The Biking Hub: Mountain

10 questions with... » Guitar Ted

10 questions with Chris and Steve from Niner Bikes

Niner Bikes was founded by Chris Sugai and Steve Domahidy, who both fell in love with the big-wheeled mountain bike format a couple of years ago. The pair saw a great business opportunity in the burgeoning 29″er movement and they jumped head first into their new project after many conversations and plenty of thought.

Niner Bikes focuses solely on building 29″er frames and the frames are designed in house, with great attention to detail. Prototypes are subjected to countless hours of testing in all sorts or terrain and production models are gauged according to rigorous quality controls.

Recently, the duo sat down to answer a series of questions from our very own Guitar Ted.

Guitar Ted: My own introduction to Niner Bikes was through your sponsorship of the 29”er forum on mtbr.com. Was this your primary target for your marketing? Has your relationship with the web community been a profitable one?

Chris: We felt the best way to reach the 29er community was through the mtbr site. I (Chris) have spent a lot of time on the boards reading and learning from others. When I got my first 29er it was because of all the talk on the boards. It has worked out well for us and we hope for all those who read and contribute to the mtbr community.

Steve: This was an awesome opportunity to really hit our target audience, and we’re really proud of being able to sponsor the forum. It’s obviously a perfect match for us, since 29” wheels are the only thing we do, and we love what the mtbr posters bring to the passion of the sport.

G-Ted: Niner Bikes didn’t just come out of thin air. Tell us how your passion for cycling turned into a company solely focused on the 29 inch wheeled bicycle.

Chris: I have had a love affair with bikes since I was a little kid. I used to race BMX when I was a teen. I used to spend all my allowance on bike parts like Araya rims, Phil wood hubs and doing mods to my bike like filing the pedals for better starts. I went to mountain bikes after that. My first real mountain bike was a Cannondale fully rigid. It was purple and got stolen.

Steve: I’ve done a lot of things in the bicycling industry, and product managing/designing was definitely the best fit for me, but I wasn’t really happy working for ‘the man’. So as Chris and I started brainstorming about starting our own company, it just really clicked. I have to say, his passion for the 29” wheel really won me over, and it wasn’t long before I was converted in an irreversible way.

G-Ted: With the business savvy you guys bring to the table, wouldn’t it be fair to say that focusing only on 29”ers is quite risky, or maybe even suicidal for a new business?

Chris: Well if you believe in something you just put your heart and soul into it. I truly believe that 29er’s are better than 26er’s. I am so confident that is all we are going to focus on. We will see in 5 years if it was a suicidal decision or not.

Steve: I don’t see it as that much of a risk. Chris and I knew that this was the right time and right place for this to just LAUNCH! The way I see it, it would have been more risky to come out with another 26” wheel bike in a market that’s totally oversaturated. In the 29” world, we can really stand out as the company shaping “The Big Revolution”.

G-Ted: Niner Bikes has become one of the fastest growing brands in the cycling business in a very short period of time. How does one keep that momentum going over the long haul?

Chris: Well I don’t know if we are the fastest growing brand, but thank you if you think so. We are constantly working on new products for the 29er market. There are lots of areas for us to cover so I think we have our work cut out for ourselves over the next few years.

Steve: Yeah, thanks for the compliment. It’s pretty overwhelming at times, and luckily for us we love what we do. We just have to keep riding and keep innovating. I don’t think that you should ever just sit back and relax, or next thing you know, the market will blow by you.

G-Ted: The new full suspension model had to be one of the more difficult models in your line to develop and get it right. Tell us why you made the choices you made and some of the challenges involved in getting a full suspension 29”er right.

Chris: Yes the r.i.p. 9 is the most difficult bike we have made so far. Steve has been working on this design for quite sometime now. We have made 3 generations of prototypes so far and are refining our final production version. Steve and I have had the luxury of riding many different suspension designs over the years so we both know what we like and dislike in suspension design. The trick is getting as many of those features in a workable design.

