Niner RIP9 RDO

In this day and age it’s refreshing to see someone who truly has the courage of their convictions, and that’s one thing you can certainly say about Niner. As the name implies, they believe in the 29-inch wheel and they don’t dilute that belief by making anything else. By concentrating on optimising the ride characteristics of big wheels, they’ve managed to establish themselves as a leader in the 29er market, and there’s an almost cult following of Niner fans around the world.

The RIP9 is their ‘play bike’ with 125mm of rear travel and geometry intended to tempt you away from the race track and onto the pump track, and although the aluminium version has been around for a little while now, for 2014 they’ve released the carbon fibre ‘RDO’ version. Available as a frame only for $3,950 or with a range of complete build options, our medium XO1 equipped test rig sells for $6,850. Weight wise, the frame and shock came in at 2,880g and a built bike was 12kg without pedals. It’s also worth mentioning that should you wish for components other than those listed, you can customise the stock build kits by talking to your Niner dealer. The RIP9 RDO is certainly a unique animal, but in the quest to combine big wheels and cross-country weight with downhill attitude, how close have Niner come to building the perfect beast?

RIP9 Break Down

Aesthetically, it’s hard not to be enamoured of the JET9 RDO. The lustrous metallic blue paintwork and flowing lines grab your attention at first glance, and then the hugely oversized pivot hardware, asymmetrical carbon rocker link and subtle frame details help to keep it. Of course there’s the now near-standard 142x12mm rear thru-axle and post mount brakes. We really like the removable ISCG mounts that allow you to run a chain guide if desired, and the traditional 73mm threaded bottom bracket shell is not only tried and true, but gives the greatest versatility in terms of crank fitment and chainline adjustment, as well as being readily user serviceable.

It’s always good to see water bottle mounts inside the front triangle for short blasts that don’t require a hydration pack, and all except for the small frame size tick this box. The inclusion of titanium chain suck plates ensures that a dropped chain isn’t going to eat into the precious black plastic, however they’re glued on rather than moulded into the frame and one of ours had started lifting a little; it never came off and it worked perfectly, but it’s not as nice as a moulded-in piece.

There’s a direct mount for a front derailleur if you want to use one but our test bike came with a SRAM XO1 drivetrain, so the mount stayed hidden unobtrusively behind the chainring. The XO1 gear worked flawlessly; it was silent and never a dropped chain despite the absence of a front guide. Just be aware that it’s supplied with a 34-tooth chainring; while this was fine for moderately steep terrain, combined with the big wheels it can be a bit much if you’ve got serious climbs where you ride—consider swapping it for a 32 or even a 30 tooth chainring if you value your long-term knee health.

Niner claims the JET9 will fit a 2.3-inch rear tyre. There was plenty of room for the slightly undersized 2.25 Racing Ralphs that out test bike was supplied with, but we strongly suspect that a genuine 2.3-inch tyre would leave precious little room for mud clearance and would buzz the seat stays under heavy cornering loads.

There are a couple of component changes we’d recommend to any RIP9 owner, and the first and most important is a dropper seatpost. Due to the seat tube bend, all we managed to get was a meagre 6cm of saddle drop from the stock post. Although we hear that some people don’t like droppers, we’re going suggest that these people have rocks in their heads, probably from hitting them when they go over the bars because their saddles are too high. Secondly, swapping the supplied zero rise stem for something with a bit of angle would allow you to lower the bar height—we feel this would help the RIP9 climb better without significantly affecting its descending capabilities.

The stock handlebar is a gargantuan 780mm wide, which gives masses of leverage but also slows the steering response. It also means you’ll be second guessing all those familiar tree gaps that you now ride through—at least it’s easy to cut a centimetre or two off either side without spending any extra coin. Lastly, whilst the Easton wheels are commendable for their full UST tubeless design, they are a scant 19mm wide internally. This narrow width means there’s a lack of lateral support and the tyres are more likely to squirm under hard cornering. Tubeless tyres require low pressures to realise their full potential, and low pressure requires wide rims; get with the program people!

Cable routing on the RIP9 RDO is a bit of a mixed affair; the huge rocker pivot prevents internal routing for a dropper seatpost, so guides for it and the rear brake run externally and very neatly on the left side of the frame. The two derailleur cables are routed internally through the down tube. We really like clean looking frames, but internal routing can be a right pain in the butt if not done properly. In this case the cable routing is a bit awkward. First up, the entry and exit ports are small which makes cable fitting comparatively fiddly. The little plastic plugs that are designed to secure the rear gear housing tended to work loose when riding. Finally, the routing from the gear shifter to the entry port on the head badge forces the cable through an unpleasantly tight arc, which increases friction and reduces outer cable life. We really think Niner should have just duplicated the external brake hose routing on both sides of the frame; it’s neat and uncluttered, would create wider curves for the cables, and makes changing them a snap instead of an exercise in tedium.

Letters & Numbers

In terms of geometry, the RIP9 RDO is a result of steady evolution rather than radical change. We’ve seen a few longer travel 29ers in the last year or so pushing much slacker head angles, shorter chainstays and longer top tubes—the blue Niner shuns these antics and plays things relatively safe. It actually sports one of the steepest head angles, longest head tubes, and shortest top tubes of any bike in its category, and the chainstays are at the longer end of the spectrum too.

