those who are riding or have ridden this bike, what's your opinion? its geometry lacks the slack headtube angle common on other cyclocross frames, but the fork rake is larger to slow steering. so how well does this bike handle especially off-road? thanks.

http://www.roadbikereview.com/2002+Cyclocross+Bike/Jamis+Nova/PRD_101392_4225crx.aspx#reviews

yeah i've read those. but i still want to ask the crowd here about the handling.

As I haven't built mine up yet. Mine is a 2001(same geo i believe). I bought it from bensbikes on ebay and what I can say is that, he's a pleasure to deal with... I can also say that the bike will come well packaged.
That's where the extent of my knowledge ends though.

does the frameset come ready to build? like is the headtube faced and bb shell thread chased? thanks.

i've bought from ben's and they were pretty good to do business with.

For what it's worth...

I saw a 51cm and a 53cm at my local Performance Bike Shop.
It's the gold/black model with tiagra components.

FWIW- I test rode a bluish one- it was 02 or 03 model- like poprad and fuji cross handling better- jamis frame geometry was same as road bike. PErf. had it one sale for like $66 complete bike.

Picked up my Nova from Ben's off ebay in April, and have about 500 miles on it. Before I was riding a Redline Conquest from about 1998. Swapped all my Redline's parts over which explains the mix you see here.

I personally find the handling of the Nova to be much more to my taste that the Conquest. I ride this bike on the road, trails and a few races. I can fit a bigger tire in the Nova, which makes the trail riding a blast. I thought my Conquest was slow and steered 'floppy' in the technical stuff. The Nova is more responsive, not twitchy IMO, and overall exhibits better trail manners. I ride a rigid SS too, so am atuned to fast, precise steering.

The frame came ready to build. I did chase the BB threads out of habit, but it really didn't need it. There wasn't any paint in the treads to speak of. I did also take a razor blade to the paint on the faces of the headtube to reduce the chance of paint chipping when the headset cups were pressed in. No problems with alignment.

Overall my bike is about 1 lbs. heavier than my Conqest was. Changing the fork out helped a ton. The stock nova fork rides surprisingly well, but it's a real boat anchor.

Hope this info helps.

thanks man, that's much help. i ride rigid ss too.