The Takeaway: Niner’s RKT is light, pedals efficiently, and features agile handling. It is a properly fast cross-country race bike.

  • Cross country racing bike with 100mm rear travel and a 100mm fork.
  • Flip-chip offers 0.4 degrees of head and seat angle adjustment.
  • Six build options. Complete builds start at around $4,400, with the most expensive build selling for around $10,000.
  • Bikes and frames should be available for purchase in September.

Price: $8,400 (estimated)
Weight: 24.2 lb. (medium, with dropper), 23.1 lb (medium, no dropper)

View Gallery


After rolling out new versions of their RIP, JET, trail bikes, and the WFO enduro bike, Niner has let loose something smaller and quicker. The RKT RDO is Niner’s short-travel (100mm) cross-country race bike. It’s all-new from tip to tail and focused on speed.

Niner is announcing the bike today (I’ve been on a sample bike for months); however, don’t expect to see this bike in shops soon. “We expect frames and build kits to ship by September 2022,” the company said. It’s the same story with prices, “Model year 2023 pricing is [not determined] at press time but will be similar to model year 2022,” which, based on the outgoing RKT, means bike prices start around $4,400 and top out near $10,000. My review bike—with 5-Star XO1 Eagle—should sell for about $8,400.

niner rkt rdo

Niner RKT 9 RDO Ride Impressions

Fast. The RKT 9 RDO is fast and precisely what a cross-country race bike should be. It feels fast, climbs fast, handles fast, and even descends (relatively) fast. When you turn the cranks in anger the bike feels crisp, efficient, and responsive. Need to make a quick adjustment mid-corner? The RKT makes precise corrections nearly instantaneously. There are few bikes I’ve ridden—including cross-country hardtails—that feel as connected and explosive as this Niner.

After years of rear suspension designs that were “meh” at best, Niner’s engineers and product team have a handle on the kinematics and shock tunes. Continuing the theme of the newest RIP and JET, Niner’s are finally getting competitive performance out of the brand’s patented CVT suspension.

The RKT’s rear suspension feels appropriately firm for an XC race bike, helping its pedaling manners and keeping the rider up, forward, and in an efficient position on steeper climbs. But the suspension is soft enough to provide good traction and take the sting out of energy-sapping hits. It also has plenty of progression to control high-speed impacts and drops which are finding their way onto progressive XC race courses. However, I still don’t love how the lower link dangles under the frame, exposing it to roots and rocks.

niner rkt rdo
I still don’t like Niner’s exposed lower link
Matt Phillips

I set the rear suspension at 25 percent sag—the visual gauge built into the upper link made this a snap—and the fork at 20 percent. I then tuned the rebound to my liking and left it there. The rear suspension has enough support and anti-squat that I only used the handlebar remote to lock out the shock when pedaling on pavement or smooth dirt roads.

If it were my bike, I’d ditch the remote lockout altogether. The RKT is efficient enough that I only used the remote occasionally. Plus, it gets in the way of a dropper remote, and a dropper is a much better accessory to run on the RKT.

The stock house-brand carbon seatpost Niner sent with the RKT is quite short at 370mm. With this post, my saddle height (725mm from the center of BB) put the post above its minimum insertion depth. Dropper posts are longer than rigid seat posts, so the dropper had plenty of insertion, which felt better given the light XC-grade frame.

Luckily, the RKT has a short, dropper-friendly seat tube. I removed the stock rigid carbon seat post and fitted the review bike with a dropper post. Unfortunately, there wasn’t room for the shock remote and the dropper remote on the left side (the remote was under the left side of the bar when I received the bike). So, the shock control went to the top right of the bar.

