July 13th, 2009 by 
kwc
The Bike
All of the components on the Sputnik are black, which go well with the matte black paint job and silver graphics. I never thought the Jamis logo looked cool until I saw it as a badge on this bike. It’s a
beautiful bike.
The Sputnik comes in 50, 53, 55, 57, 59, 62cm frame sizes, with Reynolds 631 steel in size-specific tubing diameters. The fork stands out as it is carbon. The only cabling on the bike is for front and rear Tektro R530 brakes with R200 levers. The crankset is a 46-tooth FSA Vero and the flip-flop hub uses 16-tooth for both the fixed single-speed gears. The wheels use Alex DA22 rims and the rest of the components are from the Ritchey Comp family (seat post, stem, and handlebars). The saddle is a Selle San Marco Ponza Lux, which I absolutely loved. Saddles are a personal choice, but I found it to have the right level of firmness, and it’s all-black style also goes well with the frame.
Like most Jamis bikes, the Sputnik comes with a really tall steerer tube that gives you plenty of room to adjust. I appreciate this very much as my body geometry tends to need that extra bit of height to play with. Anyone that doesn’t like it can chop it down.
Flipping the flip-flop from fixed-gear to single-speed requires two tools: a 15mm wrench and 2mm allen wrench. I haven’t had a flat yet with the bike’s Vittoria Zaffiro tires, but it’s still best to carry both tools. When you mount a fixed-gear wheel, you need to align the wheel in the rear dropout and get the chain tension correct. The Sputnik has an integrated chain tensioner in the dropout: two little 2mm screws on each side of the rear dropout. Each screw pushes on one side of the axle.
Instead of having to tighten and loosen the axle nuts back and forth to get the wheel aligned with the right chain tension, you can just turn the screws back and forth. You’ll need the 2mm allen wrench for this, though in a pinch your fingers will do. You then tighten the axle bolts when the wheels are in the right position. I asked a Jamis rep whether or not these screws were necessary and was told that you don’t have to, but the rear dropouts are hard enough that the screws help keep the axle from slipping.
Setting up the bicycle is simplified by the lack of cable stops. Instead of having to measure, cut cables, and attach ferrules, the top tube has guides along the top that loosely hold the cable in place, with little plastic fasteners that clip on top. The plastic fasteners are not ideal. They pop off easily and can get lost, but a Jamis mechanic taught me a simple substitute: black zip ties. I can hardly spot the difference and the zip tie is actually much more secure. It makes me wonder why they didn’t use zip ties in the first place.
The Sputnik is not designed for speed so it’s only fitting that the flip-flop rear hub is not very fast. After a couple of months of use I notice that it doesn’t feel very smooth when I spin it in my hands and I also had to retighten it. Luckily, the hub is as simple as the rest of the bike, so taking it apart is not a problem.
It’s difficult to find things to complain about with the design, especially at a $900 price point. A small nitpick is with the cable routing along the top tube. With such a clean bicycle design, I wish the first thing I saw when I looked down wasn’t a black cable running along the top tube. I also like to sit on the top tube and, in addition to comfort issues, it was easy to pop off the plastic cable fasteners doing this.
Other issues I might complain about are being fixed in the next model, which they are modifying to enhance its retro appeal. The plastic cable fasteners are being replaced with stainless steel. I also questioned whether or not a carbon fiber fork really fit with the purpose of the bike. It’s hard to make a comfort, aerodynamic, or weight argument with a steel frame, single-speed/fixed-gear bike. The carbon fiber fork is pretty beefy, so I don’t question it’s durability, but in terms of supporting the retro image of the bike, it felt like an off note. The next edition of the Jamie Sputnik will go to a steel fork, which they claim will have similar ride quality.
July 15th, 2009 at 10:14 am
I have this bike and absolutely love it. I have switched out the stock crank, bars, wheelset, tires, and saddle. Now it is perfect! The stock crank is pretty cheap, and the wheels aren’t very good.
It seems odd to me that this review is so concerned w/ the flip flop hub. Nearly every fixed gear bike these days has a flip flop hub, so that’s not something that is unusual to the Sputnik.
Also, your frame of reference is obviously different than that of a regular fixed gear rider. You seem to think the Sputnik is slow and heavy at 19 lbs, but I disagree. The Sputnik is actually lighter than a lot of other fixed gear, CR-MO offerings. The carbon fiber fork helps to keep it light, and it is the only FG bike that comes w/ steel and a CF fork. A great combination, IMO. I think Jamis would be doing a disservice by putting a steel fork on the sputnik. You make a good point about the cable stops, though.
July 15th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Same poster as above^^^
Also, about the CF fork, I don’t see how it changes the look of the sputnik. This bike has absolutely 0 “retro appeal.” It does not look like an old bike at all. The graphics, threadless stem, everything on it looks very modern. So, in this way, a CF fork fits perfectly w/ the look of the sputnik.
July 15th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Hi Ben,
Thanks for your comments. It’s always great to have comments from owners of these bikes and from a different perspective.
To clarify, I don’t think the bike is slow because of its weight — weight honestly doesn’t matter that much on the terrain I was using it on. I think it was slow because of the wheels, which I make some reference to with regards to slowdown in the rear hub over time; I should have made this more clear in the article.
With regards to frame of reference, you’re right. I wrote this review with the perspective of people who might consider switching to fixed gear, not from the perspective of people who already own fixies. As the majority of the comments and questions I experienced while riding this bike were from the non-fixed-gear riders, I felt that this was the more important audience to address.