Giro Shoe Restock and SALE!

With cyclocross season around the corner we want to show you how great a new set of Giro shoes can be for your season.  Come in and buy any pair of shoes and get a $25 gift certificate for your next purchase!

We have the Carbide, Privateer, Privateer HV, and Gauge in stock currently in just about every size.

The Giro Gauge, my personal favorite CX shoe, reviewed here.  EC70 carbon sole for $200.

The Giro Privateer, the workhorse of the line, reviewed here.  Zytel sole for $150.

And the bargain of the line, the Carbide.  With a great fit and a killer price tag, $100, hard to fault.

This Just In: Felt's 2013 Nine Line Up!

In 2005 I decided to give mountain biking a try.  I built my own bike for the experience, but within a handful of rides I realized the bike I built was too small.  When I started the search I was intrigued by 29ers, but at the time there just wasn't much available.  Tire selection was slim, wheel selection was slim, there were only a couple of forks out there to buy.  I made the plunge and picked up a Salsa, and from that day I've never gone back.

29ers offer the ability to roll over objects better than a 26er, they seem to fit me better at 6'1" because I feel like I am sitting "in" the bike rather than "on top" of it, they offer increased traction, etc etc.  But in the last 7 years 29ers have come a long way, rather than being a niche they now dominate the XC market in the midwest, and for good reason.  The frames have gotten lighter and stiffer, the geometry has been dialed to make 29ers more agile, component selection was exploded, the list goes on.

2010 brought a number of new models to market, the first one I was really excited about was the Niner Air9 Carbon.  It offered light weight, incredible stiffness, unmatched (even to today) drivetrain flexibility (single speed, BB30, PressFit30, GXP, BB90, etc), and all of the "new" mountain bike standards like a tapered steerer tube.

For 2012 Niner introduced the Air9 Carbon RDO which was a massaged version of the Air9 Carbon but shaved weight in a number of places for increased performance.

Felt saw what was happening in the market and for 2013 is not just meeting the expectations of XC racers everywhere but introducing a few new things as well.  The flagship Nine FRD frame comes in at a staggering $2900 but offers a claimed weight of 900g for the frame and utilizes TeXtreme carbon borrowed from Formula 1.

Felt was missing the boat with their previous Nine compared to the competition, even though it was a very nice frame.  It's a sell that the old frame didn't have a tapered steerer tube or oversized bottom bracket but still had a price tag rivaling the most expensive frames.

This new FRD frame, at 900g, is going to blow people away.  The best carbon money can buy, the best engineering available to our industry, and Felt has turned their F1 into a mountain bike.  This thing should be a rocket!

Niner carbon hard tail frames only gave me two real headaches: rear mud clearance and cable routing.  If Felt can nail the geometry Niner has gotten so good at, their new frame will kill Niner.  Felt's clearance around their tire is MASSIVE and comes without the "mud shelf" Niner carbon frames have.

Regarding cable routing, mechanics, wrap your head around this: fully lined and guided internal routing for front and rear derailleurs!  You riders may not care about this much, but when I spend an hour routing housing through an Air9 Carbon I tell myself I'll never do it again!  Let's hope this routing is as easy as Felt is making it sound!

I wish I could give you a first-hand ride report.  Our Felt rep said he spent some time on one and the new Nine was good enough to get him to forget he was riding a 29er, which is a huge compliment coming from a die-hard 26er rider.  It's only a matter of time before some of these new Nine frames and bikes are kicking around the store!

More info can be found here and here.

NEW BIKE DAY! Niner Jet9 RDO

Out she goes.  Our final in-stock Niner Jet9 RDO.  She's been with us for too long, we've grown attached, but it's time for us to part ways.  Maybe one day I'll find something to take her place, but nothing will ever make me forget her.

She'll enjoy ling rides in the mountains around Fort Collins.  In her true element.

Adieu.

NEW BIKE DAY! Niner Jet9 RDO with Shimano XT

I'll cut to the chase: 23.7 lbs without pedals.  Now, get the details.

Builds like this just don't come along that often.  It's not every day we get to build the dream bike of a seasoned mountain biker.  When we were asked to build a Jet9 RDO, I was nervous.  Back order lists are incredibly long, this one was ordered the first week of December.

Once the frame had been acquired, everything else was easy.  The frame received a SID XX World Cup 100mm fork with a 15mm thru axle and Cane Creek headset.

