I have been itching for a new frame, something with a shorter chainstay for a more playful ride. The list of frames that check all the boxes (29er, steel, short chainstays, 44mm head tube, non-boutique price tag, etc) is a short one, so research should not have taken all the long. Nevertheless, in true 21st-century consumer form, I researched the daylights out of it. Contenders of note included the Canfield Nimble 9, Kona Honzo, Transition TransAM and Surly Karate Monkey. A few others made brief appearances on my list but were eliminated for various reasons (no longer in production, incompatibility with current components, price, etc) After careful consideration, I purchased a used Niner ROS 9 from an online seller on Pinkbike, which happens to be a fabulous place to find a deal on used gear.
I had some technical difficulties setting it up at first, but I'll get to that later. The ROS 9 (Roots of Steel or Ride Over S*** depending on who you ask), is made by a company that built it brand on the rising popularity of 29-inch tires and is a close cousin to the brand's every-popular SIR 9 (Steel Is Real) but with a more... [writer shutters at marketing jargon] "aggressive" design. Basically, it's more of a partying bike than a go-fast bike. It's relatively heavy because they built it out of big ol' tubes of steel, the rear end is shorter than the average XC frame (because wheelies), and the head tube angle is slacker so that the front wheel is more likely to go in a straight line when the trail gets rowdy and points downward. Based on reviews and riders' testimonies, I decided it would likely be an improvement over the Juice, which is an excellent frame in its own right.
Most companies making single-speedable bikes these days are utilizing sliding dropouts similar those available from Paragon Machine Works, or swinging dropouts. With those designs, the rear axle moves in relation to everything else on the bike to tension the chain. This also allows the rider to change the rear end length of the bike to accommodate their riding style, but realistically, most riders are going to slide the rear axle to the shortest position they can get, singlespeed or multi speed. The ROS 9, like most frames in its class, is not marketed as a singlespeed frame but it makes a great cadidate for a SS conversion if the rider so pleases.
Niner initially chose to build many of their frames with eccentric bottom brackets, a design that has fallen out of favor with most other manufacturers over the years. The EBB basically means that the center of the cranks can be rotated around an axis in the center of an oversized BB shell in the frame. On the surface, this is simply a way to tighten a singlespeed drivetrain, but it can also significantly change the geometry and, therefore, the fit and handling of the bike. Moving the cranks forward, rearward, up, or down creates many more options, which, I am learning, is a blessing and a curse.
The frame came together easily. The details on the frame are elegant- the "yoke" that connects the chainstays to the bottom bracket allows lots of chainring clearance, fat tire clearance, and room to shove the rear wheel very "forward" and still has room for a front derailleur in case you're still into those. The yoke also serves as a convenient shelf to collect and store mud from your rear tire, an option I hope not to use if I can find a way to make a fender for that area. The curved seat tube creates lots of room for the rear tire in this tucked position and has a plug for an internally routed dropper post, something I hope to try out in the near future. The shorter chainstay allowed me to remove two full links from the chain when I transferred the drivetrain from my Soma Juice to the ROS 9, which was very satisfying. The dropouts feature a 142x12mm Rockshox Maxle in place of a traditional quick release dropout, which necessitated buying a new axle for my hub. It seems like a great feature to bring my bike fully into the 21st century, albeit not to the cutting edge or Boost hubs. I can live without the Boost option. It's a good-looking bike. Round steel tubes with a few funky bends, subdued paint and graphics (with Niner's signature "Pedal Damn It" on the top tube), and a dropout sans derailleur hanger for a clean singlespeed setup. I was under the impression that this would be a "heavy" bike, but I am used to heavy bikes and the build was only slightly heavier than my Juice.
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| current form: 120mm fork, 34/21 drivetrain, offset seatpost, 60mm stem, 760mm riser bars, zombie head valve cap. |
I have to say, the experience was not the night-and-day difference I had been lead to expect. I read and watched a lot of reviews of this and similar "AM hardtails" that had me believing on some level that this frame would have me fearlessly leaping off cliffs and manualing across the freshly-sawn log bridges that do not exist within several hundred miles of any place I have ever ridden.
The truth was much more subtle and I am trying to suss out what makes it different from what I have ridden in the past. The back end of the bike of the bike is significantly shorter, which makes wrangling the front of the bike easier, and the fork angle is a bit slacker than what I am used to which supposedly makes holding a line on the downhills easier. I have yet to push the bike hard enough to feel a significant difference or I am fairly tone deaf to these subtleties. However, the changes are welcome ones so far.
One snafu I encountered was in fitting the bike to my inflexible, average, quasi-athletic body. Stated briefly, subtle differences in frame geometry and component dimensions can have a significant effect on how a bike fits and handles. Case in point: My Juice had a conventional 72 degree seat tube angle and I had a 16mm offset seatpost on it. the ROS 9 has a 74 degree seatpost angle and the frame came with a non-offset seatpost. Putting the saddle at the same height as my old frame resulted in the saddle being shoved forward about 25mm relative to the cranks. combine that with the slacker head tube angle on the new frame and I lost over and inch of reach from the saddle to the bars by setting up the ROS 9 this way. A somewhat short ride of 15 miles on local trails ended with severe lower back pain from being hunched over the bike for two hours.
I am experimenting with adjustments to the fit that will accommodate me better. I built this frame one week before
Castell Grind, a 63-mile gravel road "race" that I knew would turn into a torture session if I did not remedy these issues beforehand. Luckily, I was able to borrow a seatpost with 25mm of offset (which is a lot of offset) and an 80mm stem to stretch out the reach. I was very pleased with the results. I finished 100 kilometers of country roads on a very unconventional bike: "heavy" all-mountain singlespeed hardtail in about 4 1/2 hours, with a singlespeed drivetrain, nonetheless. I finished the ride with zero back pain. More on that later.
On trails, I feel I have a little more confidence blasting over rock gardens, down chutes, and hucking the bike up ledges than I did with the Juice. the Juice was long and smooth, whereas the ROS 9 is snappy. More to come on setting up the bike and tweaking it for better fit and handling.
