Congratulations to Pauline and James Mitchell, winners of our monthly #FanBuildFriday blog and photo contest! They submitted photos of a beautiful pair of RLT 9 RDO gravel bikes. We love that they each chose a different color for their dream bikes and we love it even more that they chose to share them with Niner and all our fans.

Here's how Pauline recounts the story of these lovely Niner gravel bikes:

"Many years ago, I met my future partner on a bike. He got me into mountain biking and found me a XS Niner AIR 9 RDO hardtail that I absolutely loved. However, we recently downsized from a house to a 1-bedroom apartment. To save space, we started looking at multi-functional bikes and settled on the Niner RLT 9 RDO model.

We each got the Sram Force AXS LTD models but made a few changes, such as installing power meters, changing out the saddles, custom top tube caps and building new wheel sets on Chris King hubs. Because we invested in the same hubs on road and gravel, wheel swaps take less than 10 minutes for both bikes. The man of the house is a wheel builder and he does not disappoint! So instead of having multiple bikes each for the road and mountain, we have one frame pulling double duty with multiple wheel sets. We also chose the RDO 9 RLT because we hope to get into bikepacking and take advantage of the 26-threaded mounts on our frames. We recently got the new bolt-on bags and are loving the extra storage."

We shopped around for a lot of gravel bikes, but Niner really stood out. The bottom line is Niner gravel bikes just work! They get the job done and look sexy while doing it.

Here's the full rundown of James and Pauline's gravel bikes:

• Frame Size: Wifey: 47 Hubby: 50
• Wheels: 
  • Road: Chris King R45Ds w/ 700c Enve SES 3.4 rims (Hubby) and Nox Falkor 36D rims (Wifey), Sapim CX-Ray Spokes 
  • Gravel: Chris King R45Ds with 650b Whisky 30W rims and Sapim CX-Ray Spokes
• Tires: 
  • Road: Schwalbe Pro One Tubeless; 
  • Gravel: Donnelly X-Plor EMP 650b x 47mm
• Groupset: SRAM Force AXS 2x drivetrain
• Power: Wifey: Sram AXS Dub on 165mm crank arms; Hubby: same on 170mm crank arms
• Saddle: Wifey: Specialized Mimic Power; Hubby: Specialized Power

Congratulations again to James and Pauline. Here's to many miles and happy travels on these sweet gravel bikes.

Remember, we choose a #fanbuildfriday winner every month so keep those pictures coming!