The build kit was simple: full Shimano XT.  Every time I ride it I become more and more impressed with the quality of the shifts, but more-so the braking.  Best braking I've ever used.

Wheels where another spot where we knew exactly where to go: Stan's NoTubes.  The stock Crest wheelset came to use 30g LIGHTER than advertised and perfectly round and true.

Thomson post and silver stand-in stem to be replaced with the correct size (and color) once the fit is dialed.  EDGE carbon bars, ESI grips, Maxxis Aspen 2.1 tires set up tubeless.

On Test: 2012 Niner AIR9 Carbon RDO!

We were high on the list for this bike, but since we had the parts and needed only the frame we ended up getting bumped a couple times.  No problems, though, because she's here now and she's beautiful.

Out of the box we weighed everything that was different from the EMD9 this is replacing.  When going from the EMD9 you not only swap to a carbon frame, but the headset is now integrated instead of a Zero Stack pressfit.  Honestly, I dig the pressfit headsets, but it's incredibly easy to change bearings with an integrated headset, so I'm not too broken up about it.  Also, the integrated FSA headset is roughly half the weight of the Cane Creek pressfit that was in the EMD9.

Also different from the EMD9 is the bottom bracket standard.  The EMD9 uses a standard English-threaded bottom bracket where the AIR9 Carbon RDO uses a PressFit30 bottom bracket.  This opens up the possibility to use lighter BB30-compatible cranks and larger tube junctions.

We'll have a first-ride review coming very soon, as well as apples-to-apples weight comparisons and some build notes coming very soon.  Stay tuned....

Coming Soon: Niner Jet9 RDO

Just a teaser, full photos coming once it's complete.  But as a tease, check this out: Licorice Jet9 RDO w/ Fox RP23 Kashima, SID XX World Cup, Shimano XT, NoTubes Crest wheels.  This.  Thing.  Will.  Shred.

Re-build: PowerTap SL+ Disc to Stan's NoTubes Crest 29

This is my personal rear wheel.  The original only lasted a couple of weeks, all due to my impatience.  I made it less than 10 minutes into a trail ride when I hit a piece of glass and cut a roughly 9mm slice in the tire.  When it didn't seal I decided to ride it back to the car flat.  That's when I clipped a rock and dented my rim.

It's held up well with a tube, actually.  But I strongly prefer tubeless, especially with a Stan's rim.  So I ordered a new Crest rim, and re-laced it.  About an hour later I was ready to roll with power on my mountain bike.

The PowerTap SL+ is laced 3x/3x to a NoTubes Crest 29 rim with black DT Swiss Revolution spokes and black DT Swiss ProLoc brass nipples.  The wheel is set up tubeless with Stan's Yellow Tape and ZTR valve.  Tire is a Maxxis Aspen 29x2.1.

2012 Niner EMD9 - 400 miles in

This bike has seen a solid number of miles over the last few weeks.  Commuting miles, plenty of trail miles, lots of gravel.

I love this thing.  Sure, carbon sexiness is still calling my name and really trying to draw me in, but until then I'm sold.  And I'll always hold a place for this alloy EMD9.

Another ride in the books on my 2012 Niner EMD9 ....

Lumberjack is only 8 weeks away at this point, and today wrapped up a pretty big (for me) 3-week training block.  Building from 10-11 hours per week up to a high of about 16 this week, I was lucky enough to get a really nice chunk of those hours on single track.

It's pretty incredible how great the trails are right now, especially Palos.  This time of year we're usually sitting around grumbling about how the trails are closed because they are too wet, but after a few trips to the trails I'm psyched about how dry they are.

This weekend as well as last weekend were about as good as they get, today had only 3-4 spots of mud in the 55-ish miles of trail I traveled.  Anyone who has hit Palos in the spring knows the lack of mud in April is very welcome.

After these three weeks I'm ready for a little time off of the bike.  A couple of rest days thrown in this week, maybe even a massage, will hopefully leave me ready for another big weekend next week.

After about 5 weeks of training on this 2012 Niner EMD9, I'm in love.  While the lust for carbon MAY overtake me before Lumberjack hits, this is the perfect bike to train on.  The least expensive frame in Niner's lineup means I don't have to sweat a dent or scratch the same way an AIR9 Carbon would probably bother me.  It's light enough, it handles very neutral, and is an absolute rocket.

