Josh reviews the 2023 Focus Jam
A couple of years ago we saw the arrival of the new-generation Focus Jam enduro bike. Available in both alloy and carbon options, the bike shifted further towards an enduro focus with the longer-travel Sam disappearing from the lineup. Built around a new frame and suspension platform, the latest Focus Jam has increased in travel and shifted firmly between the all-mountain and enduro categories.
We’ve received the top-spec alloy variant in the Jam range, the 6.9 and put in the hands of one of our steeziest riders Josh.
The Focus Jam is the right up there amongst some of the most playful enduro bikes we’ve put to the test. Its short rear end and robust alloy frame mean that this bike is built to go big, again and again and again.
An overview of the Focus Jam
The Focus Jam is designed to be a burly yet playful enduro All Mountain bike. It rolls on 29in wheels, and it’s equipped with a 150mm travel fork and 150mm of rear travel. That puts it into a similar space as the latest Trek Fuel EX, Merida One-Forty and Specialized Stumpjumper EVO. Offered in both carbon and alloy variants, the Jam is the longest-travel non-powered offering from Focus — though it’s on the shallower end of enduro bikes.
One of the big changes over the previous frame is the shift towards a more downhill-focused design. The bike gains 10mm of travel at either end, with the reach numbers growing and head angle slackening out to 65º in the bike’s low setting.
To achieve these high and low geometry settings, the Jam has a two-position flip chip tucked away in the linkage. There is no mullet compatibility unfortunately as we’d have been keen to see if this further aided the Jam’s spritely nature on the trail.
Focus Jam geometry & size chart
With a 65° head angle and 67° effective seat angle, the Focus Jam is middle of the road when it comes to geometry. The rear end is compact with the chainstays measuring a stumpy 435mm across the size range, and our size large test bike has a reach of 480mm.
Focus is offering the alloy version of the Jam in four sizes, and the flip chip in the lower shock mount drops the BB by 6mm, changing the head and seat angle by .5º and chopping 5mm off the reach. The chainstays maintain and 435mm length through the size range, creating a compact rear end, even with the 29in rear wheel.
Focus Jam price & specs
There are four models in the 2023 Focus Jam lineup; two with alloy frames and two with carbon frames.
The Jam 6.9 is the highest-spec alloy model, with the two carbon models, the 8.8 and the 8.9 higher on the ladder. Although it adds a little weight, the alloy model retains the same geometry and has some nifty features.
Prices start at $4,299 AUD for the Jam 6.8 and go up to $7,199 AUD for the Jam 8.9.
The bike we’ve been testing is the top-of-the-range alloy model in large. It’s the Focus Jam 6.9, and the current sticker price is $5,299 AUD.
2023 Focus Jam 6.9
- Frame | 7005 Hydroformed Alloy, F.O.L.D Suspension Design, 150mm Travel
- Fork | Fox 36, Performance Elite, 3-Pos Damper, 44mm Offset, 150mm Travel
- Shock | Fox Float DPS, Performance Elite, 210×55mm
- Wheels | Novatec Hubs & RODI TRYP30 Alloy Rims, 30mm Inner Width
- Tyres | Maxxis Minion DHF29x2.5 WT 3C EXO TR Front & Maxxis Minion DHR II, 29×2.4 3C EXO+ Rear
- Drivetrain | Shimano XT 12-Speed, 32T Crankset & 10-51T Cassette
- Brakes | Shimano XT 4-Piston w/203mm Rotors
- Bar | RaceFace Chester 35, Alloy, 780mm Width, 35mm Rise, 8° Backsweep
- Stem | FOCUS C.I.S, 50mm Length
- Seatpost | Post Moderne Dropper, 31.6mm Diameter, 170mm Travel
- Saddle | Selle Italia Boost X3 saddle
- Claimed Weight | 16.6kg
- RRP | $5,299 AUD
Focus Jam weight
The confirmed weight for our Focus Jam 6.9 test bike is 16.6kg without pedals and with the tyres set up tubeless. It’s not exactly a feathery lightweight, putting up bigger numbers on the scale than even the Specialized Status which tipped the scales a 15.9kg.
Testing the Focus Jam
To test out the Focus Jam 6.9 we handed it over to steezy shredder Josh. Coming straight off of a Specialized Stumpjumper Evo we were keen to hear how it compared. Below is our chat with Josh about his riding experience and his thoughts while testing the Focus Jam 6.9.
How have you found the fit of the bike?
Generally, I’ll ride a large, and after jumping on Focus’ online size guide, it spat out the same result for my 183cm height. The Focus website showed I was squarely in the middle of the large-size bike that has 480mm of reach. Up-sizing here wouldn’t really be an option as the reach numbers grow to 510mm and it’d be too long. Sizing down may be an option although with the short chainstays, this bike is already quite playful and nimble so I don’t think I’d opt to go down this path.
With the large size Jam, the riding position has been quite comfortable with no issues. With the 76° seat tube angle I ended up settling on having the saddle in the middle of the rails. The 170mm dropper post provided plenty of clearance on steeper descents and I didn’t find the saddle getting in the way at all.
I also appreciated that the stock bars were 780mm, as they fit my proportions and also meant I didn’t need to spend the time to cut them down.
How have you found the contact points?
I freakin’ love these grips. I got along really well with the soft compound rubber, and they felt great with no gloves. The same goes for the Selle Italia Boost X3 I’d be more than happy to leave that on if this were my bike.
