On Test: Niner Bikes ROS 9- by Grannygear
Thinking that Guitar Ted should not have all the long travel hard tail 29″er fun with his Singular Buzzard build, the So Cal contingent, under the direction of Grannygear, has taken delivery of a Forge Grey LG Niner Bikes ROS 9 and will be building it up with a selection of parts we have on hand. This is a bit of an experiment for me as I have been curious about this type of bike since their ilk began to roll around on big wheels. 26″er AM (All Mountain) hard tails are old hat, but the slack head tube angle-long travel fork-short chain stay approach is sort of new to 29″ers and the idea of a 29″er AM hard tail caught on with bikes like the Kona Honzo, Canfield Nimble 9, and others. I was very struck by how fun the Trek Stache 8 was to ride during our review time with it. It was a great combo of parts and function and made me want to ride it more. And while the ROS 9 is a much more focused bike than the Stache is, the ROS 9 being a more aggressively postured AM design, I am curious to see how it does as an all around trail bike/hard tail with an emphasis on fun.
It looks like it will have a Shimano SLX drivetrain and some great wheels and parts. So it will be a geared build, nothing too exotic, no 1×11, but still nice enough to keep things weighing under a metric ton for the whole build. The ROS 9 is spec’d for a 120mm up to a 140mm fork so I need to come to terms with that too. The LG size is a bit of departure for me as I am more of an XL, however after agonizing over geometry specs, riding the LG at Interbike (and the LG RIP 9 we are testing), and discussing it with c_g (who sampled a ROS 9), I am expecting the LG to be the right fit for the typically more upright riding position on this type of bike.
Will I be happy with it? Can an old XC/Trail rider guy learn to love a 6+ pound steel frame, a slack HT angle, long fork, and scrunched-up back end that was designed to Ride Over S…well, Stuff, shall we say? I have no idea but I am about to find out.
Note: Niner Bikes provided the bike for this test/review at a reduced cost to Twenty Nine Inches. We are not being bribed nor paid for this review. We will strive to be honest with our thoughts and opinions throughout.
Be interested in your thoughts. I’m after similar geo for general trail riding. Having ridden N9 and YS, standard xc geo feels boring, but I don’t need the burliness or weight. My current leader is this:
http://zealousbikeco.com/?portfolio=division-frameset
So, there was Mason, Buzzard and now ROS 9. You guys have something against Kona’s Honzo?
6+ pound steel frame…UGH
no wonder carbon has become such a marketing success!
What ever happened to lightweight air hardening steel and thus the thinner tubes. Did we all go back to old “531”….??????????
A shame that Niner dropped the One9. A light aluminum SS that was so much fun. Niner only has 3 bikes with Biocentric in their lineup now. The Sir9 which is also a steel bike and then you have to go to the One9 RDO which is light but costs $2149. Nothing in the middle for a single speeder from Niner any more. Since they still make an Air9, it would be trivially easy to still make a One9 by enlarging the tube size of the bb. The Air9 sells for $849 and that would mean that the One9 would sell for $949 by the traditional pricing plan but now the Sir9 is $999 so that is probably why they killed the One9. I have a 3rd gen One9 and a 2nd gen Sir9 and the One9 is way more fun. About 2 lbs lighter accelerates faster because it is stiffer, etc. The Sir9 is better on long slow days, but the One9 rocks!
THis bike which needs way more fork than I am willing to deal with or need, and weights too much and with the extremely short chainstays and the long fork would be a pain on the short very steep hills around here. My2cents.
Hmm. Have you ridden a bike with this geo? I admit a lighter version would be nice (and is what I am after).
@Janosch…no, no grudges there. Kona is free to contact us to review a Honzo!
@Yogi…well, yes, it is heavy but all these AM steel hard tails are. However we need to keep in mind that these are rated for 140mm forks, need to be able to survive being tossed round with abandon, and still not cost a lot. That is a dead easy task with basic Cro Mo steel. However, yes, for the cost of this frame I would hope it was lighter but I knew that going in. That would take a custom steel frame or a Ti frame to do that…maybe a Carver, etc.
Is there room for a lighter, yet beefy frame like this for not too much money? Yes. But it may not be a financial/engineering/marketing possibility.
gg
@Clink…yes, but briefly. I rode the ROS9 at Interbike Demo Days.
The weight in the bike’s frame is a good place for weight to be if it has to be anyplace. I am not expecting a gossamer XC bike experience but I am expecting to have lots of fun. Good parts selection and really nice wheels will help me stay in a good place. I hope. We shall see.
gg
@bill, I think they all broke. I know multiple people that were on their third and forth frames. Niner covered them each time, but I know it got a bit tiresome after awhile for some.
Us Honzo riders already know that this formula works, and works well. The weight is really not much of an issue, (its not a race bike), and even with 1×10 gearing, it is ridable over a large range of terrain.
I think people complaining about the weight are missing what market this bike is being targeted for. It is not a XC bike. This thing is made for drops, hucking, jumping, whatever you want. Burly frame is required IMHO.
Please put the AC Wide Lightnings on this guy, that’s what I am thinking of building up in spring. Thanks
@Ben. In the plans for sure.
gg
If you are a 240lb clyde like me, burly steel frames are your friend. I’m afraid to ride ultra light frames and wheels. Your Mama watered you real gg, what wheel set are you looking to team with this beauty of a frame?
@Premo…right now it has some Roval Control Carbons on there. I might try the AC Wide Lightnings and then who knows?
gg
Just curious … how tall are you? I’m 6-1 and typically in between sizes on a Large and XL. Everybody rides differently, but I think I would be a Large on this ROS 29er, and it’s an interesting bike.
@Scott…6’2″, 34″ inseam. The 18″ is right for me. The larger size is a pretty big bike. I have almost no stand over clearance on the 18″ as it is. I am running a 100mm stem flipped and slammed with a 130mm fork/wide 780mm bar and it is where I want to be, but I bet that most riders will run this with a shorter, more upright stem.
It is an interesting bike. I can turn this thing so fast on a tight trail that my heart skips a beat. Crazy fun. It’s a beast.
gg
I am a huge fan of this “genre” of bikes, short rear, slack front, playful on the trail (currently riding a 1st gen Cnafield Nimble 9 and love it). I understand why they tend to be heavier, cheaper steel, beefier construction, etc. That being said, I wouldn’t mind a lighter frame sharing the same geo, either AL or carbon. My bike weighs in at ~22lbs (rigid SS with an I9 wheelset), so I’m not really complaining.
Looking forward to reading more on this Niner!
@Rob- Same here. I loved my N9 v1, but couldn’t justify racing 100 miles offroad on a 6.5lbs. frame. A light, short-stayed, slack angled XC bike would be awesome. 100mm fork,27.2mm seatpost, 2 (or better yet, 3!) bottle cages… I’d be all over that!
Los
@Rob @1speedlos: This isn’t a foreign concept for 29″ers. Gary Fisher, (if he had his way early on), would have been all over this sort of geometry for an XC rig. Early Fisher prototypes were designed around such geometry. For a modern day example, (albeit with maybe a tad longer chain stays), look at the UK’s Whyte Bicycles, who use a 68.5° head angle on their XC rigs.
So, examples are out there but the industry is more interested in making a buck off “enduro” than refining XC geo for “old” 29″er hard tails. 😉