Niner Redesigns its Flagship Trailbike - Meet the New RIP 9

Niner's RIP 9 was the 29er that pushed me over to the dark side. It was fast, smooth, and it made my once-technical training loops feel like they had been turned into one of those UCI-sterilized, pool-table-smooth World Cup XC courses that nearly ruined the sport in the late 1990s. Until that moment, I would have been perfectly happy to finish the rest of my mountain bike life aboard a mid-travel 26-inch-wheel trailbike. After that RIP 9 experience, when I was riding a 26-inch-wheel bike, I would hear this little voice asking, 'I wonder if a 29er would get through this section better?'



Niner will live or die by its name - it is committed exclusively to 29ers, so it must adapt quickly to evolving trends in the mainstream of the sport or risk dwindling into the limbo of niche bike makers. The first RIP 9 was developed before the landscape of the sport shifted dramatically towards a more aggressive riding style. Bike design has since followed suit with geometry suspension travel to match. With all eyes on the mid-travel trailbike market and with three wheel diameters crowding for the spotlight, Niner wisely chose to update the original RIP 9.



The new RIP 9 gets a slacker head angle, a small boost in its rear-wheel travel, and its dual-link CVA linkage has been reconfigured to allow for an ISCG chainguide mount. The frame has been strengthened throughout to fulfill the requirements of all-mountain pinners, but it is reportedly a half-pound lighter (less than seven pounds for a medium-sized frame). Niner says that the weight reduction is largely due to a new forming process that uses a heated mold and super-heated compressed air to shape its aluminum tubes. The process is said to produce more consistent wall thickness and thus the tubes can be made thinner than those shaped using conventional hydro-forming methods. Niner configured the RIP 9's frame geometry to handle forks with travel raging from 120 millimeters to 140 millimeters, and although the rear-wheel travel is still limited to 125 millimeters, experience with similar 29ers indicates that (in most situations) a big-wheel 120-millimeter-travel chassis levels terrain similar to a 140-millimeter-travel 26-inch bike. The price for a frame, shock and Maxle rear-axle is $1849



With offices in California and Colorado, Niner tends to build bikes for the Southwestern rider - a more nimble steering chassis to handle high-speed narrow trails, with suspension configured to climb long ascents efficiently and still hit the descents hard and fast. A scan of the new RIP 9's geometry reinforces that notion. Its 69.5-degree head angle, for example, is steeper than most Northwestern riders prefer, but still slack enough for a 29er to remain in the comfort zone down a succession of rocky drops. We shall see. Niner says they have a new RIP 9 with Pinkbike's name on it somewhere in the warehouse. - RC


Scroll down for the text of the official Niner press release and technical specs.

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PRESS RELEASE

The reputation of the R.I.P. 9 is unassailable – in the six years since its introduction it has helped define the new-school genre of trail ripper - both with riders and the cycling press. So how can it be improved? Keep the attitude, boost performance, shed unwanted weight and build on the legend. The changes to this new beast can’t really be called “evolutionary,” because the word implies a slow process of incremental gains and small strides. That just doesn’t describe the changes to the new R.I.P. 9 – there’s nothing incremental about a kick in the pants.

TRAIL BIKE 29
The Niner that is at home on just about any trail or any terrain – The R.I.P. 9 incorporates global rider feedback as well as Niner’s rigorous progression of alloy design, engineering and testing standards. The R.I.P. 9 has over 30 glowing media reviews for ride quality and handling - the new R.I.P. 9 takes these characteristics and ups the ante with air formed aluminum alloy tubes that redefine performance, a lower weight, ISCG compatibility and additional travel.

CVA™ SUSPENSION
The R.I.P. 9 features Niner’s patented CVA suspension (U.S. Patent No. 7,934,739) and delivers 125mm of fully active travel with superb compliance and damping via a tuned for CVA RockShox Monarch RT3 HV shock. For those seeking the technical advantages of 29” wheels combined with pedaling efficiency across all chainring combinations (not just the middle ring), CVA™ is the front-runner. The result? A faster, smoother ride up and down the trail.

VERSATILE GEOMETRY
To progress as a rider you need predictability, balance and nimble handling and Niner is the company that first made fun trail bike 29ers a reality. Climbing or descending, the geometry of the R.I.P. 9 is tuned to keep you in control and ready to conquer new terrain at every turn. The R.I.P. 9 is intended for 120 to 140mm forks, allowing riders to further fine tune the ride.

AIR FORMED TUBING
At just 6.85lbs for a medium frame with shock & hanger, the new R.I.P. 9 pulls within .65lbs (295g) of our carbon flagship R.I.P. 9 RDO frame. To achieve this reduction and actually increase strength over the last R.I.P. 9 frame we looked beyond traditional hydroforming. Shaping the frame tubes with compressed air in a heated mold gives us greater control over wall thickness and material uniformity, allowing the use of less metal. Tubes that are manipulated using this process can be up to 25% lighter than a similar hydroformed shape at the same strength.

TAPERED HEAD TUBE
The increased surface area of a tapered headtube allows for a larger downtube, increasing strength and rigidity at this critical intersection. Tapered fork steerer tubes measurably reduce fork deflection, which means your Niner tracks straight and true. The full spectrum of riders from XC racers to All Mountain shredders benefit from these features which is why we incorporate the technology in all our frames.


Find out the rest of the 2014 RIP 9 story on Niner's kick ass website

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