The Short Track Friend (The Custom Niner Emd Review)

How about the juicy stuff first: medium Niner E.M.D in Licorice Black, Carbon Niner rigid fork in Atomic Blue, Pink Velocity VXC rims laced to Velocity's light weight disc hub, Sram X-9 rear, Sram 990 cassette, Avid Elixir CR disc brakes, FSA Afterburner Cranks, Bontrager stem and seatpost, Ritchey Pro flat bars, Fizik saddle, crank brothers egg beater SL pedals, and the most important thing on a 29'er: Maxxis Crossmark front tire with a Stan's No Tubes Crow for the back tire.

 So the question is why would I convert to a 29'er.  Well, once cyclocross season started up a month ago, I was looking into a cross bike.  I couldn't find any stellar deals so, I decided to investigate the 29'er option again since a lot of people were telling me to switch when I was looking for a full suspension endurance rig.  I did my research and narrowed it down to three brands: Gary Fisher (of course), Niner, and Salsa.  Now I got into the nitty gritty of researching to compare these three brands.  I will keep it fairly simple as to not bore you, but it required a lot of math; I needed to come up with the cheapest option and something that would fit my shorter body.  I used my beloved Oryx 26'er hardtail as my geometry comparison.  I went to the garage and measured everything that involved my rider position/feel on my Oryx and drew a pretty picture.  Then I came back to the Internet and got the frame specs and started doing the math to see if there were components out there (stems, handlebars, seat posts) that would make each bike fit the same as my 26'er.  I came to find that the Niner fit my criteria very well so it was just figuring out the rest. 

 Since I wanted to use this for cyclocross, I wanted to run a rigid fork.  Niner just introduced and was shipping their carbon rigid forks which have a few special attributes that other rigid forks don't.  Not to mention you can get them in a slew of colors.  That was right up my  alley because I have really started to like bright and crazy color schemes lately.  I emailed Niner and asked them about the differences between an 09 and 08 frame since they didn't have specs online for the 08.  I shy'ed away from the 09+ because they weren't available in a color that I wanted; sounds weird but their were no geometry changes.  The guys at Niner got right back with me and this was during the week of Interbike, very impressive.  I started to watch the used markets for a black EMD and after a week or so came across one on eBay that was ridden a handful of times because it was the wrong size for the gentleman that purchased it originally.  I picked that frame up at a really good price and once I pulled her out of the box I realized how good of a deal I got.  This thing was pretty much brand new; in fact most people that saw the frame thought I did buy a new frame.  This was a good start.  On to the other major components.

 When it came to wheel sets, I wanted to have the lightest and strongest that I could afford.  I was quickly narrowed down to Bontrager or Velocity.  I watched the used market for some Bontrager race lites or something but didn't see anything for a while so I headed down to one of the best shops in Grand Rapids, Freewheeler.  I knew they could get Velocity wheels and were listed as a Niner dealer.  I pulled the trigger fairly quick and had them order me the Niner fork and the hand built Velocity wheel set.  There is another reason that I like Velocity so much, their shop/hq is less then a mile away from where I live.  There is nothing better then supporting a local company; of course they make it easy since they produce one heck of a product too!  Why the pink rims?  I decided to run pink rims as a tribute to one of my godfather's of biking, Dan Frayer.  As long as I have known Dan, he has run pink velocity rims.  We always joked that you can ride pink just as long as you back it up with performance.  I might not have the performance part down yet, but everytime I see my bike now I remember the good old days when we first started and our buddies Dan and Bill would take us out, support us, and mentor us to the avid mountain bikers you see now.  If Dan or Bill is reading this, then thank you for a life changing experience.

 The rest of the build up was just stealing parts from my Oryx hard tail and placing a quick order for tires and tubes.  I had a decent build on my Oryx already so I doubt I will be changing anything out in the near future in regards to those items.

 My first ride on the 29'er was pretty amazing; not because it was a 29'er but because it felt just like  my Oryx.  I was amazed at how close I got with a geometry fit by just doing a little math, ok, a lot of math.  My first ride was when we were shooting the MTB race video (not released yet) and I really didn't get a change to push it to it's limits.  The next day there was a cyclocross race which I felt like it fit that ticket just perfect for.  I did a few more cyclocross races on her and then realized that I had to race the Iceman in a few weeks and I should see how things fair on real single track; I mean, it is fully rigid.  I tried my best to get out of working so I could get up to Cannonsburg one night but it was almost dark by the time I reached the parking lot.  I jumped out of my car and jumped on the bike to see how long I would have until dark.  Wow, that was when I realized that with a little hard work in all the R&D you could get a 29'er to feel pretty close to a 26'er.  I was just on fire that night; I wasn't sure what was going on: maybe because I haven't ridden outside in a while, maybe the adrenaline of riding into dusk, or possibly the new bike.  I still don't really know, but I felt like I was going to do myself harm because I was pushing the limits so much.  I got back to the car and gave Chris a call which went to voicemail.  He got a hold of me the next day was just as stoked as I was; besides teasing me a little for switching to the 29'er side.

 So now, I have ridden a few cyclocross races and just finished up Iceman Cometh.  What do I think?  For Iceman, the 29'er was the bike to have, of course if you were there, you would probably know this already.  I was riding in a pack with the top 7 to 10 guys in my class and it was amazing how I would see the 26'ers start to go all over when it came to a sandy area.  After a few miles, I realized that jumping out into the deeper sand was a faster and safer option then staying on their wheel.  Of course my mishap happened because a 26'er got a little out of control in the sand, but I also didn't realize that we were narrowing down to single track, all of which is my fault.  The course wasn't very technical so going fully rigid had no hinder at all, I would say the weight reduction in a carbon fork versus a suspension fork out ways the benefits ten fold in a course like that.  Later, I found out from one of the guys that was in the pack with me that we were averaging a little over 18 mph.  I found this amazing because while I was in that pack I felt like I could roll at that pace for the rest of the race.  My only issue with my 29'er rig now is the weight of my rolling mass.  I spent the money for the lighter wheel set (good choice), I was conscience of the tires weight, but I didn't spend the money for a tubeless kit.  The tubes that I ran had to be over a pound a piece and that just adds up when you have to start climbing. 

 Lessons were learned and I walked (well kind of walked after Iceman) away not being disappointed at all.  Over the winter I plan to convert to a tubeless system and keep her built as-is to be used in the shorter mountain bike races.  And yes, I do plan on using my full suspension 26'er (or maybe full suspension 29'er??) for the endurance events next year; no way do I want to take that beating for more then 3 hrs on a bike.  To sum it all up, if you want a short track killer for Michigan cross country racing then build up a Niner 29'er.  Just make sure you put the money in reducing the weight of the rolling mass and do your homework to find a bike that will fit your desired geometry.