2008 Niner Air9

[N10S]

Had to post some pics of my latest "contemporary" rig a 2008 scandium framed Air9 with color matching Reynolds steel fork. Other than the SLX crankset its a full 970 XTR driveline including the ti rear cassette, Juicy Ultimate brakeset with the carbon levers, Flite TT saddle, and easton monkey lite Sl carbon riser bars. The wheelset is easton XC2 which are not overly light at around 1950 grams for the set, but I am running the 420 gram Kenda Karmas to keep the rotating weight down some.

Man..what a great responsive singletrack bike. The light weight weight and frame stiffness makes this thing a great climber and overall agility for a 29er is pretty amazing. All that rigid action scandium framed action is kind of hard on the old (52) body though, and I am thinking about either getting a higher volume front tire, or a suspension fork to smoothe things out a bit. This bike will morph into a 1x9 as soon as I can get a good crankset and chainguide solution worked-out.

 

[kaiser]

nice any idea on the weight?

 

[N10S]

nice any idea on the weight?

I have not checked it on a hang-scale yet. Based on my parts spreadsheet with a bias towards heavier weight than "best-case" dreaming, the bike comes out at around 21 lbs and some change. Worst case probably 22 lbs. Having had a few 19-20 lb bikes I can honestly say I think thats what it weighs. I like light bikes, but not at the cost if durability. Since I only ride XC singletrack I am pretty easy on bikes, but I do like knowing I have tried and true parts that I can rely on. Having said that there are plenty of ways for me to drop more weight off of this build and keep it real as far as being ride-worthy.

My next build phase is converting the drivetrain to a 1x9 configuration using this Race Face crank with Salsa 32T ring which would save me over 200 grams with the right BB.

Losing the front shifter, cables, and front derailleur drops another 275 grams add in an N-gear jump stop and all told once you factor the 1x9 crank set-up its still about a pound of weight removed.

A few other easy and fairly inexpensive weight drops can be had by going with lighter tubes, grips, and pedals. These options offer incremental savings of close to another pound of weight depending on the pedals. Keeping the bike equipped as rigid I think I can pretty easily drop the weight into the 20 lb range. Downstream if I decide to stay rigid long-term the Niner carbon fork would save me 500 grams and the heavy wheelset also offers 300 grams of weight savings if I want to cough up the dollars for new wheels. Going that direction would incur some serious cash infusion but would drop the bike into the 18lb range which would be as light as I would really ever need (want). As of right now I think getting the bike into the 20lb range is a reasonable target and wont cost me a fortune either.

 

[saltyman]

nice, looks spot on too.

 

[N10S]

Thanks for the positive feedback. I just realized that if you look at the pic with the rear brake and drop-out you can see one vintage part that has been with me since the early 90's. I originally bought two sets of control tech ti allen skewers back in the day. One set went on my Amp B2 and were 3dV as were the rest of the parts, and the other set of black ones went on a 92 Klein Adroit. The 3dv's are still probably on the amp my buddy bought from me years ago, and black ones came off the Klein before it got sold and they have been used on numerous bikes. I have the front one as well and need to put it back to use. Funny the Air9 has similar qualities to that rigid Klein adroit. Ultra light, but a bit brutal!