The new RKT 9 RDO gets a swathe of updates
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Niner has announced its new RKT 9 RDO cross-country mountain bike, with 100mm of suspension travel front and rear.
With the new bike, the brand says it has focused on improving the RKT’s agility, as well as its versatility.
The updated design features the brand’s own CVA twin-link suspension system, as well as updated longer, lower and slacker geometry with a flip chip and improved cable routing.
We’ve been expecting an update to the RKT platform because it was the last Niner bike to remain without an updated frame design.
The outgoing RKT 9 RDO was offered in a cross-country ‘RS’ flavour with 100mm of suspension travel at the front and 90mm at the back, as well as a souped-up model with 120mm of suspension travel up front.
Niner appears to be consolidating both models with this update and says the new RKT 9 RDO can also be used off the race course for burlier riding.
Pricing has not been made available yet, but Niner says it will be “similar” to the outgoing model.
The RKT will be available in ‘Blood Red / Silver’ and ‘Nude Carbon / Silver’ colourways. Availability is expected to be from September.
Other than offering a 27.5in wheel option on the RIP 9 RDO enduro bike, as its name suggests, the brand has long been a stalwart for 29in wheels .
The RKT 9 RDO is made from Niner’s own ‘Race Day Optimized’ (RDO) carbon fibre, which the brand claims offers a balance between lightweight, stiffness, strength and compliance.
Niner claims a 2,267g frame weight in a medium with the rear shock and seat clamp installed, but without the rear axle and headset.
The RKT’s maximum tyre clearance has been boosted to 29×2.5in, up from 2.3in.
The RKT can accept a bottle cage inside the main triangle, as well as under the down tube with a secondary mounting point.
There are also mounts on the top of the top tube for extra food or tools, or as the brand jokingly suggests in the press kit, “supplemental oxygen”.
The rear post-mount disc brake caliper is now fitted on the non-driveside chainstay rather than the top of the non-driveside seatstay of its predecessor.
The RKT now also incorporates a ribbed protector on the driveside chainstay to silence chain slap, compared to the flat-profiled protector of its predecessor. Moulded frame protection is also utilised under the bottom bracket junction.
On that note, the RKT uses a 73mm BSA threaded bottom bracket for mechanical ease and moves to SRAM’s universal derailleur hanger (UDH) standard.
While Niner explains the RKT 9 RDO was designed for cross-country racing efficiency, it says it’s more than suitable for tackling harder terrain, too (although it’s not a downcountry bike ).
The RKT 9 RDO is compatible with a 120mm suspension fork and the brand says you’re welcome to spec a shorter stem and wider bar.
Niner tells us the RKT can accept a dropper seatpost (all of the builds with the exception of the entry-level 2-star feature rigid seatposts).
There is a flip chip at the lower shock mount that slackens the head tube and seat tube angles by half a degree.
As with most of Niner’s bikes, the RKT 9 RDO now features the brand’s full-sleeve internal cable routing. Niner has also resisted fully integrating its cables through the stem and steerer tube, as we are seeing on many new cross-country race bike releases.
This sees moulded tubes inside the frame, so when you route a cable through its designated port in the down tube, it will simply pop out at the other side, without any ‘fishing’ required.
There is even full-sleeve routing to account for a dropper post. The brand includes blanking plugs for any redundant holes.
Like Niner’s recent full-suspension releases, such as the JET 9 RDO and WFO 9 RDO, the RKT 9 RDO inherits a lot of the same technologies, only in a 100mm-travel package.
The RKT 9 RDO uses Niner’s CVA design, a short dual-link, four-bar rear suspension system that is unique to the brand.
The brand says the CVA suspension is “made to send every ounce of thrust directly to the rear wheel”.
Like its other bikes, there is now a sag indicator window on the rocker link pivot to make setup easier. The brand recommends aiming for 25 per cent.
Niner adds it is using a trunnion shock mount for “smooth articulation and added stiffness”.
3-star builds upwards feature remote suspension lockouts front and rear, and as with the rest of its bikes, Niner uses Enduro Max Black Oxide pivot bearings for improved longevity.
The RKT 9 RDO is available in five sizes from XS to XL.
It features a 68-degree head tube angle in its high-mode and 75-degree seat tube angle. The reach is 440mm in a size medium.
This is pretty much in line with other cross-country bikes, although the reach is on the shorter side.
Switching the flip chip to its low mode slackens the head tube angle to 67.6 degrees and the seat tube angle to 74.6 degrees. The reach reduces to 436mm.
Compared to Canyon’s Lux World Cup , which doesn’t feature a flip chip, that bike has a steeper 68.5-degree head tube angle, identical 75-degree seat tube angle and longer 450mm reach in a size medium.
Specialized’s Epic is more progressive with a 67.5-degree head tube angle, 75.5-degree seat tube angle and 445mm reach in a size medium.
Although the RKT 9 RDO’s geometry doesn’t seem radical on paper, the CVA suspension system should also play a significant part in its ride feel.
Oscar Huckle is a technical writer at BikeRadar. He has been an avid cyclist since his teenage years, initially catching the road cycling bug and riding for a local club. He’s since been indoctrinated into gravel riding and more recently has taken to the dark art of mountain biking. His favourite rides are epic road or gravel routes, and he has also caught the bikepacking bug hard after completing the King Alfred’s Way. Oscar has close to a decade of cycling industry experience, initially working in a variety of roles at Evans Cycles before joining Carbon Bike Repair. He is particularly fond of workshop tool exotica and is a proponent of Campagnolo groupsets. Oscar prefers lightweight road and gravel frames with simple tube shapes, rather than the latest trend for aerodynamics and full integration. He is obsessed with keeping up to date with all the latest tech, is fixated with the smallest details and is known for his unique opinions.
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