Niner has updated their RLT line, putting thru axles where they weren’t and making them ever more capable of letting you hit the “road less traveled”.
The RLT Alloy model, shown above, gets a rear thru axle sliding through a new forged dropout, and the steel model gets one up front thanks to the new carbon touring fork that adds in-molded mid-mount rack mounts.
Venture on down for closeups, complete builds and weights for stock bikes and packed out rigs fully loaded for adventure…
The RLT’s new fork gets several in-molded threaded inserts to fit racks like the Blackburn Outpost front touring rack or cargo cage (shown above, check out more of the collection here and here). The forks layup was refined to soak up more of the small chatter common on dirt roads, too, and it switches from the QR dropouts on the original steel RLT’s OEM spec to a Maxle thru-axle.
Lower fender mounts are also in place.
The forged rear thru axle dropouts on the alloy bike make room for post mount brakes inside the rear triangle and fender/rack tabs. The RLT Steel debuted earlier this year with a rear thru axle already on board, so now both bikes have it at both ends.
The frame is ready for mechanical or electronic drivetrains – note the small wire port on the inside of the chainstay.
Upper rack/fender mount is located on the seatstay bridge, there are no additional mounting points on the seatstays.
The RLT 9 Alloy will come in Green/Canary Yellow and White/Gray/Orange.
Build options for both bikes include (pricing shown for Alloy / Steel):
- 5-Star Ultegra Di2 (Niner CX Carbon wheels) – $5,500 / $6,000
- 4-Star Ultegra Mech (Stan’s NoTubes Grail wheels) – $3,500 / $4,000
- 3-Star Rival Hydro (Niner CX Alloy wheels) – $2,500 / $3,000
- 2-Star 105 11spd (Niner CX Alloy wheels, BB7 brakes) – $2,000 / $2,500
- Frameset (frame, fork, headset, seatpost collar) – $1,050 / $1,500
- Fork only – $250
All bikes run 2×11 drivetrains with Schwalbe tubeless ready G-One or X-One tires and Niner cockpits, save for a Thomson KFC carbon handlebar on the 5-Star build.
The bikes fit a 27.2 seatpost, good for soaking up a bit of road chatter. All but the 2-Star build come with Niner’s carbon seatpost, and the 5-Star gets the RDO version with a bit of flex.
Curious what the bikes weigh packed out with food, clothes and sleeping paraphernalia? Niner provided these graphics from bikes they rode for a trip through Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
The RLT Steel’s frame carries over unchanged, same colors and Reynolds-tubed frame introduced in March.
Anyone else now jonesing to get out in the wild this fall? The alloy bikes are in stock and shipping now. Steel frames with the new fork will start shipping in November, and there’ll be a limited number of the new forks available aftermarket for $250 each starting in December.
Check our review of the original RLT Alloy here.
