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I certainly do!

Honestly, i love that Izzo, but at bike park speeds, even on green trails, I'm happy to have left that bike at home.

ya, you're probably right.

Jeez. That's a whole lotta goofing around when you could've just sold it and got a jeffsy.

ya, I pulled that reducer out at home, just remove the shock from the bike, release all the air, remove the canister completely and you'll see 2 bands on the otherside of the shaft from where the positive volume reducer installs. There are lots of videos and instructions online for more detail. It's a pretty simple procedure though, doesnt really need any special tools.

100% I would rather ride the izzo over the ripley af in Edmonton any day. The weight is a huge part of that, but not the only part. In the bigger gears the suspension stiffens up quite alot so when you're hard on the pedals in flater sections, you get a lot out of it, which helps to carry speed into the punchy climbs. The suspension is pretty tuneable as well, you can set it up in a number of ways to suit your style, even as soft as I run mine I still think it pedals on par with the ripley af. The real difference between the two is descending, which is why I'll likely explore an angle set to help bring some of the Ripley af's charge-ability to the izzo.

You and me both, the Izzo rips! But a 2024 optic you say? I'm extremely curious about short travel with high pivot. I loved the last gen optic, but the new one looks wild! A very niche and cool bike.

@casestudymtb I built an alloy frame. Came in at 36#s (16.4 kg) but rides like a long travel bike and is really comfortable and good climbing. I was curious too hence going for it. My izzo is 6 pounds lighter and forsure a faster climber. I have the Blaze frame but a uncaged 7 spec mostly. Frame build took all the parts from someone's highlighter uncaged and went for chunkier tires and rotors. It's pretty amazing for long all day adventures. I've got dual lockout I'll use on log roads and I don't feel it's a completely incapable bike for most my riding. The g2s are it's primary spec downfall. I took them off my first build eventually and need to do that again.

@@aaronblonden6774 ya, those G2's came off immediately in favor of an old set of SLX 4 pots. I have zero regrets.

Thanks! If I still owned the bike I might consider it. Haha

I think I was running somewhere around 17.5mm of spacers under the stem for XC rides and 22.5mm for mountain rides, but honestly I don't remember exactly. Since filming I bought a shorter travel trail bike, so my Ripmo is now set up exclusively for descending. For something like bar height, just experiment. It's an easy trail side change to make, so next XC ride, try a couple more or fewer spacers and see where you land. My testing consisted of running the same trail a couple times with different stems, then, once I found the stem length I liked, I played with bar height. Don't be afraid to make big changes, one of my fastest runs was with my bars as high as they could go, it just didn't feel the most confident to me so I brought them back down to a more comfortable range. It's just like bracketing to get your suspension dialed in. Aside from that, the only other suggestion I would make would be: play with 2.5mm spacers as well as 5mm. It may seem like it won't make much of a difference, but honestly 1mm of bar height change makes a noticeable difference to your position on the bike. Hope this helped, and good luck getting it dialed in!

@@casestudymtb thank you very much for all the tips and also for responding, you should continue to do videos

@@borisserrano8361Despite my best efforts to sabotage my channel with wildly inconsistent releases, as well as releasing videos of equally inconsistent quality, I keep getting more subs, so you're probably right, it might be time to make a few more videos this year.

Fun fact, I ran the same set ups at a number of points on the ripley and ripmo. My cockpits and pedals are consistent across all my bikes, so the only variation would have been tires, which, if you watch my most recent Ripmo AF video, I talk about. In the grand scheme of things, those are pretty small changes when considering the design intention of the Ripmo. All the extra travel, the kinematic and the weight. The Ripmo just isn't a trail bike, which is totally okay! What separates the trail and all mountain categories was a distinction I didn't fully understand until I owned both bikes. Unfortunately. since it's all based on experience and feel, it's something you have to live to really get. That said, to see how far I took things, check out my most recent vid, I think you'd like it! czcams.com/video/I1OYpP5p5VA/video.html

Unfortunately, for legal reasons, no, there will not be.

Nice rig! Maybe look into the mezzer as well, I really like the 38, but you can get the mezzer for quote a good deal at the moment and the weight is even better than the 38. Full disclosure, I haven't ridden one, but people who have are, if nothing else, really loud about it.

