This isn’t a stock Jamis Portal. Steve rode this one himself through the fall — his first real time on the Portal platform — to demo it and decide whether the shop should bring more in. The answer, in his words, was “yes, by the way.” It came from the factory all Shimano, and it’s leaving as a SRAM build.
A C3, not a C4
Most Portals run Shimano — the C4 is the entry carbon with Deore, and this C3 steps up to SLX. The part that matters is the suspension: “on the C4 you get the Rhythm stuff; on this bike you get the Fox Performance level stuff.” That’s a 130mm Fox 34 up front and a Performance shock in back, set in the high position. Frame, fork, and shock are all stock.
The SRAM swap
The shop rides a lot of SRAM and likes everything consistent, so the Shimano drive came off. As set up to sell, it’s a GX Eagle cassette and rear derailleur with a Descendant crank, on SRAM G2 R brakes. The wheels aren’t stock either — DT Swiss M1900s off a three-star Niner GX build, still on the Portal’s new factory tires. Bars are stock. The dropper’s a Race Face Aeffect, and he “wasn’t very impressed with the dropper.”
The build
| Frame | Jamis Portal C3, carbon |
| Travel | 130mm |
| Fork | Fox 34 Performance |
| Shock | Fox Performance (high position) |
| Drivetrain | SRAM GX Eagle |
| Crank | Truvativ Descendant |
| Brakes | SRAM G2 R |
| Wheels | DT Swiss M1900 |
| Dropper | Race Face Aeffect |
How it rode
Steve put his fall miles on this Portal, and it stuck with him. It’s fast, and it’s not fragile — “you could take it off some drops and ride it through rocks.” A fun bike that “pedals really, really well,” and a pleasure to ride. The shop brought in more Portals after this one.
“One of the better-pedaling bikes I’ve ever ridden — and probably the most surprising.”
Steve, on the Jamis Portal C3
How it found a home
The shop is always demoing and moving bikes around, and this one went that way: a customer who’d been looking at a C4 and fit Steve’s size got the demo bike instead — nicer suspension, a nicer set of wheels, a nicer drivetrain — for “much better price or the same price as one of the C4s.”
See it on the trail
A quick clip of the Portal out on the trail — the short version for anyone who’d rather watch than read.
Builds like this, for the money
The shop puts together a lot of interesting builds for the budget. If you’ve got something specific in mind, just ask.