RIP second ride

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.