Ibis' $3,000 Ripley AF Review: Precise AF | 2021 Pinkbike Field Trip

The rocket engines start up again and they are trying to land, how are you not excited? makes bikes not matter like we go to space what are you talking about? sn10 the spaceship the starship hello everyone I'm mike levy and welcome back to another valor

field

test

review

and this gray bike behind me, well this is the three thousand dollar

ibis

Ripley, a version of More affordable aluminum than Ripply carbon fiber which has been around for many years. Now there are a few things different about this bike than the Carbon Ripley, most notably the frame material and geometry, but one thing that remains the same is the DW Link suspension system.

The DW Link uses two co-rotating links and a shock with a relatively light compression setting. Now the key here is also a relatively high amount. of any squat and the end result is a bike, although well, when you press the pedals it jumps forward with a lot of enthusiasm, just like the carbon fiber

ripley

, the bottom link is actually taken from the heavier rip mo and turns on bushings. and I know what you're thinking, bushings are nothing but trouble, but they come with a seven year warranty and should provide more lateral rigidity than using sealed bearings, but everywhere else is exactly where you'll find sealed bearings, even On the top link as well, let's move on to the rest of the frame, there is room for an oversized water bottle inside the front triangle and it uses internal cable routing, although since it is not carbon, it is aluminum, it is not a routing from tube to tube, so To fix that problem, you will find ports on the head tube, so open them up and hopefully it will make it easier to do a cable change.

Let's go through the rest of the trail bike checklist and that includes boost bushing spacing at the rear and a threaded bottom bracket shell Now, around that shell you'll find a set of splines and that's where you put an adapter iscg chain guide. If you think you need one, there's also room for a 2.6-inch wide tire in the rear, as well as a 200. The millimeter diameter rotor is aluminum, this thing will always be heavier than the more expensive carbon fiber . Ripley

ibis

says a Fox Float frame and shock weighs 7.45 pounds or about 1.45 pounds more than that carbon bike.

Ibis also says that the full weights start as low as around 30 and a half pounds, but not this bike. This is the least expensive Ripley AF, it costs 3000 US dollars and on my scale it weighs 32.6 pounds, but you know what's much more important than how much this thing weighs, its geometry and that's it. In fact, where it differs a little from the carbon bike with a 130 millimeter travel fork, the front end sits at 65.5 degrees and that's one degree looser than the carbon bike with a 130 millimeter fork and it is definitely worth noting in the geometry table now all the other numbers. remain unchanged including the 76 degree seat angle and 475 millimeter reach on our full size test bike and speaking of which I should point out that this is a full size bike, ideally we would have had a medium of the same size than all the others. test bikes, but hey, as you probably know, it's pretty hard to find mountain bikes anywhere in the world right now, so the only size ibis could find for us is this large and we think it's a serious bike, so we wanted to include it, let's talk. about the different models of

ripley

af it all starts with this one here our three thousand dollars rip the af returns with dior slx a pace fork in the front and a chalk fox float in the back now if you want to spend a little more money 3 For $300, American is giving you the same frame, except with a sram nx gx drivetrain, so that's all the details on the ibis aluminum ripley.

It's enough. Let's see how this thing works. Well levy, you've ridden almost every version of the Ripley before in carbon, yes, so let's start with the setup, is there anything different here with the aluminum version? No, it's the same suspension design, that means the same setup. I went with 25 sag, which is 11 millimeters on the Fox shock, you could go a little more. more sag than that, but for me this isn't that kind of bike, like I don't want to run 30 or 35 sag on this bike, this bike is meant to be something sporty, so 25 sag has always worked.

Yo, another thing to mention is that ibis talks about their traction setting, which to me basically sounds like there is no rebound damping. We've talked about this before. I definitely prefer a more controlled feel, so I ran a handful of rebound damping clicks on that shock. for a more traditional feel and then up front it was bouncing between, you know, around 77 to 80 psi on that fox 34 fork, yeah, and we don't have control tires for this test, but you just set the tire pressure way all the other tires, yeah there are Schwalbe tires that I'm very familiar with, so it was 21 front and 23 rear, basically just riding the trails and there wasn't much to talk about.

It was set up for the ibis, so Sarah. Obviously I've been raving about this ibis on the climbs, you pedaled up a lot of verticals and also what did you think of this? Yes, it's definitely an amazing climber, it feels a lot more like getting up and going than giant trance. or the siski polygon, those bikes are much more active, like they absorb like over the roots, you're absorbing them, okay, um, but it feels much less

precise

, like the Ripley feels so

precise

and if you put it on, already You know. some power on the pedals you just throw it forward and it's a really fun bike to climb yeah exactly comparing it to the polygon and the giant again those bikes are a lot more active and I mean they don't climb terribly they're relatively mountains efficient.

