Jamis Faultline A2 review

With a steeper seat angle, this Jamis Faultline A2 would be amazing. That one change would make all the difference.

• Brand: Jamis
• Product: Faultline A2
• Price: £1,800 (Go Outdoors Members’ Price £1,200 at time of writing)
• From: Go Outdoors
• Review by: Benji for Singletrack World Magazine Issue 147

Jamis is not a hugely well-known brand in the UK, but it has been producing mountain bikes for almost as long as any other brand you care to mention. The Jamis Boss Explorer (great name) mountain bike came about waaay back in 1981, meaning Jamis has been making mountain bikes longer than many of us have been riding bicycles of any description. Yet there’s no getting away from the fact that Jamis has never quite got a market share of any notable size here in the UK. Jamis is now being exclusively brought into the UK and distributed via retail park budget-minded behemoths Go Outdoors.

The Bike

That first look goes a long way when it comes to pushbikes, but it can be something of a double-edged sword. The Faultline A2 is a prime example. The fantastic paintjob and chunky head badge must be applauded. It really does help give this modestly priced bike the look and feel of a significantly more expensive machine. But for most experienced mountain bikers that first look is going to linger on the seat tube. The massive kink gives the upper section of the seat tube a super slack angle of dangle. And, on the Large size, with the saddle up at pedalling height it’s alarmingly way out there toward the rear hub. Fair warning: there is going to be a lot of talk about the seat angle in this review.

The frame itself is well put together with nice welds and decent looking pivot hardware and swinglink. The stuff specced on the frame to build it up into a complete bike is not exactly bad, but… there are some items that don’t quite cut it when compared with bikes that cost a bit more (NB: this bike never really sells at £1,800 – it’s better to think of it as a sub £1,500 bike). We’re not that bothered by the use of ‘just’ an 11-speed drivetrain because wide range 11-speed gearing is perfectly fine. The cockpit stuff is actually OK. The WTB tyres are decent. But the RockShox Recon Silver fork and the Shimano MT200 brakes (with resin-pad-only rotors) are both things that reek of cost-cutting and both will involve significant expenditure to upgrade in the not overly distant future.

The Ride

This seat angle then. Just how much does it affect the ride experience of the Jamis Faultline A2? In a word: totally. Maybe it’s because, as bike mag reviewers, we’ve become accustomed to genuinely steep seat angles (which are a brilliant godsend by the way)… maybe it’s because I’m on the cusp of frame sizing (although there’s no way I’d opt to ride the XL with its 530mm seat tube)… but the whole test period on the Faultline was spent not-getting-used-to the super slack seat angle. To be fair, the bike didn’t actually feel that wandery or front wheel lift-prone when climbing. We guess you can attribute some of that literal straightforwardness to the lengthy chainstays. The bike just felt like it was two bikes in one. But in a ‘cut and shut’ sense, rather than jack-of-all-trades.

When seated, the bike felt really long. Our fingers clung on to the grips like Wile E. Coyote holding onto a cliff edge. You couldn’t really call it ‘roomy’ in a relaxed, all-day cross-country sense either; the torso angle was too acute for it to be a nice position to be in for very long. And when standing up out of the saddle? The bike seemed to drop two frame sizes and become a right old handful. An experience and vibe not exactly helped by the short centre afforded by the steep head angle. And yet, and yet… we had loads of fun on the Faultline A2. We can cut this bike a lot of slack because it does have an exuberance to it. No, this isn’t just political speak for ‘sketchy AF’. There’s a lot to like about the Faultline A2. First of all, it’s currently being flogged off for £1,200 to card-carrying Go Outdoors members. Wow. Second of all, the bike’s MP2 rear suspension does an awful lot with a meagre 120mm of travel. The back end feels great. Capable, grippy, poppy, loads of feel, no harsh running-out-of-travel sensation. The frame chassis feel in general is really good actually. It’s not a flex-fest. Nor is it dead-feeling. And despite us initially being rather sniffy about the rather skinny WTB i25 rim wheels, we ended up attributing a great deal of this bike’s zip and give-and-go to the hoops and rubbers. And do you know what? We actually suspect that in smaller frame sizes the seat angle, while never being exactly ‘good’, would certainly be less of a killer blow than it is with taller and/or longer legged riders who, by the time the saddle is at full mast, find themselves simply too stretched out and rearward biased.

Overall

Once it was too-steep head angles that us bike reviewers would spend most of our time bemoaning. The Jamis Faultline A2 does actually have a too-steep head angle as it goes, but it’s the seat angle that’s the defining (death knell?) aspect of this bike. We simply couldn’t adjust our ways to accommodate it. And, to be frank, we don’t think we should have to. No doubt beginner riders wouldn’t obsess over it as much as we did, but… it is still affecting their ride in the same ways even if they’re not aware that things could be different. The Faultline A2 has decent stuff (for an on sale at £1,200 bike), a lovely made frame, in a great colour, with impressive rear suspension and a great chassis feel… it’s just the wrong shape for leggy riders. With a steeper seat angle, this bike would be amazing. That one change would make all the difference.

Jamis Faultline A2 specification

• Frame // 6061 Alloy, 120mm travel
• Shock // RockShox Deluxe Select R
• Fork // RockShox Recon Silver RL, 130mm
• Wheels // WTB STX i25 TCS rims, Shimano MT400 hubs
• Front Tyre // WTB Vigilante TCS
• Rear Tyre // WTB Trail Boss TCS
• Chainset // Shimano Deore, 32T
• Cassette // Shimano Deore 11-speed, 11–51T
• Brakes // Shimano MT200, 180/160mm
• Stem // Race Face Ride, 50mm
• Handlebars // Race Face Ride, 760mm
• Grips // Jamis Lock-on
• Seat post // KS Exaform 900i
• Saddle // WTB Volt
• BB // Shimano External
• Weight // 16.5kg

Geometry of our size L

• Head angle // 67.5°
• Effective seat angle // 74.5°
• Seat tube length // 480mm
• Head tube length // 125mm
• Chainstay // 445mm
• Wheelbase // 1,205mm
• Effective top tube // 635mm
• BB height // 35mm drop
• Reach // 460mm

Members Only – Get the full details of every part of this bike below

Review Info

Ben Haworth

Orange Switch 6er. Stif Squatcher. Schwalbe Magic Mary Purple Addix front. Maxxis DHR II 3C MaxxTerra rear. Coil fan. Ebikes are not evil. I have been a writer for nigh on 20 years, a photographer for 25 years and a mountain biker for 30 years. I have written countless magazine and website features and route guides for the UK mountain bike press, most notably for the esteemed and highly regarded Singletrackworld. Although I am a Lancastrian, I freely admit that West Yorkshire is my favourite place to ride. Rarely a week goes by without me riding and exploring the South Pennines.

More posts from Ben