29er recommendations

[Becky]

I demo'ed that same bike and ended up with an alloy Niner Jet 9. I've ridden it all season, including some fairly technical places, and been really happy with it. If I sold it today, I'd probably replace it with the new version they just released....air-formed and with 100 mm of travel, rather than 80 mm like mine.

Edit: I chose to buy a frame during their sale last December and pick my own parts rather than purchase something pre-built. I ended up with full XT, a SID XX fork (closeout cuz it's QR, not thru-axle), and I built up a set of wheels with some XTR hubs I had and a set of Stan's Crest rims. Pricewise, it was comparable to their 3-star build: http://www.ninerbikes.com/jet9. It was worth a little bit of extra work on my part to get exactly what I wanted and grab some stuff on closeout as well.