Originally Posted by
T-Mar
It's improbable that it is a 1988. As stated earlier, in post #10, I have a 1988 ad that shows the Dakar with a chainstay mounted U-brake, solid color and fillet brazing. While it's not the Comp version, it's unlikley they would have used fillet brazing on one and not the other.
Also, I found a 1991 Jamis product list and advertisement in and it's looks like we can eliminate 1991 and, by extension, 1992. There was no Dakar Comp in 1991 and the ad shows the Prestige tubed Dakar Sport as having TIG construction. Once they'd gone to the cheaper, lighter and more versatile TIG welding, I'd doubt they'd step back. So that should narrow it down to 1989 or 1990.
I only thought perhaps 1988 because of the plain deore (not Deore II) components shown on the bike in the CL ad, and the fact my bike also has a plain Deore FD and many components with early 88 date codes. I still think 89 is more likely.
The Jamis history on their website says the Dakar went to lugged construction in 1987 so that's weird an ad from 1988 would have fillet brazing. I assume one of them is incorrect.. probably the history page
I'm not 100% sure the model name is Dakar Comp.. it could have been plain Dakar and the "competition series" decal may not be part of the model name
If you really want to determine the year, I'd suggest you pull the fork. The fork is almost certainly a standard Tange item, so it should have a date code on the steerer.
FWIW, the more I look at it, the more it looks like a KHS frame. The top of their Montana series used the exact same color scheme, except they did not use the magenta head tube. They were also lugged, at a time when TIG construction was almost an industry wide practice.
that's interesting about KHS.. i believe ThriftyBill has suggested Univega mtbs were also built by KHS. My Univega and this Jamis have almost identical dimensions, with the only significant difference being the seat tube angle which is much steeper on the Jamis. There is no indication of country of origin on the Jamis but the univega was made in taiwan
I'm hoping I hear back from the Jamis people with more info, they said on their site to wait 5 business days and it's only been 2 or 3