Check out the new Jamis Dakar A2: a 120mm full-suspension bike with RockShox suspension, for just £1,000. Coming in via Evans Cycles.

Evans has a reputation for picking out killer bikes from overseas and bringing them to the UK. It introduced us to BMC back in 2011 and its excellent 150mm Trailfox: then it did it again a year later, bringing in Norco and the amazing Sight and Shinobi — both bikes that scored perfect 10s.

Well, history might just be about to repeat itself in the shape of the Jamis Dakar A20. That £1k price tag puts it squarely into contention with the Calibre Bossnut V2, the only full-suspension bike that married high performance with low pricing – check out when we matched it against a £6k Santa Cruz for speed.

The Jamis Dakar

For a grand you get a triple-butted 6061 alloy frame with 120mm travel, controlled by a RockShox Monarch R shock, and up front there’s a decent Recon Solo Air fork. Best of all though, the bike comes with an SR Suntour Zeron singlering chainset, so even new riders can enjoy the simplicity of a 1x set-up.

How on earth has Evans pulled off this bike then? “We’ve got such a big portfolio we are shown stuff other companies and people don’t get access to,” says David Sheppard from Evans. “We’ve cherry picked the best models.”

It has not just picked the models though,it’s made them UK-specific, thanks to that superior buying clout again. “The bikes came with a Suntour shock front and rear so we swapped them for RockShox,” David says. The bike’s squarely aimed at Cycle to Work scheme buyers, hence the £1,000 price point.

So what’s the catch? Number one, we don’t know if it’s actually any good without riding it, which we’ll do very soon. And number two, that fork comes with a 9mm quick release rather than a 15mm bolt-through. If that’s not enough fork for you, there’s an up-specced Dakar A1 £1,350 that comes with a thru axle, a dropper post, a SRAM 1x drivetrain and a Race Face chainset.