Not the easiest of builds. We’ll get to that. Anyway started with a bunch of new Shimano 1×12 and DVO Sapphire 34 D1 forks. Plus brakes and a few bits harvested off my Orbea and some quite tired American Classic wheels that’ve had some tap across a few bikes

The wheels have a load of corroded (alu) spokes. They really need replacing. We really couldn’t be ar$ed as once I’ve sold the Orbea I’ll buy some NEWMAN SL30s with Microspline.

The Orbea (2nd hand) came with a DVO shock and I’ve been really impressed. And since a 44mm offset pike is £900, I went with the DVO Sapphire. Spoke to them, really good people. Couldn’t be more helpful.

First job, chainline. Max 32T with a 52mm chainline. I don’t want to run anymore than that because it makes such a mess of the lower gears. More of that in a minute.

Looks tight but that’s similar to my RipMo and I’ve had no issues at all in 18 months. The new SLX is really nice to put together. Bike-Discount were doing some great deals and I couldn’t justify the jump to XT. First time with 1×12.

Right let’s get properly started

Proper threaded BB. Stuck wheels in to test fit then whipped forks off to reduce travel to 130mm (from 140mm). That ended up being a bit mission.

DVO provide great text and videos. At this point they said ‘you need a pin spanner’. We didn’t have a pin spanner

ctd…

Ohh hurry up and build it, test it and tell me I need one 🙂

Been out on an XC ride on my DV9 today, then ended up sessioning some little gap jumps!

What we had were a couple of butch circlip pliers we were worried would chop into that soft alu. Not much shifting with a test. So we went lateral and heated up the loctite holding that thread.

Yep that worked and that yielded the part we’d been trying to get too for about 30 mins

Worth saying DVO build their forks with lots of grease and lube oil. Most of which is on my workshop floor 😉 Clipped in the spacer to reduce to 130mm. That’s the Off The Top (OTT) spring which is a very cool small bump spring that doesn’t affect air pressure.

So forks back together with some 7W Fox oil I brought with me when we moved here 11 years ago. Still looked okay so in it went.

Time for a break. Cup of tea and a mince pie. And a bit of bench tidying. My mate is an ace mechanic but blimey he can make a mess

Robbed the brakes from the Orbea. Felt a bit bad about it as it’s a good bike but I really wanted the Ripley. I’ve enough decent parts to build it back up. It’ll get sold on and someone is going to get a light, fast bike. It’s lighter than the Ripley by a 1lb or so (built up with very light wheels not those on it).

Okay that was the job I wasn’t looking forward too. Should be pretty easy from here on it. Hah.

Ctd..

Let’s cut to the chase here. That cassette is an abomination. I’m was embarrassed when it was hidden in the packaging. On the bike it’s hideous.

My reasoning is that when I get microspline I’ll go back to a 45T SLX cassette. But the only sub £100 option for a standard shimano freehub is the Sunrace 11-50. It’s cheap because it’s heavy. I expect new wheels/45T cassette will take a 1lb off the build.

That wasn’t the big issue tho. We could not get it to shift properly. Eventually we gave up on being blokes who can work things out and dived into youtube for help. Which it did, there’s a mark on the mech to show how much b-screw tension you need. After that shifting improved massively. Still feels mad you can get a mech to run 10t to 50T.

That done, we routed cables for brakes and dropper through the – oh thank you ibis – carbon tubes. Slight issue with rear brake cable length but we winged it for now. Couple of other bits I’d forgotten but we bodged our way round.

ctd…

Last 10%, 25% of the time 😉

Steerer needed a file to get the headset to pre-load. Hope Head Doctors. Still not convinced. Trying to match the laughably low torque for Renthal stem with bars not actually moving.

Adding air to shocks and forks. Forks felt horrible Then I realise they were locked out and we’d would 90% of the rebound off when disassembling them. Felt better after going back to some ‘finger in the air’ default’ setting.

Set seat height. Took some pics

ctd..

Quick ride in the dark and the rain. Amazing the shifting works which was an unexpected bonus. Hard to know what else to think other than it doesn’t feel like a mini ripmo. Feels like it wants to go. Even with me on it. We shall see.

