Niner Bikes SIR 9 - Pro Review

[francois]

Niner Bikes SIR 9 - Pro Review
By: Francis Cebedo
Date: July 27, 2006


Introduction:
At the 2005 Interbike, Chris Sugai of Niner Bikes showed me a nice bike. It was a prototype SIR 9. It was the steel version of their revolutionary Scandium One 9 bike. Their scandium bike was a runaway hit despite being a singlespeed only bike. The One 9 excelled in light weight, all-out performance applications.

Photo ©: mtbr.com

The SIR 9 is the fun and versatile bike. It’s designed for all day comfort and all day enjoyment of what the trails have to offer. It uses Reynolds tubing, custom designed for this frame. It features an eccentric bottom bracket to tension the chain for singlespeed applications. And it features replaceable dropouts that allow a singlespeed dropout or a dropout with a derailleur hanger. That’s right, this bike can be set up as a geared bike as well.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Setup:
My demo bike was set up as a singlespeed. I normally run 32x18 gearing on 26 inch wheels. This one with the bigger 29er wheels had 32x20 and it felt like a match to what I was used to.

Here’s the interesting part. The bike was set up with a rigid fork. That’s right, full rigid. This fork is made by Niner just for this bike. This was a scary proposition for me because I tried a rigid fork (by Dimension) on my old 26-inch bike and I got rid of it after a year. Even with a 2.5 inch WTB tire at low pressure, my hands could not take the beating of a rigid fork.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Other key parts are American Classic Wheels, WTB Nanoraptor tires and Avid Juicy 7 brakes. These Nanoraptors were set up with the Stans Notubes system. The handlebars were very odd to me featuring Niner 28 inch flat bars with Cane Creek ergo bar ends. I haven’t used flat bars or bar ends in at least five years. But hey, I was game to try these wide cowhorns.

I’m 5’8” with a 30” inseam. I normally ride a medium or 17-inch frame. Niner suggested that I try their small frame. They also fitted the cockpit with a no-offset Thomson seatpost and an 80 mm stem. This seemed tight for me at first glance.

(click on photos to enlarge)

The Test Rides:
Ok on with the rides. After about 5 rides, I realized something. This was a magic bike. It was magic because it made me climb better. It made me descend well and it put a bigger a bigger smile on my face.

First let’s talk about the climbing. The complete bike weighed in at 22.31 lbs as pictured. Also this bike has incredibly light wheels at 1550 grams and the Stans/Nanoraptor combo added another 1600 grams for the tires. With such a light wheelset, acceleration was remarkable. The issue of 29-inch wheels accelerating slowly was non-existent. The magic was with how this bike kept its speed. As it got going, it begged to go faster and faster… uphill. It took little obstacles like ruts, roots, rocks in stride. Big obstacles were swallowed up too. Even with the rigid fork, the front wheel would mow them down then a the critical torque-on moment, the rear wheel would hook up with surprising traction. On a very challenging local two mile climb with lots of log obstacles, I was able to clean it on the Niner… twice. The surprise here is I’ve never cleaned this climb on my Turner 5-spot or Steelman singlespeed both with front suspension.

The rigid fork definitely contributed to this bike’s climbing prowess. The efficiency of pedal transfer, even off saddle was evident as power was transferred to the ground instead of going into front shock bob. Then there are the handlebars. These bars measured 30 inches with bar ends. When the single gear got heavy all I had to do was rock the handlebars with the pedaling motion and the cranks would turn. When the walls got steep, I got on the bar ends and got was able to extract even more forward motion. In addition, tugging at the tip of the bar ends planted the rear tire on the ground for remarkable traction.

Finally, I’ll talk about something that is a little bit of voodoo. This is the springiest frame and fork combo that I’ve ever come across. If you lift the bike from the top tube and smack it down on the ground, the whole bike will vibrate like a spring. I mention this because this quality adds a whole dimension to the bike’s ride quality. When climbing, the bike feels very lively and springy. It’s rewarding to pedal as the bike seems to jump forward and help the rider climb and get over obstacles.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Now on to the handling and descending. The handling is impeccable! Slow-steering, big wheels, sluggish… these are all non-issues. This bike carved singletrack as well as the best bikes I’ve tried. Plus it had an unfair advantage. The Reynolds rear end was very compliant. It smoothed out the trail better than my Steelman bike and the Dean and Litespeed hardtails that I’ve tried. The size of the wheels definitely smoothed things out as well. The big wheels would smooth out stutter bumps and made obstacles more manageable.

Ahh the rigid fork. Chris Sugai of Niner bikes was excited to let me try it. It seemed he had a sixth sense that I would like it. A rigid fork is an interesting temptation. If you can live with it, you will be rewarded handsomely. The Niner fork is very tall 490mm. It is also very compliant as you can see the fork move fore and aft while descending. These qualities couple with the big 29er wheel deliver a ride that is actually quite smooth. In a nutshell, it feels like you have one inch of travel in the front compared to the 26-inch world that I was used to. With the forgiving rigid fork, I’m rewarded with ultra-precise steering and the absence of brake dive.

