Any opinions on Jamis Durango?

[buffybike]

I usually ride road, but I've been wanting to try mountain biking too...it just looks like so much fun and I'd like to mix it up a little. My LBS has a 2009 Jamis Durango 1 and 2 for a good price and it includes tuneups for LIFE. They're good guys. Any opinions about Jamis Durango as an entry level mountain bike? Any other recommendations?? Thanks!

[sideways_skies]

For what it's worth, the 2009 WSD Durango is my first real bike. I've had it for a year and have found it to be very reliable. My BF recommended it to me after looking over similarly-priced bikes and deciding that the componentry was comparatively good for the price range (he worked in a bike shop in a past life and hopes to get back to it some day).

The only issue I've got with it is that the fork is very tightly sprung, and it's hard to get different springs for it. I haven't tried riding bikes in the same price range for comparison, but at ~125lbs I can only get about 2.5" of travel out of it. Hasn't deterred me much though!