Okay, so we’re not going to beat around the bush on this one. The JET 9's will be delayed again. It's always something, right? Well, the frames are almost finished, actually, the frames ARE finished and ready to go. Now it’s a delay in the linkage that’s clogging the works. We are really putting everything we have into making the JET 9 not only the best functioning bike we can design, but also the best looking rig that we’re capable of. In that effort, we were really pushing for a mirror polish finish on the linkage and we were unhappy with the level of “mirror” we were achieving with standard polishing and clear ano. So, months ago, before production, we started testing chrome plating. This is not the chrome plating from your 1981 Mongoose BMX bike that just flaked off after a month, this chrome plating has been refined and is amazingly thin (about .01mm thickness). It also doesn’t come off. We literally dragged the test linkage through the streets to see the effect on the chrome plating, and although it did scratch, it never flaked, no matter how much abuse we hammered into it. We dented, bent, banged and otherwise destroyed the chrome plated test linkage, and it just grinned and kept shinning. It seems that the worst thing you can do to it is touch it, and put your finger prints all over it.
That being said, we decided to go with this chrome plating for production, and wanted you to get your frames and be totally blown away with and surprised by the mirror finish on the Jet 9 linkage. Well, some things don’t go as planned. The plating process is taking longer and becoming more difficult to achieve than we had first expected. We are getting them all done it is just taking time to do it right.
We know you’re probably pretty eager to get your hands on the new frames, and we’re just as miffed about it as you are. We’re doing everything in our power to rectify the problem and deliver the Jet 9’s with the beautiful linkage we set out to deliver. Again, we know, another delay. We apologize sincerely, we expect to have frames to your local Niner Dealers around April 28th. This is the final stretch, we're almost there, please hang in there with us.
If the delay is an issue please contact Ryan ryan@ninerbikes.com.
We have had a lot of calls about the compatibility of the FOX F29 and the Jet 9. We did extensive testing of early prototypes of the FOX F29 in both the 80mm and 100mm versions while we were in development. (Thanks FOX!!) We can happily say the F29 will work brilliantly with the Jet 9. We do recommend you use the consumer version with the 44mm offset verses the Gary Fisher OEM version at 51mm. Rock Shox Reba and all other current 80mm-100mm travel 29er forks will work as well.