The dropper added 500 grams of extra post and remote weight but increased the RKT’s descending capability. The RKT handles well, but high-posting a light, quick-handling, and short travel XC bike with pinner tires down descents isn’t my idea of fun. I accepted the weight penalty for more control on the downhills. But if you prefer the lightest bike possible, my RKT review bike came in at an impressive 23.1 pounds without a dropper.

niner rkt rdo
The sag indicator makes setup a snap
Matt Phillips

Niner shipped me the bike without wheels because the planned 1544 gram DT-Swiss XRC 1501 carbon wheelset was unavailable due to ongoing supply chain challenges. In their place, I used a comparable weight (1550 gram) Reynolds Limited Edition Blacklabel 309/289r XC wheelset. Niner did include the stock Schwalbe tires, so my bike should—barring differences in wheel stiffness and compliance—feel, weigh, and perform similar to a stock build.

niner rkt rdo
Wickets keep the derailleur housing and brake hose well managed.
Matt Phillips

Niner RKT 9 RDO – What’s New

The previous RKT had 90mm of rear travel, which Niner sold in two versions: The standard RKT with a 120mm fork and the RS with a 100mm fork. The new RKT somewhat splits the difference. Frame travel is 100mm, and the announced build kits only use 100mm forks (but the brand approves the frame for a 120mm fork). Niner etched a sag gauge into the upper link to aid suspension setup, which the rider can check when sitting on the bike.

The previous generation RKT had a front derailleur mount, a sign of that frame’s age. The new RKT, as you’d expect, is 1x specific. While the outgoing RKT had full external routing, the new RKT runs hoses and housing for the derailleur, rear brake, and dropper post internally in full-length sleeves for easier maintenance. The rear derailleur housing and rear brake hose pop out of the front triangle and run externally over the BB shell before sneaking into the rear triangle. Niner’s wickets capture them for their brief external exposure to keep them out of trouble.

niner rkt rdo
The top tube cargo mount is new.
Matt Phillips

Also gone is the previous generation bike’s press-fit BB shell. Niner switched to a 73mm threaded BB shell, allowing for quicker bottom bracket installation and easier maintenance. Niner also swapped the rear derailleur hanger to SRAM’s UDH, which should help with future-proofing. Tire clearance on the new bike increased and now fits 2.5-inch tires (the old frame fit 2.3-inch).

As before, the RKT fits a bottle inside the main triangle, plus there’s a second bottle mount under the downtube. Niner added top tube mounts for a stash bag (which can also accept a K-Edge top-tube computer mount).

niner rkt rdo
A flip chips lets the rider fine tune the RKT’s geometry.
Matt Phillips

Niner RKT RDO – Geometry

Though there are five frame sizes—extra small through extra-large—with a new RKT frame comes new RKT geometry. Plus, the new frame gets one feature the old one did not have: a flip-chip.

niner rkt rdo
New geometry on top, old geometry on the bottom.
courtesy

The new frame is longer: Longer top tube, longer reach, longer wheelbase. Using my size medium review bike as an example (compared to the outgoing RKT with a 100mm fork), the new RKT has a 9-millimeter longer top tube, 16mm longer reach, and a 36mm longer wheelbase.

The head angle on the new bike is 67.6° or 68°, while the seat angle is 74.6° or 75°, depending on the flip-chip position. The old bike’s angles were 71° head and 74.5° seat, and the new frame receives a trimmed rear end with 429mm chain stays compared to the old bike's 440mm stays.

niner rkt rdo
The 3-Star GX build should sell for about $5,699
courtesy

Niner RKT RDO —Build Options

Although Niner could not provide prices at press time, they did offer complete build specifications for the upcoming line. Niner’s plans call for six builds, starting with a 2-Star SRAM SX Eagle build and topping out with a 5-star SRAM XO1 AXS build. The 2-Star build is notable because it is the only model equipped with a dropper post, and it has the more aggressive trail tires instead of the other models' low-knob race tires. You can geek out on the build details in the slideshow below.

niner rkt rdo build details
Headshot of Matt Phillips
Matt Phillips
Senior Test Editor, Bicycling

A gear editor for his entire career, Matt’s journey to becoming a leading cycling tech journalist started in 1995, and he’s been at it ever since; likely riding more cycling equipment than anyone on the planet along the way. Previous to his time with Bicycling, Matt worked in bike shops as a service manager, mechanic, and sales person. Based in Durango, Colorado, he enjoys riding and testing any and all kinds of bikes, so you’re just as likely to see him on a road bike dressed in Lycra at a Tuesday night worlds ride as you are to find him dressed in a full face helmet and pads riding a bike park on an enduro bike. He doesn’t race often, but he’s game for anything; having entered road races, criteriums, trials competitions, dual slalom, downhill races, enduros, stage races, short track, time trials, and gran fondos. Next up on his to-do list: a multi day bikepacking trip, and an e-bike race.