The all new and highly anticipated Ibis Ripley 29!!!!

The all new and highly anticipated Ibis Ripley 29!!!!

Ibis Ripley 29 was released on Monday and the industry is buzzing! The enigmatic 29'er has been in development for several years now, so what's all the hub bub you say? Continue reading to find out!

 "The heart of the Ripley is its dual-eccentric dw-link suspension".

ECCENTRIC BEARINGS

The main bearings are shielded from contamination and are hidden in the frame and behind hardware designed to protect them from the elements. The load ratings on the main bearings are higher than those used on the Mojo HD, a bike which has proved to be durable in the field, so we expect a long service life.  Real-world testing in Santa Cruz, combined with Brian Lopes and Evan Plews putting in tons of hard miles on the system over the last year and a half has given us confidence that it works well in all conditions.    

The bearings spec'd are black oxide (to resist corrosion but maintain the high load rating of steel), full complement (there is no retainer so they have extra balls and a higher load rating), 100% fill (completely filled with grease means less room for moisture), and the seals are contact seals. The seals actually contact the groove on the race. This specification would not be ideal for a part like a hub where the friction needs to be as low as possible, but in a suspension application where the forces are high and the small amount of seal drag is acceptable, it provides better sealing of the bearing without any noticeable change to the suspension.The bearings in the frame are standard BB30 bearings.

GEARING

The suspension kinematics created by Dave Weagle to create for the Ripley are optimized for a 32-34 tooth chainring. The Ripley has a high amount of anti squat for a very responsive feel, even sprinting out of the saddle. Although the suspension works best in the 32-34T range, it is fine with the larger sizes found on many triples and doubles.Ibis will be shipping all of our kits except SLX with a 34 - 24  e-thirteen  2X crank, which gives excellent pedaling performance and a gearing range appropriate for the large wheels. Even on a fast downhill fire road, it’s difficult to spin out the 34 t on the Ripley.

GEOMETRY

During the development process Ibis made frames with different headtube angles and used forks with different rakes. Their testers unanimously and independently agreed on the geometry they finalized and are now using.

The eccentrics allowed them to tighten up the rear end, making it shorter than a lot of comparable bikes.

A swingarm mounted derailleur allowed them to build a stiffer rear end of the bike.

The new short taper forks allowed them to keep the headtubes short, lowering the often too-high position of the bars. We even developed two sets of extremely strong carbon bars for the bike, a flat bar with a very generous 740mm width and a slight riser bar at the same width. They’re called Hi-Fi and Low-Fi. As in Fi-Bar. or Carbon Fi-Bar if you please. The X0, XT and XTR Ripley kits come standard with these bars (it's a $70 upcharge in the SLX and X9 kits).

They have designed the Ripley to work with either a 120mm or 140mm fork. They offer a 140mm Fox 34 stanchion fork as an option. If you tend to ride the rockier terrain, you might want to consider this. Substituting the 140 fork puts the head angle at 68.5º.

MOLDING TECHNOLOGY

The Ripley 29 uses similar molding technology to the Mojo SL-R. They start by molding a sacrificial mandrel in exactly the shape that they want the inside of the frame to be. That becomes the 3D template for the bladder that holds all the carbon preform before it's laid into the mold. This allows the lay-up to be done in one piece, with no joints anywhere. The result is a more precise lay-up that eliminates the need for additional foam or filler to mold the complex shapes. What that means for you is a lighter and stronger frame, critical factors in hitting our targets for weight and stiffness.

Another new technology they are introducing in the Ripley is found in the clevis and the swingarm uprights. They are using very lightweight syntactic foam glass microsphere cores in these locations. They add strength and rigidity at a very low weight in areas where you can’t remove the core from the hollow carbon parts. The new micro balloon cores are roughly half the weight of typical foam cores.

If you have any questions or would like to place an order, please call Avi Byer
at toll free 866-497-3624 or direct at 510-529-3042
or by email avi@wrenchscience.com