So I’ve got this fancy new Niner One9, but I haven’t had a whole lot of chance to ride it because it’s been negative one million degrees since early December. Finally I get out on it the other week for a very snowy dirt road ride. My first impression: i like it, but it feel really small. Like I’m cramming my body into a clown car.

The frame is a size small. Now, at 5’6.5″ I seem to often find myself in a position where I could ride either a small or a medium frame and I generally prefer to go with the smaller option. But part of my own personal problem is that I’ve got a freakishly long torso. My legs could belong to someone who is 5’2″, but my torso would be far more appropriate on someone closer to 5’10″. And so I deal.

Anyway, while I was going to be down in GA and not wanting to ship a bike down for a limited amount of riding, our Niner rep kindly arranged a medium Air9 frame for me to test ride while I was down there. The Air9 is just like the One9, only geared. And some bike this thing was. Very cool indeed with lots of shiny, colorful, fancy and expensive bits on it. The bike was obviously built up for someone far taller than me, but once I dropped the mile high seatpost it worked for the test ride.

Niner Air9 loaner for the weekend

Niner Air9 loaner for the weekend

Not only did I get to try out the frame size, but this was a fantastic opportunity to try out some new-to-me components. The bike was well outfitted:

  • The Niner Carbon fork – very nice. Light, stiff, awesome. If my forearm wasn’t such an issue, I would totally get one ASAP.
  • Hayes Gram Stroker brakes – i’m in love with these. Maybe it was the 8″ rotor, but whatever. These things stopped me with the lightest twitch. I am currently figuring out how to have my own set and replace my Avid’s.
  • WTB Prowler tires – not good in the snow. duh.
  • Gears – fun, but make me lazy. As in put it in granny and just keep it there.
  • I9 wheels – they were light, stiff and felt pretty fast but to be honest I couldn’t tell any huge difference between these wheels and my normal bike29 handbuilt wheels. The blue spokes were pretty cool though.

So the big question, should I be on a medium frame. I don’t think so. Even without the layback post and the reachy stem, I think the frame was a bit too big. I’d rather try to stretch out the length of the small then scrunch up the bigger frame.img_0529Look close at this picture and you can see the ice flow from my drippy bottle. It wasn’t miserable, but it was cold out there.