I have Niner’s Rigid RDO forks on my AIR 9, I love riding Rigid. It’s a bike that I can pick up, ride it and throw back in the shed without having to worry about anything but some lube here and there.
It’s all well and good hitting trails on a big hitting FS but you just ride over everything, rigids take me back to that time when I didn’t have suspension and you had to read the trail better. I also find it a lot more fun, I can go just as fast on that as my mates on their full sussers, granted at the end my eyeballs have been shaken loose in their sockets and the hands may hurt a bit but it’s worth it because you have worked for it.
It’s well worth trying, oh and I don’t have a beard!