I received a shipping notice early last week, and, to my surprise, it said that the A9C would arrive Christmas Eve. So, I bribed Matt with French toast and a computrainer to get him to sit around my house & wait for the frame delivery while I was at work. However, just after we polished off the French toast, the FedEx truck miraculously appeared… OMG!!! I was giddy.

I packed the carbon goodies into the Element & headed to work. When I arrived, my suspicion that I have the best job and co-workers in the world was confirmed. The office was packed full of coffee, food, and alcohol, including a keg of homebrew that one of the managers had brought. At lunch time, the owner of Outdoors, Joe Royer, delivered lunch for all of the employees. I worked on building my bike in between helping last minute shoppers pick out random stocking stuffers (if you recieved a set of Swiftwick socks under the tree, you’re welcome ;)

Today, I packed up and headed to Mountain View to test the new ride. I figured since I’d switched to a rigid fork that I’d go easy and try the red trail first (which you could essentially ride on a CX bike). I really can’t describe how awesome the ride of this bike is. You just have to ride it yourself. It’s incredibly stiff, and the handling is what you expect from the likes of Niner (they aren’t a “bandwagon” company that’s started producing a line of 29ers just to cash in on the 29er’s popularity, and it shows). Like I thought, the carbon fork is going to take some getting used to. So far it seems like a good choice- I like to stand a lot when I ride SS. The rigid fork makes that method of climbing feel much more efficient than a suspension fork.

Anyway… I only rode the red trial. I planned on adding a green loop to the end of my ride, but when I arrived back to the parking lot after the red, I realized that my car had a flat tire. By the time I changed it, I was frozen, and headed back to the shower. Tomorrow, I’m planning on an epic blue/green/orange loop. It will involve much more climbing and rocks, so I should have an even better idea of the capabilities of the bike. So far, though, I’m incredibly impressed…