Do you want to seriously lighten up your Niner or other 29er mountain bike (equipped with a tapered head tube)? Go rigid with this monocoque carbon fork.
No, you obviously won't have the same suspension available to you riding rigid but you will learn to be a better rider and you'll also find that the Niner carbon fork does an excellent job of dampening road vibration and small trail bumps (trust us - many of us in the shop ride Niner rigid forks ourselves).
We have a couple of nude carbon Niner forks (tapered) in now for $520 each so feel free to check 'em out in person.
For a visual of just how tough the forks are check out the video below. No, you won't likely be attacked by a pack of hammer wielding thugs on your next ride, and you're correct if you think the demonstration below isn't the most scientifically controlled experiment ever, but we still think it makes a pretty good point and demonstrates how tough carbon can be.