only real quibble with it is that the rear rack sits the load quite high, which isn't the best for stability on a loaded tourer.

gomango

Ditch the rear. It's too high. Go for low riding front panniers with a rando box.

Neat bike though.

Flog00

My bike above (2010), the rack is much lower and the panniers mount to the lower rail. I wonder why the new bike has the rack so much higher?

Insidious C. 

I must be stuck in the past. Sloping top tubes, particularly on expensive road bikes, look soooo wrong to me.

nlerner

I agree with the need for a rear rack that sits far closer to the wheel. And why can't they get a decent fender line with the front fender? This is the marketing photo, after all!

mudboy

20 years on and I still hate the look of threadless, especially on a road bike.

icepick_trotsky 

Along the same lines, I really like the look of REI's Novara Verita. Steel, subdued graffics, fenders, and an almost flat top tube. Nice wide compact double, too.

Danish guy

I agree. A little attention to detail goes a long way! Also the bottom struts are curved? Don't think I have ever seen that before, but maybe that is just me. I think I would curve all of them then, though...

lotekmod

I agree that the understated look is classy and a nice departure from the typical modern, graphic-heavy bikes. The only thing that really distracts me is the god-awful crankset. Can component makers get any farther from "elegant" with these bulky crank arms? If it had any more metal it would look like a frying pan.

likebike23

It may be the work of a photo retoucher. If you look, the struts don't really connect to the dropout. Nashbar is the worst at that, all of their bike pictures are messed up. Still, somebody should have caught it before it went out.