Being lucky enough to own a RipMo, A SolarisMax and the last of the 27.5 Orbea Occam’s. it’s pretty hard to justify a new bike.

Having said that, I’ve been on a ten year project to find the perfect ‘third way’ bike between the hardtail and the big bike. I tell myself it’s a project because otherwise it’d look like a random bike buying exercise by a man with the attention span of a moth.

Before you click on either of these links, be aware swearing is basically punctuation:

The what: https://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=4510

The why: https://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=4514

I’m now at the centre of a parcel tornado where i’m hoping everything will turn up before we go back to CwmCarn a week Saturday. I’d probably better add a mudguard to the list of things to buy.

I clicked both links but ……too wordy. What are you getting?

It’s an awesome bike I just got a frame to replace my Smuggler. Swapped all the parts over. Am sure my Smuggler an XL wasn’t much more than 32lb with coil shock had carbon wheels, bars etc. The Ripley is lighter & definitely accelerates quicker then the smuggler & is a more lively ride, my mate clocked a couple of KOMs for the year on it despite being too big for him & riding in winter slop round bedgebury & I am running it with 140mm up front!

I clicked both links but ……too wordy. What are you getting?

^^^this. I tried but life’s too short for all this cryptic shit after a Friday night drink…and who the hell is Carol? 🍷

The clue was in the pic on the first link… it’s an Ibis Ripley.

I wasn’t being click-bait-y…it occurred to me after @sir_hc’s post, that I’ve had a lot of ‘middle’ bikes (okay I’ve had a lot of bikes but…). So it was interesting – to me at least – to go back and see what they were.

That’s what the first 900 words are, and the second are why I chose the Ripley as my next/last (hah!) one. If that’s all a bit TLDR, the conclusion I came too was either:

– I like shorter travel bikes because of the way they ride. And they give me excuses not to have to ride stuff that scares the heck out of me OR

– I just am good at finding excuses where there is zero justification for new bikes.

@transition1 – I really did like my Smuggler. It’s a beast tho and the lack of clearance is a problem around here at least 4 months of the year. I think my Ripley will be 28lbs ish. My L smuggler was 32 with a coil.

@nuke – Carol is my long suffering wife. We have a long standing agreement. I pretend that I’ve a good reason to buy a new bike, and she pretends to believe me 😉

Oh @transition1 – any more ride info on the Ripley. I think I watched every review video and read every article. I sort of want it to be a mini-ripmo, but I definitely want it to feel like a totally different bike.

Mine’s going to be 1×12 (SLX) but with a SunRace cassette as I can’t justify buying new wheels with Microspline. Also first time with a DVO fork. Had a DVO shock before which I really rated. Nice people to deal with as well. Going to run it at 130mm.

Everything is inbound except the frame. I’ve seen a picture of it on Instagram, but it’s yet to leave the bike shop.

You sound like me… but with more means to actually buy more bikes 🙂

I have only ridden it a couple of times but liking it. Running 1X12 XX1 with 140mm travel Manitou Mezzer fork. Just fitted a CCDBIL air shock from the Black Friday deals but not tested it yet, bought the frame with the lower speck fox shock, but not a fan of fox suspension.

Don’t know if pi will work

The 140mm travel thing is interesting. Everything I’ve read says run it 130 but the staff at ibis all seem to run it 140. Maybe I’ll start there so I don’t have to fiddle with my brand new fork.

I had that Fox shock on my Mojo3. The DPS on my RipMo is way better. But I’ll stick with the stock shock unless I really don’t like it. Be good to hear how you get on with yours. Nice build, shame the pic didn’t come out…

@johnw1984 – yeah well I know how much I’ve spent over the years. I can absolutely justify it in my own head. I’m not sure it makes much sense to anyone else.

@Alex I’m totally in agreement with you. My problem is that I have no respect for money lol.

Only yesterday, I was contemplating selling my 2 ride old DV9 to fund a gravel bike! I have been reading about the Ripley recently too, and the Ripmo is on the “next bike” list.

Don’t know if pic worked this time

@johnw1984 – I saw your DVO build when you put it up here. It looked a very nice bike. Kind of a strange one from Ibis that. Sort of an XC bike.

I’m really looking forward to riding the RipMo and Ripley back to back. My mate has a Mk3 Ripley and we’re going to ride that back to back with it as well. I expect that’ll feel more different than the RipMo

@transition1 – sadly not 😉 Just post the link…

https://flic.kr/p/2hZ55ci

There you go 🙂

Your smuggler looks like it has 200m of rear travel with the coil on it! Is the Ripley an XL? Those mismatched wheels are making me very sad 😉

Cheers for the pic. Will get there one day. Yes both XL frames am only cm taller than you but like long bikes. Mismatched wheels due to the carbon rims 26mm internal but light rims 400g so running a 29X2.35 HD on rear & front is a Baron with 29X2.6 MM up front. Carbon on front be too narrow to run a 2.6 tyre.

I have a HD 2.35 and a Magic Mary on my 29er wheels ready to go. They’re 32mm internal I think (Old American Classic Wide Lightenings). Agreed I wouldn’t want to run a 2.6 tyre on a 26mm rim..

Having short legs/long body has always put me between sizes. The great thing with the RipMo and Ripley are their super short seat tubes. I’m running a 210mm dropper in my L RipMo. The Ripley is longer than the Ripmo in terms of reach so that’ll be interesting.

For info this is my build:

Invisitape just arrived so just frame/forks/transmissions/bars to come 😉

Interested in the outcome of this. More from a Ripley Vs Ripmo point of view. One or the other, rather than both.

Haha, didn’t think you’d be able to resist for long Alex.

Must admit, there is something about the new Ripley that makes me think it is the bike best suited to 95% of the riding I do and I was very close to changing my Ripmo order for one.

The one thing that stopped me was that I can make myself a little (a lot) lighter and put some lighter tyres on the Ripmo, where as beefing the Ripley up if needed would be a much more expensive procedure.

Tbh I’m sure it will be an awesome bike and will likely benefit from being a little longer in the top tube than the ripmo. I’ve gone out to a 60mm stem on mine and it feels a lot better.

Might come down a bit in the tyres next time as the stock 2.5″ beasts are exactly that – poop, should have bought the Ripley after all …

That’s looking like a nice build there Alex. Like you I have short legs & long back so went XL, my Smuggler was XL & was great. Am running a shorter 42.5mm Burgtec stem. The Smuggler was a very capable bike with the coil.

@onzadog – reviews I’ve read/watched seem to agree if you live somewhere rocky/steep/techy/etc you’d be better on a RipMo. These are all very good riders tho. For me, the RipMo is two things; giving me a bigger margin of error on trails with a lot of that tech and it’s such a fun bike to ride anywhere else.

There’s no way I’d exchange one for the other. If I had no bikes and had to choose, hmmm let me get back to you on that! But I know already for the two trips away we’re doing in 2020, the RipMo is going to be perfect.

@twonks – yeah best thing I did to my RipMo was fit the Newmen SL35 wheels. Definitely more lively. I think building it light is the wrong way to go. With it’s 2.5 tyres, Lyrics, 4 pot brakes, heavy duty kit, mine is still only 30lbs ish. That’s amazing for such a capable bike. I was wondering about a slightly longer stem. I think mine is 40mm currently.

@transition1 – did you sell your Smuggler after you bout the Ripley?

@Alex all the parts on the Smuggler frame have gone onto the new Hello Dave frame so have a Smuggler frame to sell.