So build is

Ibis Ripley – Large
DVO Sapphire 34 D1 Boost set to 130mm
Hope Headset
Renthal 40mm stem and 780mm carbon bar
American Classic Wide Lightening wheels
Magic Mary (orange) 2.35 and Hans Damf (blue) 2.35
SLX levers and Zee calipers. SLX rotors
SLX 1×12 with Sunrace 10-50 cassette
OneUp V1 170mm dropper
Fabric saddle
Burgtec Composite pedals
Full invisiframe

Weights about 28.9 lbs I think but my scales are rubbish. Anyway it’s about 1.5lbs under my RipMo which has big burly everything. Come summer I’l run 2.4 Rekon’s on Newman wheels which’ll shave a bit.

Cwmcarn tomorrow. In the last six weeks I’ve ridden my SolarisMax, the Orbea and my RipMo there. So this should be a good test. If a rather wet one.

In the van ready to go. I like the stealth black. Tomorrow it will be brown.

@johnw1984 – it’s built. Not in its final configuration but ready to go at Cwmcarn. That didn’t look likely a couple of hours ago! I’ll report back 🙂

Still like the DVO. It’s a bike I really don’t need tho!

Nice one, I think these look fantastic! It’s always the way when you’re building your own bikes, the first ride is always 95% complete 🙂

Looking forward to hearing how you get on with it.

I normally hate every bike I’m on half way up the Cafel climb at Cwmcarn so that’ll be a good test. It looks great. Certainly a RipMo silhouette which means it’s a great fit for me. Really looking forward to see how it rides.

I don’t want a mini RipMo, so we shall see…

A looker for sure, if the 32mm Sapphires are anything to go by then you’ll rate those 34mms pretty highly tbh

DVO guys are good and quick to respond and send over spares from abroad

Just be careful bout using other fork oil like iirc maxima oil disintegrates seals etc and will not get the best performance from inside out

I gotta say between the 2 of Bos & Dvo it is a tough choice as both are THE best I have ever used

Ps. I adjusted my OTT neg spring without any air in fork and also mainly ride on “3” LSC for general riding and down to 2 on DH style stuff

Haven’t tried 1 yet and 6 too stiff and locked even on road 😜 though 5 is good for road to get to trails 👍

I gotta say Ibis as I know pedal real amazing like that I kick myself a tad when I sd mine so soon after purchase just the pedal bashing rocks and ground even, with sag set correctly to 25% ish on the Mojo 3

It was a great handling big bmx as both of us know just too low down which is why it handled great and a snappy short rear end

Anyway looks mega lovely for a not needed type bike and all best👍😁

Good looking bike that. Hope it rides as well as it looks.

Love a little bike build thread. State of that van floor though. 😬

@garage-dweller – that’s not my van 😉 You should see his garage!

@tenfoot – thanks.

@tdog – I never had the same troubles as you on my Mojo3. Biggest issues I had was the tyre clearance for 2.8 tyres (ie. None). I don’t remember pedal strikes being any worse than other bikes I’d had but I have had quite a lot 😉

Appreciate the info on the fork. I’ve got it setup based on the guide on DVO’s website and a chat with Geoff at DVO. He has a Ripley so I went with his advice. It didn’t feel nice in the workshop but felt a lot better just riding up and down the road.

Having just stripped it and put it back together I expect it’ll take a while to bed in.

I might try the OTT with no air Ta. Currently running LSC totally open until I’ve tried a few downhills to see how it feels.

Bike is looking good mate. Am loving my V4 although not ridden it loads as off the bike again currently. It will be great at Cwmcarn, It’s a good climber much better than my Smuggler which wasn’t bad.

Hi @transition1. My 2017 Alu Smuggler did climb well. But blimey it was a lump. This isn’t super light but sits high in its travel. Feels very efficient. We’ll see tomorrow. I’ll have 45 minutes on that first climb to find out 😉

I might even get to love the 50T 🙂

I wrote a thing. As ever it’s sweary from the first paragraph https://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=4530

I am glad I am not the only one who noticed the chainring being close to frame. Am running a 32T oval on DMR Axe cranks & at points it’s close then far away as ring rotates being oval. As you saw from my Smuggler was a lump with a coil but some light components on bike. My Ripley quite a burly build with 140mm Manitou Mezzer up front but what a fork!

Yeah I looked at that fork after your previous post. Not seen it before. Looks to be a monster. I hope the time it took to drop the DVO’s to 130mm is worth it. Because it was a proper PITA.

I run 32T oval on my RipMo and it’s silly close. If I wanted to run an oval on the Ripley on these cranks (as new SLX have chainring on the inside of the spider) then it’s 30 at best. We do a lot of riding to trails and i quite like a decent ratio for the road.

Ah well, it’s done now. I don’t expect it to be a static build 🙂

Hope it’s still in the van in the morning…

Lovely looking bike mate. Like the stealth look on bikes.

