Originally Posted by
shoota
Great points. I've actually looked quite a bit at the Renegades since I can get them a little cheaper at my LBS. The Elite has awesome specs, especially the MTB Race wheels, which are very light. Which makes me wonder why the bike is still 19lbs. Jamis makes nice bikes but they sure don't seem light.
The American Classic 29" MTB Race wheels on the Jamis Elite come with centerlock hubs. I wanted them but American Classic would not sell them to me, they said that Jamis special orders them and they are not available to the public. I pushed but they would not budge and instead gave me a 10% off coupon code for the publicly available 6 bolt version which I have on my RLT 9 RDO.
As for weight, the carbon RLT 9 RDO I built is 19.7 lb including pedals, cages and GPS mount. It is Ultegra Di2, Niner RDO carbon stem and post, carbon bar, cages and saddle and so I don't think Jamis is off base at 19 lb. In fact, I'm surprised it is that light given that mine is a $6000 build. The steel RDO is going to be much heavier.
Have you looked at the bike reviews at
Gravel Cycist? They have some closeups of an RLT 9 steel.
I'd love to hear what you can get a Renegade Elite for in Tampa. I could not find one anywhere near Atlanta.