I hate cold, so I was a bit proud of myself for getting out there.
Needed to complete the ride while it was still freezing or below to avoid killer death mud.
Main complaint is that everything rolled slow. Very slow. Good work out, beautiful scenery, but not much rippin type fun.
For me, a full face, base level long johns, and two wool base layers on top were more than enough. Feet still got cold by the end of the 2 hour ride, otherwise I was perfect, just on the verge of sweating, but not quite. How can the rest of you be great and the feet cold? (Had thick woolie socks). I'm open to ideas.
What's up with -18 degrees at the Grand Canyon Sat???
Got back on the Box after three weeks on the RIP 9.
They are vastly different bikes. This thing is a rolling couch comparatively.
Today was just a mellow ride in a little snow. This is the first ride of the year where I actually froze my Camelback hose. I dressed fairly appropriately, and felt fine.
It was awesome. The overwhelming impression is that of smoothness, stability and cush. The bike rides very quietly under you.
No muss, no fuss, no nervousness. Point it where you want to go and blast on through. Nevermind all the pesky bumps.
Inspired by Ion, here are my gear picks for the year.
This will be short, but they are all awesome. No particular ranking.
1. Lenz Sport Milk Money. It is brilliant. My favorite bike.
2. Lenz Sport Lunch Box (5" and 6" version). Another brilliant frame that has withstood comparison to the other best frames in the business and the others pale in comparison. Made even better by the Gordo Stout rims. If I were more than a cross country rider and had more use for all the travel and weight, this would be my favorite. It is absolutely the travel to Moab of Phoenix chunk bike, however.
3. Dinotte 800l/400l combo. Bought them because it was a deal and I liked my 200l. They blow me away. I have lights brighter than most cars. Lupine might be better, but at twice the price it is a no brainer. Endurance athletes concerned about weight should use a dual 400 combo, or 400/200 combo, but for recreational riding and commuting, this combo dominates.
4. Canon SD series Elph Cameras. See prior post, but they work well, are intuitive, easy to use with gloves, and durable. Just don't lose yours.
5. Lake MX 165 shoes. Only a few rides, but they are flawless. Good for biking, and the best hiking bike shoes I've ever tried.
6. Koobi saddles and Oury grips. These are battle tested and I have no desire to switch, ever.
Took the RIP up 305 to the top of Smith Ravine today. This is a ride I do frequently that climbs 2500 feet on nice singletrack in the woods. This trail is delightful. The second 'half' of the climbing occurs in less than 1/3 of the total mileage, so it finishes with a real ball buster of a climb.
It is a great ride. Not too technical, swoopy enough to be fun.
I felt out of sorts on the bike today. I was very aware of the forward weight bias of this frame for some reason. Didn't bother me at all last ride, this time it bugged me right from the start.
Once again, the CVA suspension is the aspect that shined the best. It simply puts the power down without complaint and without bob. I hit a couple little drops on the side of the trail, and everything went well.
I finally hit the last three miles of trail (Smith Ravine). I have been trying for 7 years of so (figure 30-40 tries) to clean this trail. Most times, I don't have the fitness, and simply have to stop eventually and gasp. This trail gets steeper as it goes until you have about 1/2 mile of near fall line trail at the end, after you are already pretty tapped just to get to that point. I have done as well as a single dab on multiple occasions (always in different spots). On multiple bikes (including the Box). This trail is a Monkey on my back. I want to clean it.
Today was my day. The Niner's awesome suspension combined with longer stays and lower front end surely would be the answer. On top of that, the trails are slightly moist and tacky.
Alas, not to be, it was a one dab kind of day.
The good news is that the Niner is very easy to ride in "plant your nose on the stem, get in your smallest gear, and suffer until you can't anymore" type climbs. I felt fresher at the top than I do when pushing the Box up this hill. Like other longer stayed bikes, it takes very little body english to keep the front down. There is minimal need to ride the front of the saddle.
Coming down was a hoot as usual. Couldn't bomb like the box, but significantly better than my trips down with a Reba up front.
It was a good ride, and a great day to be out on the bike. I am definitely finding 120mm of travel to be a good all around multi-use amount of travel. Comfortable in tech, but not so much it is a chore to haul around.
Unfortunately, on this ride I became about 90% sure the Niner is the right frame for me. The why of it is complicated. The short version is that I just can not get entirely comfortable with its personality. My riding time is limited enough that I want to spend it riding bikes I love. The RIP 9 is a really nice bike, and I like it a lot. I'm sure we will still be friends after the break up, but I don't want to marry it.
I've given it to a friend to demo for a while to get some other feedback (this is a guy who rides a SIR 9 and his last FS bike was a Heckler). In the mean time, I will get ride time on the more beloved bikes and come back to the Niner for another taste to see if my opinion changes.
