Goodbye Orbea - Hello Niner

I bought a used Orbea 29'er frame in 2008 just to try out the whole 29'er thing. It was a hard-tail Lanza. Turns out I would up consistently choosing to ride the Orbea instead of my full-suspension Ellsworth for all races, even Burnin' at the Bluffs and the BT Epic.

So even though I didn't do nearly as well as I'd hoped in the BT Epic, I survived it and loved the 29'er hardtail feel. Thanks to TK, Ghisallo is getting it's team members killer deals on Niners. So I had to upgrade and bought a Niner Air9! Fortunately, all components from the Orbea except the seatpost fit the Niner.

I took the Niner out on its first ride yesterday in Castlewood with John Peiffer and needless to say, I'm thrilled with the Niner!


I really wanted the frame in orange but they stopped making the Air9 in that color in 2009. I thought about looking for a 2008 but they also increased the rear wheel clearance on the 2009s so I had to stick with a 2009. (The Orbea had very little clearance and riding in mud was an issue.) So I went with the "Atomic Blue" color. I love the color but am not thrilled about one aspect of the color - it glows in the dark! Yep, it literally glows in the dark.