29er specialist Niner Bikes has been causing huge ripples in the mountain bike community with its range of big wheeled bikes, and the Air 9 Jet Carbon hardtail has been causing the biggest stir.

Out of the box it’s a stunning frame. Sub-3lb thanks to a full carbon fibre construction designed to accept 80/100mm suspension forks or the company’s own carbon rigid fork. An interesting feature of the frame is the CYA bottom bracket.

An oversized bottom bracket shell accommodates Niner’s own Biocentric eccentric bottom bracket system, which uses conventional BBs but allows a greater range of chain tensioning adjustment than regular EBBs for the singlespeed fans.

Lea Denison builds an ultra light Air 9 Carbon

And to demonstrate how light the frame can be built up, Brighton-based Lea Denison has just put the finishing touches to his own bike. With a dash of bling and a sprinkle of carbon, he’s got himself a sub-17lb build. Here’s what he has to say about his new bike:

“I first saw sneaky pictures popping up on the internet over two years ago and thought the frame was the prettiest, so I was first on the list to get one.

“The frame is so beautiful that it only deserved the best kit; carbon Niner 710 bars, Rotor TI axel crank, stem, seat post, Chris king hubs, BB, R1 breaks and carbon Enve rims toped of with the amazingly versatile 520g Rocket Ron tires.

“The short wheelbase and incredible stiffness makes it have razor sharp handling and take out single track as quick as any 26″wheel bike I have ridden.

“It’s such an amazing bike, if singlespeed isn’t your thing you could simply sling on 10-speed via its sexy internal cabling system and it would still come in under 20lbs and be the ultimate race weapon! Hmm I quite like it in orange too.”

Discuss this bike in the forum thread here.

More info at www.ninerbikes.com and www.jungleproducts.co.uk

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