The bikes take you to the top of the hill, but I mean you ride the Ripley back to back against the other full suspension bikes we have here in this value

field

test and there's a difference between night and day and that It means the Ripley suits someone who still cares about climbing and isn't just focused on the downhills and I think it's great to have that on a trail bike, still, there are plenty of trail bikes that are loose, forgiving and they have all the traction and you. you could ship it, but there's still room for that trail bike that people just want to pedal and that's it, and most of your time on a mountain bike ride will be spent right now climbing, although you might know how to get there to the top of the climb although we don't want it that way it seems, in a perfect world, all you would want to do is climb Ripley, but that is not the case.

I'll have to lower it. There's something about a shorter travel, sharper handling bike that feels more precise, like more knife than spoon, you know on that kind of risky single track where you need to be precise and think about your line choice and that's the ripley and that's the type of rider the Ripley suits someone who rides like that, someone who is precise, think about their line choice if you're the person who sees a lip and doesn't know what's on the other side and just my Mind you just send it off the dirt and tie the River probably not your bike, you know, it's not really a plow type bike, definitely not, this is a bike for someone who thinks about their line choice, thinks about being smooth , but at the same time I want to say that it's a lot of fun for people who have I spent time on the carbon Ripply, it sounds very similar, yes a lot, so it may be a little bit looser, but it still looks like that trail bike Classic Ripley that will reward a rider who doesn't want that as super forgiving. suspension that hugs the ground uh it's more fun than fast in the rough stuff that's for sure you need to think more about your line choices if your trails are smoother and tighter through the trees jesus this thing is like if it were a speeder bicycle through the narrow.

The Trees are a lot of fun to ride, more responsive than the Giant, Polygon and the other full suspension bikes we have here. I mean, the Marin has similar travel, it's 125 and yet the Ripley, I mean, it definitely feels like a more capable bike than That's for sure, yeah, the Ripley will be a great bike for someone who wants a trail bike with 120 millimeter travel that puts efficiency and energy before going through all things, so it will be more suitable for perhaps softer terrain, faster terrain. It's not full of chunky stuff and if you're the type of rider that likes to cover a lot of ground and a lot of that is rolling terrain, I mean this will be ideal, let's get into some of the details about the components, what they were Some of the highlights of this build, let's start with the good stuff first.

Highlights for me include the Schwalbe tires that come standard, the tires aren't cheap, I mean this isn't exactly a cheap bike for three grand either. It's our most expensive bike here, but at least you won't have to upgrade the tires. They definitely suit the intentions of the bike quite well. The other thing I like and we're going to say this a lot in these

review

s is that the bikes drive the train. The Shimano drivetrain chef is very good and then the other standout, the Fox suspension, we've talked about it a lot, let's talk about it again, that rhythm fork, the floating shock, this works very well and it may not have all the dials. of the most expensive things but you don't need them, let's get into the pros and cons and start with the good things.

Yes, the good thing is that the classic trail bike still exists and the only thing that has changed is that it is more capable than the And if that describes the type of bike you are looking for, if you don't want to travel more than necessary, then the ibis It's a great option, the other advantage of this bike, I mean Sarah, I don't think so. This is a big surprise, it's the climb, the dw suspension, it's a super efficient bike, you don't have to worry about flipping the pedal assist switches or anything like that, just ride your ride and the damn thing works pretty well, what about some? of the low beams or some of the things that you might want to upgrade or change if this was your bike, yeah for three thousand dollars the bike really shouldn't have any components that you would want to change and that's for the most part In this case, the highlight for me is the two piston Shimano brakes but the two piston brakes have a lot of power so what I'm talking about is the bite point changes if the bike is stopped for 30 seconds so it doesn't pull of the brake levers. in one place you pull them several times, the bite tip moves, bleeding doesn't solve this and it's actually a problem we have on almost all of our shimano brakes and I mean, I don't think it should be a problem on the bike nobody. especially when they cost three thousand dollars, okay levy, tell me who this is for and who should ride it and where yes, this is not a big surprise, the Ripley moves a lot like the Ripley, you know, it's 120 millimeters, which It's the least number of

trip

s in our group, but they are definitely well-organized

trip

s and who cares.

I mean, the answer is simple, someone who wants to cover a lot of ground, doesn't mind climbing and maybe his ground isn't very loud. If that sounds familiar, this will be a good trail bike, there you have it, it's the ibis Ripley. Stay tuned for more cheap bike tour videos, as well as roundtable videos where we compare them all.