A customer’s Niner AIR 9 RDO — bought from us a couple of years ago — came in for a full teardown and overhaul before their riding and race season. When we got it apart, we found damage and cracked carbon in the frame. Instead of losing the middle of summer to a carbon repair, they decided to move everything onto a new frame. We had a stock Santa Cruz Highball on the floor, so we stripped it down, sold them the frame, and rebuilt their bike with their own parts — which were nicer than the ones we took off.
The Build
The Story – From a Cracked AIR 9 to a Highball
This bike was already in the shop for a teardown-to-the-frame overhaul before the customer’s main riding and race season. While it was apart we found damage on the carbon AIR 9 RDO frame — cracks in two different spots, no fault of the frame. It could potentially have gone to a carbon repair person, but it’s summer and it’s riding season, and the customer wanted to be rolling by the weekend.
So the question became: what are the options to transfer all the parts onto another hardtail frame? Niner isn’t operational anymore, so another AIR 9 wasn’t happening — and Steve rates that platform, he rides an AIR 9 himself, so it’s a shame you can’t get them now. Highball framesets were in pretty limited stock and would have meant a week or so of lead time. But we had complete stock Highballs on the floor in the size they needed.
So we offered to strip one of our floor bikes down to the frame, sell them the frame, and rebuild it with their parts. Why not just sell them the bike as it sat? Because the AIR 9 had a genuinely sweet build on it, and we wanted to save those parts. Basically everything transferred except a bottom bracket and maybe a headset bearing.
Wheels – Berd on Onyx
This is the big one. The stock Highball came on Race Face ARC wheels with a SRAM 90 cassette and stock Recon Race tires — Steve isn’t a huge fan of those tires for hard XC riding; on loose climbs out of the saddle they don’t have great traction, and the front doesn’t give a lot of corner grip when you’re pushing.
The AIR 9 came in with a set of Berd wheels built on Onyx hubs — a seriously nice set — so those went straight onto the Highball. A very, very nice upgrade.
Fork – Fox Factory 32
The Highball came stock with a RockShox SID SL. The customer’s AIR 9 was a three-star build, and the way Niner used to spec those, the three-star came with Fox Factory suspension — so they already had a Fox Factory 32 in orange. We were servicing it anyway, so it got serviced and dropped straight into the Highball.
Steve thinks the orange looks fantastic against the teal frame — if he were building up one of these teal frames for himself, he’d go with the orange fork too. (We run an orange Fox Factory on our own Cervelo ZHT, which is a similar color.)
Drivetrain – X0 Eagle
The stock Highball on the floor was a SRAM 90 Transmission build. The Highball is a UDH frame, but the customer didn’t have the Transmission parts — they had X0 Eagle, and it would have been a shame to scrap those. So we fitted the universal derailleur hanger and built it as a standard Eagle drive: X0 Eagle rear derailleur, X0 Eagle cassette, and the X0 Eagle shifter.
For the crank, the SRAM 90 crank is a little beefy, and the AIR 9 had a heavier Truvativ Descendant in it — an upgrade was already on the plan — so this one got a carbon Race Face Next R crank with a Race Face narrow-wide chainring.
Brakes – SRAM G2 Ultimate
The bike came in on stock SRAM G2Rs, and there was already a request to upgrade them. We happened to have a set of G2 Ultimates in stock — still the DOT fluid brakes. When the mineral-oil brakes were coming in, we got a good deal on some G2 Ultimates and bought extras to keep on the shelf.
Steve loves the lever feel on the G2 Ultimates — he’s run them on a bike himself. The last set was earmarked for his own bike, but this customer was after nicer-feeling brakes and got a good deal on them. So Steve doesn’t have the Ultimates anymore.
Cockpit & Dropper
The carbon Niner handlebars came across to the Highball in place of the stock bars. The Niner had a fairly long stem on it, but after a quick test ride of the Highball in stock condition, we decided to keep the stock Santa Cruz stem — it’s a bit shorter.
Highballs come with a rigid post — a carbon Race Face in 27.2. That’s the same seatpost diameter as the AIR 9, so the customer’s OneUp dropper transferred straight over.
A better bike than the one on our floor
We’re always willing to mix and match parts and do what we need to do to keep a customer’s bike running, and this isn’t the first time we’ve stripped a bike off the floor to make it happen. Their bike was already in for a full overhaul, the frame turned out to be damaged, and rather than lose their summer to a carbon repair they rolled out by the weekend on a Highball carrying all their best parts. That’s the fun of this job.
Got Parts and an Idea?
We love doing custom builds at Maklin Bike Shop in Scandia, MN — including mixing and matching, and stripping stock builds to get you what you actually want. Any questions about how or why we do our builds, reach out.