Must admit, id be a little worried leaving her in a van overnight too but I’m sure she’ll be ok.

Nice workshop. Planning a similar setup with wall mounted small parts trays. I’m aiming to have a spare of everything one day.

Whenever that happens I feel the urge to bolt it onto a frame.

So a lap of both trails at Cwmcarn today

Before

During

After

Conditions were pretty good. Muddy in parts but no lack of grip. I’ve been there four times (on four different bikes!) in the last six weeks. What Strava tells me is the bike is not the limiting factor 🙂 However, in terms of fun I really enjoy my Solaris Max around there and the Ripley was fab today.

Obviously new bike glasses and only one ride, but things I like

– it’s super agile. I mean proper poppy and brilliant in the corners (even if I’m not). It reminds me more of my old Orange ST4 than it does a scaled down RipMo. I’m really happy about that.

– Climbs like the RipMo tho. Bit lighter but same sitting high in the travel. Loads of grip all day both up and down.

– I’ve been to Cwmcarn a lot. So it’s good to get some PRs even if only by a couple of seconds. For a first ride out in kind of grim conditions with a bit of a hangover then I’m very happy with that.

– The DVO fork is brilliant. Even if I bottomed it out being stupid. The Fox shock is good but it’s a bit wooden. I’d love a DVO on the back. 130mm is more than enough for me except when it isn’t. I’d read this bike can get you into trouble but maybe not out of it. I did sort of miss my big lyrics a couple of time.

– 1×12. Expected to be a bit Meh. But its’ really really good even SLX matched to a SunRace cassette. Super precise shifting and I did use the second biggest sprocket a couple of time. Just made it a bit less grunty. I’m a convert.

– Bloody glad I inivisframed the bike. So much trail grit to wash off when I got home.

So do I like it? Of course I do. I like how Ibis bikes ride and expected I’d be comfortable on it. It’s not as long as I expected (longer than RipMo doesn’t feel it esp sitting), it turns quicker than the ripmo, quite a lot quicker and is easier to boost off stuff. It’s going to be a brilliant bike for the FoD.

Anyway more rides to come over the break. To be honest just riding any bike after 2 weeks doing nothing but turbo was fab. 4 times up the Cafel climb in five weeks tho. That’s enough 😉

Yes base settings are a really decent start as it goes

Yes they take a few decent rides to bed in but totally rewarding more so once done

I lowered mine to 120mm as my ht dictates max of 120mm
I did bottom out once or twice down a DH style track at Gawton Gravity hub which was fun
Lack of sleep and a stressful few months meant I fell off awkwardly at the first lil dropoff but yowsers is that place looking like a lot of fun to be had (reminds me to go more often)

Urrrmmm glad you’re still riding Ibis and completely agree the way they ride, feel and have that DW link platform is jaw droppingly good

I reckon I might add a couple clicks of HSC instead of upping air chamber as have learnt over the years that running more sag works more efficiently than hard feeling

We seem really lucky in this day & age to have a load of adjustable features which means setting up on fly when out is not a chore

I liberally lube my seals before most rides now with TF Tuned fancy fluid to keep things fresh

Re: that wooden shock, guessing a topaz woukd address issues there just whenever looking at the ripmo af I would be wanting the optional jade x cause ya know, it looks rad & would no doubt feel cushy… 👍😁

I did do some fiddling on the trail today so I’ll check out where I’m at, and use that as a baseline. The ShockWiz generally points out useful stuff. Can’t do much with the rear shock other than air pressure and rebound.

I’m not buying anything else for a bit. This wasn’t quite the budget build I had in my head when I started!

Haha they never are budget imo from having had loadsa custom builds

Looks great Alex and glad the ride went well.

Know what you mean about the Sunrace cassettes. I have a 11sp 50T one on my HT and it weighs about the same as a small planet, although it is a great sit and spin winch out of trouble gear.

Have a 12sp Eagle X01 cassette on the Ripmo and would really recommend one if you happen to fall over a bag of cash. Superb bit of engineering and a lot lighter. Needs the XD freewheel though.

Yeah I make do with the SR 50T cassette too here and yes weighty indeed on my ti ht

Wooops! 😜

@twonks – I did look at those. Briefly 😉 I knew I was going to get some new wheels at some point, so I’ll take the weight / ugly penalty until I do then go all Shimano 12 speed on Micro-Spline.

Amusingly I was very dismissive of he 50T, but I’m now wondering if I might have been a bit hasty 🙂