Niner appears to have a new cross-country full-suspension model in the late stages of development.
Niner-sponsored athlete Rebecca Rusch is gearing up for Saturday’s Leadville 100 mountain bike race — an event she has won four times. A photo posted Friday to her Instagram account appears to show a yet-to-be-released, short-travel, full-suspension rig. Niner did not immediately respond to our questions about the bike.
From the image we can discern that the tube shapes of this carbon bike are decidedly more angular than the company’s current flagship cross-country model, the Jet 9 RDO. This new bike has a kinked top tube as well as a seat tube brace, presumably to improve standover clearance.
Cable routing has been revised from the Jet 9 RDO; ports on the side of the down tube have replaced ports through the front of the head tube
Rusch is running a top-shelf SRAM XX1 kit, Guide brakes with an RS-1 fork and, interestingly, an internally routed Rockshox Reverb.
Rusch is running an internally-routed RockShox Reverb
While the rocker link seems to be slimmed down, the rear triangle looks quite similar to the current design, with a 160mm post-mount for the rear brake and cable routing for the rear brake and rear derailleur routed externally along the chainstays.
While the rear end appears similar to the current design, it's possible Niner, like many other companies, is transitioning to a 148x12mm rear end
Whether or not this is the next generation of the Jet 9 RDO or an entirely new platform remains unclear. Either way, this bike looks like it’s ready for prime time.
We’ll report back with more details as they become available.
