First Look: The Budget-Friendly Jamis Supernova Elite
If you’re super serious about cyclocross, you already have your race bike (and your spares), and are already racing. But if you’re like me, you squeeze the most out of summer and wait until the leaves start turning before thinking about cross. When I noticed aspens in my yard turning yellow, I called in the Jamis Supernova Elite.
The Supernova Elite has what I’m looking for in a modern ‘cross racing bike: a carbon frame, lower BB (69mm drop), hydraulic disc brakes, thru-axles front and rear, SRAM 1x drivetrain, and tubeless-ready wheels. At $2,899, it offers a lot of features, doesn’t cost a comparative ton, and provides a good platform to upgrade. I'll post a review after I get a few races in on it.
Almost all test bikes arrive at my house the same way they arrive at a bike dealer. I’d call Jamis’ packing above average.
Here’s the pile of packing material I removed. The bike was well protected.
See, there was a bike under all that. Time to build.
Removing this stuff is so satisfying.
The Supernova has a single chainring, so I cover up the front derailleur shift cable hole with electrical tape to prevent debris from entering the frame.
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Jamis provides nice aluminum water bottle bolts with Torx heads, which are more robust than hex heads. I plan to race the Supernova, so it won’t have any bottle cages. Rather than waste these sweet bolts, I’ll use them on another bike.
When working on a modern high-performance bike, a torque wrench is mandatory. I have about five torque wrenches on hand for building bikes. The Effetto Mariposa Giustaforza II Pro ($250) is the nicest and most useful in my collection, and the one I use most.
For safety, there should be a headset spacer on top of the stem so a carbon fork steerer can pass all the way through the stem’s steerer clamp. It’s nice that Jamis provides this little reminder.
Good and important info, but invisible unless the fork is pulled.
I weighed the fork when I pulled it to cut the steerer. 424 grams is light for a tapered, thru-axle, CX fork. For comparison, Enve’s CX fork has a claimed weight of 466g.
The fork may be light, but the SRAM OG-1130 11-36 cassette is not. That reads 422 grams. The good news is, a lot of cassettes are lighter.
The frame has a BB386EVO BB-shell, while the cranks have SRAM’s GXP axle. An Enduro press-fit BB with Wheels Manufacturing adapters make it all spin.
Fizik’s Superlight Microsoft Touch tape is grippy, and a premium touch. The bars were wrapped counterclockwise on the drive side, clockwise on the non-drive, the opposite of how I was taught to wrap.
The frame is provisioned for a front derailleur and electronic shifting (the plug below the FD mount bolts). Removign the FD mount eliminates a mud catch point.
The Alex wheels are tubeless ready, but the Clement tires are not.
The Ritchey rim tape is not tubeless ready. Jamis does not include tubeless tape or valves with the bike.
The axles are, frankly, not great. They stick further out from the frame than a RockShox Maxle, and, more importantly, they’re challenging to close properly.
I love the simplicity of SRAM’s 1x groups for ‘cross, and have been pleased with the performance . The Rival1 group shifts just as well as the Force1, it’s just a bit heavier.
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The Supernova has size-specific tubing diameters, stem length, crank length, and bar width. My 54cm review bike had 44cm Ritchey bars, wider than the 42cm bar typically equipped on road bikes my size. Wider improves leverage and stability.
Here’s all the extra bits that come with the bike. I wonder how many reflectors go from manufacturing to landfill without ever touching a bike.
Built (no pedals), my 54cm review-bike weighed a bit over 20 pounds, slightly less than Jamis’s claimed weight.
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