No, Ibis isn’t getting into some new type of music, instead the company is introducing some running changes to the Ripley. Initially, the bike’s lower pivot had been designed to be as light as possible while still passing their machine and ride tests. While the part has proven to be durable under normal conditions, Ibis has added about 8g of material to the part to ensure that it is “more tolerant” of over tightening the hardware. The new lower pivot has been shipping out on all Ripleys after January 8th, 2014 as well as a new titanium bolt. Even though the part is slightly heavier, Ibis claims the GnarCore increases the lateral stiffness by 10% – a big number for 8g of material and a new bolt.
Ripleys shipped without the GnarCore can be retrofitted to the new pivot with a kit available for purchase from the Ibis web store. The Kit retails for $34.95 and includes the lower eccentric core, matching cap, stainless fastener, and Ti bolt with aluminum nut. Ripley also gets an update in terms of cable management, check out the cable Dice next.
Like a lot of full suspension bikes, when the suspension cycles the cables on the Ripley tend to migrate if not tied down. Until now Ibis has been using a zip tie to keep things in place which worked as long as they were tight. As an improvement over the zip tie, Ibis now offers the Cable Dice which is a small block of aluminum about the size of a die that has 4 holes for all of the cables and hoses to clamp down around them with one bolt.
Cable dice began shipping on frames on February 1, 2014, and are available in the Ibis store for $8.95 to upgrade your bike that is still using a zip tie.
Finally, for riders who have gone 1x and hate the look of the naked front derailleur mount, Ibis has a solution. The front derailleur cover does exactly as implied and keeps the threads and mount nice and clean in case you ever were to go back to that front derailleur. The kit includes a black aluminum bolt and retails for $4.95.
