Hot on the heels of the carbon RIP9 RDO, Niner has introduced a completely revised alloy RIP9. While they’re still calling it a trail bike, it looks like it’ll fall nicely into the burgeoning Enduro category.
The frame has been reworked from head to toe, with more sculpted hydroforming airforming to increase stiffness, more shapely (and lighter) linkages, a 10mm bump in travel to 125mm in the rear, and an upgrade to 12×142 Maxle thru-axle as standard equipment. The entire package not only looks better, it comes in a full half-pound lighter than before!
Roll past the break for complete tech specs, geo charts and more details…
The frame comes in at 7lbs for a medium with seat collar, rear Maxle, derailleur hanger and custom tuned Rockshox Monarch RT3 HV shock. That’s a full half-pound lighter than before, and only about .65 pounds heavier than the carbon RDO model.
Framesets will run $1,849, same as before, and come in Niner Green and Licorice Black.
Geometry stays the same, now matching the RDO. That’s thankfully more slack and dialed than the early generation RIP9 bikes, which were a bit steep for the amount of travel.
The linkages have been reworked and are now asymmetric to provide better chainguide clearance and allow room for ISCG 05 tabs directly on the frame. They’re also lighter and stiffer. Everything pivots around Enduro Max sealed cartridge bearings.
All of the forged yokes and attachments were reworked to save weight and increase stiffness, too. The top and downtubes were curved and shaped before, now just more so.
The prior version came stock with replaceable 135mm QR hangers and 142×12 parts options. Now it’s a dedicated thru-axle design, which means even more stiffness and a simpler, cleaner appearance. Frames ship with the Rockshox Maxle axle.
Carla Hukee, Niner’s PR manager, explained airforming versus hydroforming as such: “This process is similar to hydroforming, but uses super-heated air pushed into the tubes at high pressure while inside a mold. The forming can take 3-5 minutes per tube (hydroforming is instant) and allows the wall thickness and butting to maintain a very high tolerance (10ths of a millimeter), producing a tube shape to extreme precision. Our primary goal with the (new) RIP 9 was weight reduction and the new Airforming process is a big part of why we were able to take a half a pound out of it.”
Framesets and complete bikes ship in May. Two builds are offered, Shimano XT ($4,199) and SRAM X7 ($2,999).
