2010 Jamis Aurora Elite (Partial Review)

Why a partial review? Well I've ridden it in various conditions flat, hilly, bike path, road, residential, long, and short rides. I have not however toured with it yet. So my partial review is for the non touring aspect of this bike. I'll have a touring review in January after completing a couple loaded tours with it.

The Bike:
The Jamis Aurora Elite has a great balance to it. The Reynolds 631 flexes beautifully offering a comfortable ride. If you do not own a steel frame bike, everything you have heard about the comfort of steel is true. I myself was not sure if the stories were fact or fiction. I am a true believer now. The other key feature is the stability of the bike. With steel not being as rigid as carbon fiber and aluminium the bike does not feel bouncy and jittery on rough roads. It simply eats them up and absorbs them. In another post I compared the feeling of this bike to a motorcycle. I stand by that statement, and love it for it.

The Components:
I specifically chose this bike over the more popular Surly LHT for several reasons related to components. First the Reynolds 631 is a better steel that 4030 cromoly. Second the bar end shifters on the LTH are junk, STI shifters are the way to go. You can dial in your gears better and I don't have to move my hands out of my normal riding position to shift. Third the disc brakes are far superior to cantilever brakes. When you are loaded down with 40 or more pounds of gear and going down a long steep hill, in the rain, you want disc breaks. Granted that is a worst case scenario but if you don't plan for the worst that is when something will go wrong. I like to ride in the rain so stopping power to me is important. Plus I am a bigger guy and canti brakes have never felt reliable and they sound horrible. Forth the Shimano XT rear deraileur.

Modifications:
The 2010 Jamis Aurora Elite comes with a rear rack rated at 40lbs and aluminium flat fenders. Not a bad start if you are on a budget. Fenders and a rack (or racks) are something that most touring bikes end up with. Since I knew I was in the market for a touring bike this year I had put the cart before the horse and got a bunch of touring gear for xmas. So I already had Planet Bike fenders, Surly front Nice Rack, Tubus Logo rear rack, Brooks B17 saddle, Park Tool frame pump, and several other small accessories. The first thing I did was removed the stock seat and seat post. I used the Brooks B17 and Bontrager seat post off my Trek. I can just swap seat/seat post between bikes now. I was also trying to remove as much of the chrome piece as I could. The seat and post are black. Next I removed the rear rack and fenders, both painted silver. I added the Planet Bike fenders next although I had some issues which I'll address in the next section. The Tubus Logo rack would not go on the bike around the disc brakes, same with the Surly Nice Rack. The Surly rack came with a boat load of hardware for various applications. The bracket and shims included for disc brake applications worked, but not to my liking. So I put the stock rack back on and ran with it until I could fabricate a couple brackets for the racks. After fabricating a couple L brackets for the rear rack I was able to get it on. It worked well, but the Tubus rack is real narrow at the top and does not accommodate a trunk bag at all. Since I always use a trunk bag, the Tubus was not going to work for me. I ended up painting the stock rack flat black and it looks just as good as my Surly Nice Rack. All of the times I took the rear rack on and off ended up stripping out one of the rear braze ons. The screw was cross threaded by my LBS when they put the bike together and kept getting worse each time I took the rack off. I had a different LBS retap the threads but ultimately it needs a helicoil thread repair kit to fix it. The bracket I needed for the Surly rack was a little more difficult to fabricate. I took a piece of galvanized plate steel and fabricated a bracket similar to the one that came with the rack. I had to add more of an angle to it in order for it to fit around the brake caliper. It's on and very stable.

The Cons:
You've heard the Pros, now the Cons. The only problem I've had has been adding fenders and racks. The disc breaks are just in the way and no one makes an off the shelf rack or fender that accommodates them without some tinkering. I am very handy, so it was not so much a problem for me as it was a fun challenge. However if you don't have the tools and are not handy it would be a little more difficult for you. Your best bet wold be to shop around to find a competent mechanic capable of dong what I did. The last thing I want to do is sway someone away from buying an Aurora Elite. Like I said in another post, disc brakes aren't a new thing but they are not mainstream on touring bikes. As more and more manufacturers follow Jamis's lead, more rack manufacturers will start making disc compatible racks. There are a few out there, but again they will require some tinkering to get them to work.

In Summation:
The 2010 Jamis Aurora Elite is a great bike with great components. The stock fenders and rear rack are more than adequate for touring. If you need to add a front rack definitely go with the Surly Nice Rack. Their brackets will work with the disc breaks I just chose to fabricate my own to make it work better. The tires are a great puncture proof, high tpi, rain tire. The Mavic rims are a reliable, sturdy rim for touring. The Shimano groupo set up is one of the best touring set ups out there. And the I can't say enough about the Shimano STI shifters. The ride quality is awesome and will take you on the long haul with out being surly at the end.