From the Archives – Singletrack Issue 2 – 2001
Show someone an aluminium drinks can and tell them that you’re going to build a suspension bike that flexes out of it and they won’t be very convinced. However, show them a jumbo jet wing and do the same and you might get a few more believers.
Ibis are pushing the boundaries, not necessarily in bike design, but in perception with their new Ripley. It’s a softtail bike – i.e. one where the chainstays are designed to flex to give a certain amount of rear suspension travel without having to use pivots. This sort of bike was made famous by Moots in titanium and later by Ritchey with their steel softtail. However, no one has been brave enough to try the design in aluminium. This is all down to how the different materials work – you can bend a titanium strip all day and it’ll still be as strong as when you started, you can do the same with a steel strip too, as long as you don’t bend it too much, but try it with an aluminium strip and it’ll soon harden, crack and fall apart in your hands.
What Ibis have done, though, is to make the chainstays of the Ripley out of aluminium plate and carefully control where and how much the chainstays bend. The Ripley has been designed for Ibis by John Castellano, who also developed the ‘Sweet Spot’ suspension design. He also spent five years at Hughes Aviation as a designer. He certainly knows his materials – after all, he got five inches of travel out of the Ibis Bow-Ti without using pivots, so coaxing 1.25in out of some aluminium chainstays isn’t really that hard. In fact, Ibis are so confident in his numbers that there is a lifetime guarantee on the Ripley’s chainstays and a ten year guarantee on the frame itself. Now there’s confidence. And if you’re still not convinced, Ibis boss Scot Nicol will point you to look at aeroplane wings those on a 747 flex 29 feet vertically, or 33% of their length. The chainstays on the Ripley only flex 8% of their length.
Another reason for Ibis’ confidence is that they already make a successful titanium softtail (with more travel) using similar flat plate chainstays and dual-stage elastomer shock. The Ripley, however is a fraction of the price.
You’re not convinced, are you? Well, we weren’t either, which is why we got one in to test. It’s been thrashed around trails from Wales to Calderdale and we’ve got some views on it now.
Immediately, you get on board this bike and try bouncing up and down on it to see how much the chainstays move. Not a great deal enough to curve the cable outers as they pass around the seatpin, certainly not enough to feel. But give it a few miles and you’ll start to notice something or rather you’ll notice a lack of something you’re not being as beaten by the bumps. You can remain seated a little more and you feel a little fitter on the climbs as you’re able to pick a line a little better. Tussocky grass and bumpy washboard isn’t as hard work, though big, and even medium, sized bumps still demand respect. The ‘critically damped’ elastomer’ gives enough damping to prevent pogoing.
One other thing you won’t notice is any side flex or chain rub. Even out of the saddle, the Ripley climbs like the most solid of ally hardtails. You soon forget the funny chainstays and ugly gaiter around the elastomer cone shock, especially as, from the rider’s perspective it looks like a ‘normal’ bike. It doesn’t need any funny, specific components to make it work either, no E-clamp front mech or cropped seatpost. And you even get two waterbottle mounts where they should be.
The frame weighs in at 4.5lbs and our bike was built with some good (though not stupid-light) components to give a sprightly feel and a weight around 26lb. In fact, the feel of the bike was similar to that of a good steel hardtail: comfy on the trail, responsive and lively. Only there wasn’t the flex associated with light steel, just solidity. It was only when ridden back to back with something like the Cove Stiffee that you could appreciate just how much of the trail noise the Ripley absorbs.
The Detail
Ibis who? Ibis have been going for donkey’s years, turning out very crafted, but simple frames in steel, titanium and, more recently, aluminium. They make road, mountain and tandem frames and are a common sight in the US. Being high end, but not top-end has meant that Ibis bikes haven’t been popular enough to warrant a big distributor in the UK, and any that have made it over here have been expensive. Ibis are using the power of the internet to sell direct to customers and shops over here in an attempt to get the price a little more reasonable. And a recent move of production from a unit in Sonoma, California to a big factory in Montana should help keep the price reasonable.
Our test frame retails for US $995, with a complete bike with XT and Manitou Mars around $1975 – not a ridiculous figure by any means, but expect transport and customs duties to turn those dollar prices into pounds by the time you get your frame over here. Saying that, it’s a similar price to a Pace or other high-end UK bike and would have the ‘grass is greener’ appeal of having the only one in your county.
The components on the bike worked flawlessly the Avid mechanicals being great in the dry (though we’ve not yet run them through a Winter of British muck), the gears worked well too – with none of the vagueness you can get with big flexing lengths of cable outer or wobbly swingarms.
The Conclusion
Ibis have taken a bold move with the Ripley. In an age of high-tech linkage bikes, the Ripley looks pretty plain. That, however, might be where it wins. The bike will appeal to the rider who doesn’t want the mechanical overkill of something like a Sub-5 or an FSR, one who wants a bike that looks like a bike and doesn’t need their riding style adapting in order for it to work. Get on it and it’ll feel familiar.
What Ibis have done is make an aluminium bike ride like a steel hardtail, though less elegantly. Saying that, though, the paint and decal finish of the Ripley is very classy. The softtail design will suit gritty riders too, as there’s less to go wrong, less bits that need pulling apart and greasing and little in the way of anything to go wrong. The warranty proves that Ibis believe in the design and we have the suspicion that you’ll either have to have one, or won’t see the point.
Technical gubbins
Frame // Ibis ‘Moron’ tubing (there’s more-on the end of the tubes, geddit?) TIG-welded double-butted 6061 aluminum alloy mainframe and 6069 rear. Size tested Large 18in C to C, 23.5in top tube
Fork // Manitou Mars air fork
Rear shock // A ‘critically’ damped dual elastomer
Drive Train: Deore XT
Brakes // Avid Mechanicals, XT levers
Finishing kit // Thompson post, Answer stem, Easton carbon bars
Saddle // Selle Italia
Weight // Just right
Persona // Beauty and the beast
Wheel set // Wheelsmith built – XT disc, Mavic disc rims.
Tyres // Hutchinson Pythons
From // Ibis Cycles www.ibiscycles.com