>> The E.M.D. 9 is fi nished off with the quality you have come to expect from Niner, with all of the

attention to detail that every Niner frame gets, including the stainless steel Niner head badge, reamed

and faced head tube and bottom bracket, chased BB threads, and faced disc brake mount tabs.

>> It’s important to us that everything bearing the Niner logo has been thought through from top to

bottom and the E.M.D. 9 is no exception. We’ve poured our heart and soul into this frame, as much as any

other, and we’ve created a fun, fast, comfortable ride that still embodies what it means to be a Niner.

>> Once again, Niner delivers on the promise for the ultimate collection of 29er’s, and the E.M.D. 9 is no

exception. Niner didn’t compromise on frame quality, and we certainly didn’t compromise on geometry.

The E.M.D. 9 comes with Niner’s proven, tested, raced, ridden, and loved cross country geometry. Short

chainstays, perfect center of gravity, precise steering, and stable descending make the E.M.D. 9 the

perfect all around hardtail frame.

The 29” wheel causes many changes to the bike that needed to be addressed. It doesn’t work to just

apply the standard 26” wheel cross country approved geometry to the 29” wheel platform. The E.M.D. 9

has a short head tube to compensate for the taller front end, which will keep handlebar positions from

getting too high. In addition, the short seat tube (16.5” for the medium) offers a better stand over height

while keeping the front triangle stiffer for those out of the saddle efforts. This frame was designed for use

with a 410mm seat post. S-Bend seat and chain stays allow for some vertical compliance of the wheel

as well as increasing the mud clearance, lowering the Q factor, and creating more heel clearance. New to

the E.M.D. 9 are more radically shaped chainstays to offer even more tire clearance than previous Niner

models. Short chain stays (for a 29” wheel) keep the back end tucked in and the wheelbase manageable

while the longer effective top tube lengths offer good stability and clearance from toe overlap.

Translating our acclaimed geometry of the ONE 9 into a geared frame wasn’t that easy. Keeping the

chainstays short and still leaving room for the front derailleur was a challenge, but Niner met that

challenge head on. The chainstays on the geard bike are only 5mm longer than the chainstays on the

single speed, and the E.M.D. 9 can accept all low mount front derailleurs, even the newest generation of

Shimano front derailleurs that have eluded our competition.

If you took a glance at the geometry chart, the 72 degree head tube angle might stand out as extremely

steep and alarm bells might be ringing. Remember, the larger wheels alter the way the bike handles

as well. By increasing the diameter of the wheel, the “trail” is also increased. The trail is determined by

drawing a vertical line from the drop out of the fork to the ground, and another line that follows the head

tube angle all the way to the ground. The distance between where these two points meet the ground is

called the trail (see trail chart). You can see the difference in trail between the 26” wheel (the smaller

circle) and the 29” wheel (the larger circle) in the chart. For a 71 degree head tube angle, the 26” wheel

has a trail of 76mm while the trail for the 29” wheel with the same head tube angle grows to 87mm (all

other tings being equal like the fork height, etc.). As the trail becomes larger, the steering starts to have a

flip-flop washed out feeling. One way to compensate for this is to increase the rake of the fork. Since we

do not currently have enough power to ask the fork manufactures to do this, we took care of it the other

way, to increase the head angle, thus decreasing the trail. Once again, you can see on the trail chart that

the trail for the 29” wheel with a 72 degree head tube angle is 80mm, much closer to the trail of the 26”

wheel with a 71 degree head tube angle. The 72 degree head tube angle on Niner bikes gives the perfect

balance of control and liveliness to the front end. In addition, the Niner geometry works brilliantly with

either an 80mm or 100mm fork.

You’ll notice that the SMALL Niner has a slacker head tube angle and a steeper seat tube angle. This was

to allow for better toe clearance with the front wheel. With the larger tires of the 29” wheel, toe overlap is

an important factor. We had to make sure that there was ample room for a normal size foot to clear the

front wheel. If you’re 5’6” and wear a size twelve shoe, you might have some problems here, but then

again, you should probably be in the circus.

One more important note on Geometry: Our SMALL frames do not have a water bottle mount on the seat

tube. This is to allow full adjustment of the seat post, so when you lower it, it doesn’t stop where the screw

goes into the frame for the water bottle. We felt it was more important to be able to get the seat out of the

way for those hairy descents.