With that said, I did not get along very well with the Shimano XT brakes. I personally run my brake levers with quite a short reach with the bite point all the way out. The XT M8120 levers have tool-free reach adjust which allowed me to achieve the right position, and there is a free stroke adjustment screw. However, across every XT brake I’ve used, I’ve found it doesn’t do a whole lot, which left the bite point too close to the bars when the pads finally engaged.
Suspension and tyre setup
Focus doesn’t offer a whole lot in the way of suspension setup help, beyond stating that it recommends 30% rear sag. I did play around a bit swapping between 25% and 30% sag on the rear but initially settled on the latter.
For me 30% sag worked out to 160psi, and I opted for one-click past halfway for rebound settling on 8/14.
At 30% sag, the F.O.L.D Gen 2 suspension layout still offered reasonable small bump sensitivity while still providing generous bottom-out support. At 25% the bike was way too harsh, and dropping the pressure still left enough progressivity to prevent blowing through the travel.
While the flip chip doesn’t allow for the bike to be mulleted, I did play around with both settings. I preferred the low setting as it slacked everything out by half a degree and dropped the BB by 6mm, also shortening the reach by 5mm. With the lower centre of gravity, it felt like the bike tracked better through the corners, but it didn’t drop everything so low that your cranks are dragging across the ground on a chunky climb.
As for the fork, I didn’t stray too far from the recommended settings for my weight with 81psi and 10/23 clicks of rebound.
I set tyre pressure at 23psi in the front and 25psi out back. Even without inserts, the stock rims are ding-free.
What do you dig about the Focus Jam?
The stand out of the Focus Jam was how direct this bike feels and the way you can throw it around. The geometry is sorted, and there wasn’t much of an adjustment period coming over from the Stumpjumper Evo — they’re actually fairly similar going just on geometry. The position felt natural, and I was comfortable to push straight away.
The little frame bag is a nice touch and offers a pretty clean solution to free up some space in your pockets.
The cable management was a bit divisive, in that some people thought it looked horrendous. It looked great to my eyes, and I thought it was a clever way to wrangle the cables into the frame — though I’d still prefer they went around the upper headset bearing rather than through it. The stem was lovingly named “The Gobbler”, and it rattled noticeably less than some of the other bikes I’ve ridden as of late.
Using what Focus calls the C.I.S. stem (Cable Integration Solution), the cables go into the stem and over the top of the bar before going into the frame to maximise the radius of the bend and help things move smoothly.
What kind of terrain does it perform best on?
The Jam really comes into its own on flowy and jumpy trails. It rewards an active riding style and shines through singletrack that requires deft handling and agility.
Any comments on the F.O.L.D suspension design?
When I ran the rear shock at the recommended 30% sag, it offered a good balance of softness of the top while still having much-needed support through the stoke to prevent harsh bottomouts.
Focus does offer a chart with recommended shock pressure for rider weights in 10kg increments, along with the sag in millimetres and air pressure. While the Float DPS doesn’t offer a boatload of adjustment, it would be nice to see recommendations for the rebound as well, given it is directly tied to the air pressure.
What about the geometry and handling package?
The geometry of the Focus Jam makes it feel agile and nimble, and combined with a reasonable weight, this is a poppy and fun bike to ride. Getting the front wheel off the ground is a breeze, and so is keeping it there thanks to the short rear end.
The reasonably short wheelbase paired with a slack head angle found the right balance between stability and whipability. While I had the most fun on smoother flowy trails, the Jam is a versatile bike that’s confident across a wide range of terrain.
What has it struggled with?
With the 65° head angle, on flatter trails wrangling the front wheel was a bit of a bear.
There is also noticeable pedal-bob under heavy out-of-the-saddle efforts. You definitely won’t be stealing any uphill KOMs from your XC mates on this rig.
Any specific terrain or trails that it falls short on?
With the short wheelbase, the bike can get a little unsettled on fast technical sections. It’s not unwieldy, this definitely isn’t a hoverbike designed for ploughing through rocky chutes.
On that note, the chainstays are 435mm from Small to XL even though the wheelbase grows by 111mm between these sizes. With that, I do wonder if this flighty feeling through chunder is exaggerated in the larger frame sizes because the rear centre is proportionally shorter.
What kind of rider do you think this bike would suit best?
The Focus Jam is definitely suited to riders who enjoy dancing around the trail and throwing shapes on the bike. This thing loves side hits, doubles and being whipped around.
For this amount of travel, the geometry is well suited to many trail networks you’ll find around Australia. It’s a versatile package, which combined with the flip chip can handle everything from rough gravity-style riding, to light trail use.
Flow’s Verdict
The Focus Jam is a ball of fun on the trails. It’s agile and engaging and loves to be thrown sideways. While it’s not the sprightliest climber, it’s far from the worst we’ve ridden.
While we’d love to see a bit more detailed suspension setup guides, it didn’t take long to the the F.O.L.D. rear end humming. While the Fox Float DPS Performance Elite shock is relatively basic, Focus has nailed the tune, and it’s well suited to the abuse the the terrain the Jam is designed for.
With 150mm of travel at both ends, it’s on the shallower end of the enduro spectrum, but with the altitude gain and steepness of most trail networks around the country, the Jam will keep up just fine. The geometry makes for a spry and nimble ride feel, but the short rear end is a double-edged sword — this thing lives on the rear wheel, but can feel a bit fidgety on rough janky trails.
Nothing broke or dented during our testing, and if you can live with the stem and cable routing the build kit is sorted for the money. We’ve had a blast riding the Focus Jam, and if you spend as much time above the trail as you rolling down it, this bike does not disappoint.