Of course the bike is still a singlespeed and fully rigid and it is not ideal for all applications. For my singletrack forests in Northern California, it worked very well. It climbed like a goat and I did not give anything up on the twisty descents. On the Sea Otter race course in Monterey, this bike was ideal as it sucked up the stutter bumps and the big tires rolled right out of dangerous rain ruts. For fast rocky descents however like Tahoe and Downieville, this bike, set up with a rigid fork, will not be the right weapon. Compliant or not, this rigid work will hammer me on the babyheads rock section at 20 mph.

And now comes the fun. This bike is very attractive and very unusual. It attracts a crowd wherever it goes as it seems to be merger of two ‘niche’ segments, singlespeed and 29er bikes. It’s also wrapped in a very efficient and attractive package. Everybody wants to know how it rides. And this ride definitely delivers the biggest smile on my face. Aside from the climbing and handling prowess, the bike delivers a smooth ride while allowing the rider to experience all that the trail has to offer. The bike disappears beneath the rider as its does it’s job with very little noise and maintenance.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Strengths:
- incredible climbing ability
- great handling and geometry
- very compliant rear end
- versatility of singlespeed or geared bike configuration
- very springy and lively feel
- great value


Weaknesses:
- only one water bottle mount on the Small sized frame. M-L-XL frames however have 2 to 3 water bottle mounts
- no rear v-brakes is allowed
- weld-quality is not as nice as Independent Fabrication or other boutique bikes (Niner Comment: all of our welding is done in a Reynolds certified factory and frames are inspected for weld depth and strength testing, while the weld bead my not be artistically beautiful they are just as strong)


Conclusion:

I’ll cut to the chase and give this bike my highest compliment. You can spend $7k or more on a bike with the finest materials and custom made to your body and riding style and signed by a legend of the industry. It may not make you a better rider. The Niner bike will. Its perfect utilization of the 29-inch wheels, perfect materials, and singlespeed flexibility will elevate your riding. You will hit the next level in your riding ability and riding enjoyment.



Overall Rating:
5 chili's out of 5



Retail Price:
Frame only: $799

Mtbr.com User Reviews. Read or post your own review:
http://www.mtbr.com/reviews/29er/product_125404.shtml




Niner Bikes
http://ninerbikes.com/

[francois]

Mtbr.com: What makes the bike so comfortable? What materials are used and what special construction was involved.

Niner Bikes: Well, as you've come to find out, steel really is real, but it's not just the steel tubing, it's the way the tubing is used. When we first started working on the SIR 9, we went to Reynolds with a list of ride qualities that were paramount to making the frame feel the way we wanted. We worked with engineers in the UK on tube diameter and wall thickness for EVERY single size frame. That was the front triangle. In the rear, we custom drew our own tubing and then custom bent them to insure that the ride quality was exactly as we wanted it. Bend the tubes too much and the rear triangle has a dead, lifeless feel with no feedback and too much flex. Bend the tubes too little, and the liveliness picks up, but so does the bump translation to your seat. Everything that you do to a frame will affect the ride, from the butting of the tubing, to the diameter, and lastly, the shape of the tubing. It's all about finding the perfect balance.

Mtbr.com: What are the weight limits and riding style limits for the bike. When do you start suggesting the Scandium bike over this one.

Niner Bikes:Never. There are no weight limits (within reason, I suppose) to the SIR 9. We'll never suggest the Scandium bike over the Reynolds bike based on a riders weight.

Mtbr.com: I noticed it has Stans tubeless. I've never ridden Stans. Why did you choose it and how does it affect the ride quality and climbing ability of the bike.

Niner Bikes:Stans is a great way to avoid getting pesky flats while being able to run the tires at a lower PSI than you otherwise would be able to. The lower PSI increases traction. Once again, this is all about finding balance. If you let too much air out, then the rolling resistance is higher and it will actually slow down climbing.

Mtbr.com:Any design objectives, insights and highlights?

Niner Bikes:Our goal with all of our frames is to design a bike that looks and feels in every way like a full custom bike, but without the price and, sometimes more importantly, without the wait. We use the highest level of tubing and we don't spare any expense making that tubing even better for our bikes and ultimately for the consumer. We spend a lot of money building prototypes, riding prototypes and breaking prototypes. This translates into a better product for the end user. The SIR 9 was really a culmination of a lot of experience, a lot of riding and testing, and Reynolds really stepping up to the plate to help us make the tubeset we needed to make the SIR 9 have the ride quality we were looking for. It helped to start out with the ONE 9, a single speed only frame, and really be able to dial in the ride quality for a single speed which can sometimes be more difficult because of the increased torque load SS'ers put on their frames. We translated that knowledge into the SIR 9, so that the frame still had a solid feel for out of the saddle efforts, but then we had to make it work for gears as well. Cable routing around the EBB, derailleur clearance and other issues came up that we had to work around and find solutions for while still maintaining the ride quality and geometry people had already come to expect from Niner. It's not always as simple as it looks. Ultimately, we're extremely happy with the result of the SIR 9. It's an incredibly fun bike to ride in our opinion.

Photo: Steve and Chris of Niner Bikes