The advantage of keeping the front end short and steep is a shorter wheelbase and hence more nimble handling than would otherwise be the case. The tall front end also gives a feeling of security when the trail points downward. These proportions mean the cranks, and hence your body weight, are fairly centred in the bike, and the upright riding position makes it easy to shift your weight around the cockpit despite feeling a little cramped on steep climbs. The radically raked seat tube angle tends to make correct frame sizing hyper-critical. Buy a size that’s too small and the extra seatpost extension will push the saddle a long way rearward—you’ll end up sitting way back over the rear tyre and struggle to keep your weight forward for any sort of seated climbing.

All of Niner’s dual suspension bikes use their patented CVA suspension design, which is a dual short link four-bar. It’s different to many other short link systems in two key respects; firstly, the lower link sits below the bottom bracket and, secondly, it doesn’t use chain torque to help control unwanted suspension movement. Instead Niner relies on a custom compression tune for its Float CTD rear shock. There are pros and cons to this approach; it means that the RIP9 RDO pedals very efficiently regardless of what gear combination you’re using, but it also trades off a degree of small bump sensitivity in the process. Even in the fully open shock mode it’s not the most supple bike, but it definitely gets up and goes when you stomp on the pedals.

Whether your priorities lean towards float or efficiency will determine your thoughts on this methodology, but we will say that the long legged Niner has a very consistent suspension feel throughout the stroke regardless of pedalling effort, gear selection and the size of the impact. We also have to commend Niner for using such outrageously large pivots at three of the four moving points; not only does this dramatically boost frame stiffness, but the massive angular contact Enduro bearings should keep things bouncing along smoothly for a very long time.

The CTD lever is something you’ll definitely use on the RIP9 RDO. Whilst it pedals efficiently in all settings, especially once up to speed, in descend mode the bike settles very readily into its travel. This combined with the short and tall cockpit means you may struggle with holding the front wheel down on steep climbs. Switching to trail mode lifts the back end noticeably and keeps the geometry more neutral for climbing. This middle setting also gives more to push against when you’re pumping the RIP9 through undulations or slamming it into high speed berms. On seriously low traction climbs, the firm initial shock stroke in trail mode encouraged the rear wheel to spin more than in the descend setting, so you’ll need to treat these situations on a case by case basis in order to see which one works best for you. As we’ve mentioned on numerous occasions in the past, climb mode is really only for blacktop, and bikes like the RIP9 are deeply offended by being ridden on tarmac—mountain bikes are only ever going to be happy on the dirt.

RIP it Up

The RIP9 RDO is a classic example of the numbers only telling a part of the story; once on the trail and up to speed it manages to feel both stable and nimble at the same time. The steep-ish head angle and short overall wheelbase allow it to change direction much more quickly than you might expect from a 29er, and whether at high speed or low it goes where you tell it to. The relatively long rear centre means there’s still a sense that a fair portion of the bike is turning after the rider, but once you adjust to it the RIP9 gleefully flips through consecutive turns with a contagious vigour that’ll have you forgetting about geometry and wheel size debates, and simply loving the alternating and escalating G-forces. We suspect it’s the greater inertia of the big wheels that keep the RIP9 feeling much more planted and secure at high speed than its compact length would lead you to believe, and on fast and open trails there’s every chance it’ll push the boundaries of how fast you thought you could ride.

The frame is stiff enough that any flex you feel is almost certainly from the wheels and fork. We’d have loved to try the RIP9 with the optional 140mm Pike fork up front; there’s a good chance it’d crank the rowdy rating up a notch or two. As tends to happen around our way, we threw it down a DH track or two. It was only on the steepest and sketchiest bits where we found the RIP9 a little wanting; shaving a degree or so off the head angle, shortening the back end by 10-15mm and adding that length to the top tube would let it really kill the steeps, instead of just battling through them. This probably just goes to show that the RIP9 has been designed to straddle the line between climbing and descending, rather than sitting slightly to one side of it—it’s not a ‘grind then fly’ style of bike, but more of a true ‘all-mountain’ machine.

After riding a lot of different bikes of many different styles, you get a fairly good idea of what a bike will ride like just from its geometry and suspension. The RIP9 is a great reminder that, whilst we all have our own personal preferences, the whole is more than the sum of the parts and there’s plenty of different ways to skin the proverbial MTB cat. Taken out of context, the geometry elements, pedalling platform and suspension of the RIP9 might not have worked, but taken as a whole the folks at Niner have put together a cohesive package that manages to do just about everything well. So hop on and lay the power down; you’ll soon forget the numbers as the RIP9 RDO is one ripper of a ride.

Thumbs Up

Spritely and efficient

Excellent frame stiffness

Incredibly good looking 

Thumbs Down

Awkward cable routing

Slightly firm initial travel

Slack seat angle makes sizing finicky

Specifications

Frame: Niner RDO full carbon

Shock: Fox Factory CTD 125mm travel

Fork: RockShox Revelation RC3 130mm travel

Headset: Cane Creek 40, 1 1/8 - 1 1/2

Handlebars: Niner Flat Top RDO Carbon 780mm

Stem: Niner Alloy

Shifters: SRAM X01

Front Derailleur: N/A

Rear Derailleur: SRAM X01

Cassette: SRAM X01 10/42 11-speed

Chain: SRAM X01

Cranks: SRAM X1 Alloy 34T

Bottom Bracket: SRAM GXP

Pedals: N/A

Brakes: Avid X.0 Trail

Wheels: Easton EA70

Tyres: Schwalbe Racing Ralph/Hans Dampf

Saddle: WTB Volt

Seatpost: Niner Carbon

Weight: 12kg without pedals (Large frame 2,880g)

Available Sizes: S, M (tested), L, XL

Price: $6,850

Distributor: Rowney Sports 1300 938 469 / www.rowneysports.com