Steve: Full suspension is TOUGH! Especially with a 29er. Chris and I have definite geometry parameters we want all Niner’s to have, and putting that into a full suspension frame and getting everything to clear is really, really difficult. Front derailleurs, tire clearance, short chainstays, shock mounting and MOST importantly, linkage angles and locations to insure that the suspension movement is dialed is really challenging. I’ve been developing this frame since we started Niner, and that might sound like a long time, but the stakes are high, and we won’t be happy until the bike is perfect. The bike we’re showing at Sea Otter should be our last prototype.

G-Ted: Tell us how you envision the future of 29 inch bicycles and how Niner fits into that.

Chris: I have ridden bikes for almost my whole life and really believe that the 29er wheel is the best thing to come to the mountain bike market in a long time. I think the market will flip and 29er’s will be the more common wheel size vs 26 wheels. Niner plans on building the best possible 29er bikes we know how and giving the consumer and bike shops the best service we can provide. There will always be a place for a company like that.

Steve: I just want to make sure Niner is on the cutting edge, always pushing the envelope in design. I want Niner to be the leaders of the 29er industry and I want our customers to know that we are there for them. It gives me great pleasure to hear firsthand how much somebody enjoys riding one of our products.

G-Ted: On your welcome page for the Niner Bikes website it says, “Our goal is to build a complete line of 29er mountain bikes and parts and everything we do is dedicated to this end”. You have almost completed your line of bikes, but do you have any plans for more 29 inch specific parts?

Chris: We have not completed our line of bikes. There will be more models to come. Steve and I are also looking at where we can make 29er parts that are beneficial to the 29er rider. We have some designs in place and are deciding if we should move forward with them or not.

Steve: Like we said, we’re never done, and we’ll never just sit back and relax. Chris and I are always asking each other “what can be done better?”

G-Ted: Several objections are raised concerning 29 inch wheeled bikes, but I’d like to focus on the sizing for smaller riders. Chris, you are a shorter rider. Does the shorter mountain bike rider need to look elsewhere for a mountain bike? Are there some changes that could be made, in your opinion, for the 29”er to better accommodate the shorter riders out there?

Chris: Yes being 5’ 6” is a little challenging to build a 29er bike around. I think riders down to 5’ 3” can still benefit from a 29er wheel. Below that a 26 inch wheel will probably be better. Some will dispute this and hey if you still want to ride a 29er more power to ya!

Steve: There is a definite cut off point to height for a 29er. Right now I would say it’s about 5’4”. If you build a dedicated frame around a non suspension corrected rigid front fork, you could probably get that height down a bit, but it’s pushing it. Everybody talks about fork rake and getting a longer rake would allow for a slacker head tube angle which would allow for shorter top tubes without having toe overlap, but the handlebar height is still an issue, and the shorter you go the worse this gets. At some point, a 26” wheel just makes more sense.

G-Ted: There are some folks who say that there are not enough choices in tires, forks, and wheels for 29”ers, so they are not interested. Do you see this changing soon? What types of products are on the horizon for those that are waiting for more choices?

Chris: There are lots of tire choices now and even more in the very near future. The tire manufactures have started to climb on board and get behind the 29er revolution. WTB and Kenda are leading the charge and have some great tires coming. There are now more companies that offer a 29er tire than those who don’t which is a big change from just 2 years ago. Forks are a big investment for the manufactures and most are busy with the big hit market at the moment. Rock Shox Reba and WB forks are as good or better than anything the others can produce so I don’t see a problem with fork selection now. We would like to see a 5 and 6 inch fork being made.

Steve: This is really turning around and as far as tires go, there are really a lot of choices. I think more fork manufactures will be climbing on board as they see this market rapidly rising. Nobody wants to be caught off the back. We aren’t really at liberty to say what’s coming down the pipeline, but let’s just say a lot of companies are approaching us about the market.

For more information about Niner Bikes, please visit their website: www.ninerbikes.com

Editor’s note: Thanks very much to Chris and Steve from Niner Bikes for giving Guitar Ted the chance to conduct this interview. We hope our readers enjoy your candid responses as much as we did! Also, keep your eyes peeled and your ears open for news from Niner Bikes coming out of the Sea Otter Classic. We’ll keep you posted.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 7th, 2006 at 6:24 am and is filed under 10 questions with.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.