Rip9 Test Ride

Whenever I ride my 29'er (DosNiner soft-tail), I am amazed at how it surgically carves turns at high speed, and how easily it gets up chunky climbs with the big wheels. But after a 50 mile ride on it, my butt is sore for a few days.
When I get on me 5+5 full suspension rig, my body is thankful for the extra cush, but the handling is twitchier, and at 32lbs vs 25lbs on the other bike, it takes more energy to crank it up the hills.

So it would seem that a full suspension 29'er might be the best of both worlds, and it was with great anticipation that I borrowed the shop demo Niner Rip9 for a day.



Picked it up the day before, and got in a quick checkout ride around a familiar loop. The first thing I noticed was that it took a bit more energy to drive this thing up the small climbs than my DosNiner - I was always dropping to the granny ring on stuff that I middle-ringed on the other bike. I was sure that the gearing must be different, but a tooth-count when I got back home showed it be the same as my other 29'er. The other thing I noticed was it did climb well over rough-terrain - and in some cases better than the 26'er (as does my other 29'er). It was also nimble on tight switchbacks.


I tweaked the geometry a bit, and next day headed up to Oakridge to meet CWS for a ride up Middle Fork Willamette trail. I'd heard from someone that this was a great trail - well it was nice meandering river trail, but nothing too exciting. The Rip9 handled great around the many tight-steering corners. But again had the sensation that this bike takes more energy to push along the flats and climbs. Descending, it was great. So a mixed bag. And that's about it for the review as it (and you all) have grown tiresome.