Niner Shows Integrated Luggage And Teases Full Suspension Gravel Bike

Niner, which many people know for its fast race mountain bike hardtails and full suspension bikes has been developing a few new products to appeal to those with a less racy outlook.

The SIR9 (Steel Is Real) has been around for a few years now and Niner is happy to admit that there’s a fair amount of UK influence in its design – with a long fork, dropper post and clearance for big tyres – or mud…

Niner is now going to be offering luggage to fit the bike for those who want to go bikepacking, or who just need to carry a lot of stuff on the bike. Boasting an internal frame to keep things rigid, the frame bags come in three sizes to match the three frame sizes and they will have hardware to allow for strap-free attachment of the bag.

The SIR9 frame comes with bosses on the underside of the top tube and extra bosses on the downtube already. These bags bolt on to the frame and allow you to mount luggage without having to use Velcro straps, which can quickly rub through paint unless you’re very careful with how you mount them

Meanwhile, over at the front of the booth, Niner was teasing a ‘Do Not Touch’ prototype of a full suspension gravel/touring/adventure bike called the MCR. The MCR stands for ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ and uses Niner’s existing CVA suspension design to offer a short travel, drop bar machine.

That’s the X-Fusion dropper post lever

The bike on show features a travel-reduced Rockshox RS-1 fork up front and an asymmetric rear shock that still leaves room for a front derailleur on the other side.

It was one of the ‘Have you seen…?’ bikes of the Sea Otter.

There’s a neat mudguard to keep front mech and shock cleaner

The MCR is slated for a 2019 launch and will offer front and rear lockout for pavement and will work with 50mm 650B tyres, or chunky touring 700c tyres too. It will be ‘compatible with frame, seatpost and handlebar bags for your bikepacking adventures’ too.

Niner didn’t list the travel, but it looks like 50mm or so.

The travel-reduced RS-1 is going to be pretty direct feeling with such bushing overlap.

Of course we touched it…

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)