If you want to get into a Niner, or maybe you've been riding a 29er but want to go with something new, this is it.  The EMD9 has a tapered head tube for perfect steering, and comes out of the box finished like all Niners: faced and reamed head tube, faced and chased bottom bracket, and faced disc brake mounts.  This may not mean a ton to you, but it means quality and time savings to me.

Niner has the geometry dialed, their fit and finish is second to none, and their pricing is hard to beat.

OK, enough of the sales pitch.  Go ride your bike.

On test: 2012 Niner EMD9

It's no secret I've been a fan of 29ers for quite some time.  My first one dates back to roughly 2006 with a Salsa Mamasita, and I was instantly in love.  That bike was built with an entry-level REBA, X9, and some cheap wheels.  I can't say I remember for sure, but I'd guess it was north of 27-28 lbs.

29ers have changed quite a bit since then.  I'm still riding alloy, though I've ridden plenty of titanium and carbon since then.  At the end of the day, I have a tough time faulting aluminum for it's killer price point, relatively light weight, durability, and great looks.

For 2012 Niner has updated the EMD9.  It may be their entry-level frame, but the specs are right.  It's ready for a tapered steerer tube, which I took advantage of with a SID XX fork.  The standard 73mm English bottom bracket was a welcome spec as I was planning a the use of Shimano cranks.

Like all other frames from Niner, the EMD9 came out of the box perfectly prepped.  Bottom bracket threads were tapped, the bottom bracket and head tube and rear brake mount had been faced.  All great touches that save us a ton of time.

The finish on the frame is a really nice semi-matte black with white logos.  Totally understated and certainly my style.  Add in a few orange touches and this becomes the perfect Iron Cycles team mountain bike, which would explain the abundance of them on our team.

Specs on this build:

Niner EMD9 frame, black, large
Rock Shox SID XX World Cup tapered fork, 15mm Maxle
Shimano XT drivetrain
Niner RDO carbon seatpost
Thomson Elite X4 130mm x 0* stem
Niner RDO carbon handlebars
Fizik Aliante custom saddle
Stan's NoTubes Crest wheelset, XTR 15mm front hub, PowerTap rear hub
King Cages stainless cages
Maxxis Aspen tires

In the first week of having this bike built, I've logged roughly 8-9 hours on the trails.  Comparing this to the Air9 Carbon I recently rode the EMD9 performed admirably.  The AIR9 Carbon's head tube MAY be a hair stiffer, and the BB junction MAY be a hair stiffer, but in all the EMD9 was right on par with the AIR9 Carbon at roughly 1/3 the price.  The EMD9 does give up to the AIR9 Carbon in the weight department, but this built built to only be 2 lbs heavier with a heavier gruppo on it as well.

One worthwhile upgrade that I can't recommend enough is the 15mm Maxle fork.  Be it a suspension fork or a rigid one, if you have the option to run a 15mm Maxle, DO IT!  The stiffness increase was immediately apparent and totally welcome.  The weight penalty is minimal, and is more than made up for on the first rock garden or errant root you come across.

I plan to put plenty of trail time on this frame and fork, and I'll be sure to report back often on it.  So far, I'm blown away that a frame that retails for $550 can be so good.  Yes, it's aluminum, so it may not be as sexy as the newest carbon offerings.  But the weight is reasonable, the ride quality is great, and the price is nearly impossible to beat.

Time to get out and ride some more....

Niner EMD9 w/ 2012 Shimano XT

This one was a pleasure to build, because well, it's mine.  I previously had built an EMD9 but it's since been sold.  I loved the frame enough that I just replaced it with an identical one.

For the first time for me, I decided to build it with a Shimano build kit.  I spent some time chatting with some mountain biking friends who do some "real" riding, you know, in the mountains.  The consensus was easy to gather: Shimano XT brakes are the best.  I heard from many of them that XTR works just as well, but at a far higher cost.

Since I was going with XT brakes, I stuck with the full XT kit.  Shifters, derailleurs, cranks, chain, and cassette are all XT.  The fork is a Niner carbon unit, bars and post are also Niner carbon, the post is the RDO version.  The stem is ole faithful, a 130mm Thomson X4.

Wheels were hand built Stan's NoTubes Crest laced to DT Swiss 240s 6-bolt disc hubs with DT Swiss Revolution spokes 3x and DT Swiss ProLoc brass nipples.

Price as built?  $3700 out the door for a pure-bred race bike.