July 13th, 2009 by 
kwc
Ride
I have a flat, 7 mile commute to work that is perfect terrain for the Sputnik to handle. There are short sections of pothole-y road to traverse, a shortcut across parking lots with speed bumps, and a debris-ridden bike path behind a school. These aren’t much challenge for my normal, carbon-fiber road bike, but there’s something about a plush steel-frame ride that lets you tackle them with more confidence and ease. Due to some knee issues that I’ve been having, I found myself riding the single-speed much more than the fixed-gear side.
This made me appreciate the Sputnik immediately: even though it had a fixed gear, my knee could take days off when it needed to. At first I thought the 46×16 tooth gearing was a little tall: there are some short sections through traffic lights where I have to frequently start and stop, which can get a little tiresome. But on the open road the gearing was perfect. If I take the scenic route home there is more rolling terrain. The 46×16 tooth gearing was just generous enough to let me get up the hill and just powerful enough that I wasn’t spinning it out as I accelerated down the other side.
The Reynolds 631 tubing lives up to its billing for me. It has a similar strength-to-weight ratio as aluminum frames, but the ride quality is very smooth. In fact, I did something I probably shouldn’t have: I rode the bike around some fire roads. Sure, riding skinny road tires on a gravel road is dangerous no matter what the frame, but with a steel frame you just not as worried about crashing it as you would be with carbon fiber, and you’re not getting rattled as you would be with aluminum. I had similar confidence when riding the Sputnik in the rain. I won’t ride my carbon fiber bike in the rain due to fear of crashing several years of financial savings, but a steel frame? No problem. It helps that the Sputnik has very comfortable handling that lets you take your hands off the bars, even on bumpy roads. The Sputnik also has rack and fender mounts so that you don’t have to show up to work with a brown rain stripe up your back.
I had a harder time judging the benefit of the carbon-fiber fork. It’s lighter, but I’m not sure that’s worth much on a 19-lb bike. As for ride quality, it lets some high-frequency vibration through. I don’t know how much better a steel fork would be, but we can answer that with the next edition of this bike.
Conclusion
The Jamis Sputnik is a simple, yet striking, bike that will meet the commuter needs of many. For those that are used to having gears, it’s a good bike to get comfortable with and learn about fixed-gear bicycles without having to fully commit to one. For those that use fixed gears regularly, it lets you give your knees a break from time to time. For either, it’s a beautiful retro bike that gets you from point A to B with confidence.
Value
4
Overall
4
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.