I was hoping he would buy the frame after the demo. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of letting him fool around on the other bikes while we were setting up the Niner for him. All of a sudden he had no interest in the Niner, and wanted to know if I'd consider selling the Milk Money........
First real ride. If you hate gushing reviews move on.
The initial set up ride above was more on terrain that is sort of like a skatepark for mountain bikes, no speed, just crawling from one rock to the next.
Today I took the RIP to my favorite XC sort of terrain locally. Super fun single track consisting mostly of loose gravel over hardpack, some rock chutes, some areas of rockier stuff, some rock crawling, but mostly, all out, fast XC up and down riding.
It ate it up. I am a believer in this bike now. It was simply an incredible ride.
For me, a bike is best when is just disappears beneath you. You just ride, and nothing annoying catches your attention. Yep, it was like that.
This ride starts with a 20 minute climb, part of which consists of 6 loose, rocky, ledgy sharp switchbacks in a row. I make it up this occasionally, but not on a regular basis. Very difficult on a single speed, and the Box is fairly ponderous in the narrow turns. It can do it, but takes a lot of body english. Usually takes 2-3 tries on some of the corners
I just rode right up all six on the Niner without any drama first try.
At the top, you point down loose singletrack which is smooth (fun on a CX bike), with water bar jumps and whoops. Just hammered down this and found the RIP to track well, and really come alive as the speeds increased. The nervous steering I found on the first ride was gone, all I noticed was great handling. I had added a little rebound damping (2-3 clicks), and found it was too much, so backed it off to full off and it seemed happier.
I had no difficulty [I]at all[/I] getting the front wheel up whenever I needed to on the trail. The heavy feeling front end is essentially gone. Not as light as the Milk Money, but not unmanageable at all. (insert more Crow eating here:eek: )
I think a lot of the reason I am happier on the bike is this:
That 20mm made a huge difference to me.
I am by no means a fast rider, but this bike makes you want to hammer. I am riding several gears higher than I usually do, and I felt like it was egging mu up the climbs. It climbs great with minimal bob, and no front end wander. I noticed the slightest rear stiffening when really hammering a big gear at low rpm SS style, but that was minor.
I am super pleased with how this bike was built up by Niner. Very little I would change. The wheels are robust, not flexy at all. The Manitou 120mm fork has to be the most under rated thing in 29"erdom. It is really a nice fork (but the click argghhhhh). Super smooth, stiff, tracks great. Too bad the damping sort of goes from nothing to full on very quickly. I put 1 click of absolute and a slight touch of rebound and kept it there. The wierd thing is that I am running air pressures in this fork equivalent to the air in the rear shock (around 130 psi). Seems too high, but that is what is needed for correct sag and I have no trouble getting full travel.
The next section is a chunkier descent with more rock drops and switchbacks. Polished off with a smile.
Next section climbs along a wash with some difficult loose climbs.
Yeah, that too was no problem. I am probably 50/50 on this one single speed and 2/3 on it with gears. I just spun right up it.
I essentially didn't dab once this entire ride.
Went through a couple tricky rock sections: No problem.
Did the "triple challenge": Super steep loose switchback immediately followed by a rock drop/descent (while you are still hardly recovered from the climb) followed by another steep loose switchback. Simply uneventful. I expected to have some difficulty with the rock drop, but it was very smooth, no lawn darting.
Looks like this on the old Box.
Hit it with more speed today, and the landing was smoove.
Hauling down a smooth sort of ryhthm section of trail was a hoot, great speed, control telepathic handling.
The rear is super smooth, not spikey, very supple to fast, small hits. Matches up with the fork nicely.
What else can I say. It's a great bike. It pushed my fun button big time on this ride. It is the perfect "Tweener" light, geared, XC bike I was wanting. I am certainly more to the XC side of "AM" with my riding style, and have a love for light, responsive bikes, and that is exactly what this is. The MM similarly pushes my buttons on this terrain. I always found the 5" (and 6") Boxs to be a bit on the ponderous side riding in this area. To be fair, I always rode them with heavier, slacker, 135 and 150 forks. 120 seems to be a magic number for this sort of general XC riding.
The Niner folks have done a great job with this frame and build and can be rightly proud.
More as I get a bit more time on different terrain, but, yeah, I have a place in my heart (and garage) for this bike. It is all about fun for me, and if the bike is not fun, it has to go. The RIP passed the fun test with flying colors.
I was talking the bike over with a bud out here (Fixedgeardan), and he said:" you always gush over the new bikes" He's right, so take it all with a huge grain of salt. I also know, there is usually something I notice right away that annoys me. I don't see anything right now. We'll give it some time, but this review is a snapshot of how. I feel right now.