Waaaaayyyyy ahead of you haha! I've already got a couple hundred km on my new trail bike and I've since made several upgrades to hone the Ripmo in on downhill performance (Dominion A4's, a longer dropper, higher stack), not least among them was the increase in fork travel. When I bought the 38 it came stock with 170 and I put a 160 air shaft for more of an allrounder feel. Swapping back to 170 is basically free. I'm still thinking an angle set might be in my future as well but the increased travel was an easy place to start. Bummer that the season is over, I'd love to test it out, but it's something to look forward to for next season. Great minds something something.

They haven't escaped my notice, being as well received as they were on the DH circuit the last couple years. I'm sure I'll have a chance to try them down the road.

Honestly, I'd go carbon for a couple of reasons: first the AF is super heavy, mine is 38lbs with DD casing a 38 and carbon wheels. I'm not a huge weight weenie, but if you want to go on all day rides in the mountains, you'll appreciate the weight savings. The other two reasons, a fox x2 shock and you can run a 170mm fork without voiding your warranty. The one advantage the AF has is that if you wanted to run the cascade link (which voids warranty), you only need the link, not the clevis, so it's cheaper, but it also gives you more travel and more progression due to the subtle differences between the two frames. To be fair though, that really wouldn't factor into my decision, I'd still go carbon and just get the shock either custom tuned to I'd spend the time to really dial in volume reducers and the compression and rebound circuits.

dude, this video was from like 3 years ago, I don't even own that bike any more hahaha. I tried such a massive range of shock pressures and I run my tires as soft as I can without feeling vagueness brought on from tire squirm. The bike wasn't progressive enough for me. That suggestion might work for your weight and riding style, but not for me. Great bike though, just not the right fit for me. on wards and up wards

If it helps, I ordered an Izzo core 4 and have been riding it for a couple weeks. I wish I could be more concrete about my feelings on it, but I like it more than the Ripley AF in some ways and far less in others. That said, I do see myself sticking with it for at least as long as I did the Ripley AF. if not longer, great bike for my XC terrain

@@casestudymtb Ah sweet! Yeah they're an often compared duo, I think the brands land on either end of the priority spectrum (YT has often focused on DH and aggressive trail riding performance where Ibis has often focused on pedaling efficiency and overall performance).

​@casestudymtb not enough izzo insight on CZcams people would probably enjoy it. I'm a bike dork and am on my second izzo build. Didn't like the dps rode a rockshox uncaged 7 build and love it. I take it to wherever my long travel bike is mid travel extreme geo and not a good climber so it's less appreciated by me as i like climbing so much.

​@casestudymtb not enough izzo insight on CZcams people would probably enjoy it. I'm a bike dork and am on my second izzo build. Didn't like the dps rode a rockshox uncaged 7 build and love it. I take it to wherever my long travel bike is mid travel extreme geo and not a good climber so it's less appreciated by me as i like climbing so much.

@@casestudymtb Hi! Enjoyed your video. I’ve got a 2020 Izzo pro that I’ve put thousands of miles on, and completed some similar shifts to be able to handle bigger terrain and the Funduro series here in Ohio. Bought my buddy’s 2021 AF from him and have it waiting in a box as I fly home from a trip. I am really looking forward to having, for first time, two bikes to work with and use them for intended purposes. Like you, but in reverse, I am SUPER STOKED, to return my Izzo back to a lightweight “down country”bike where I can charge the local trails…so much more fun than when it’s beefed up. And pulling out the AF when I want to ride more park and heavy and jump style, and race! It will be interesting to see how much difference I’ll feel…but I suspect same as you just described in video. Funny we got same bikes in opposite order. 🤓

I appreciate that! But it's unlikely that I'll talk that much more about the Ripmo AF. As I stated in the video I was looking for (and found) a lightweight trail bike for riding in town. Now that I don't need the Ripmo AF to be a "do it all" bike, I can just let it be an all mountain bike, which it's VERY good at, especially with the upgrades I've made (and continue to make)! That said, I'm sure you haven't seen the last of it on the channel, I'm hoping to do a few more riding videos next season so you can actually see it in action!

I always found the XT shimano pads to work pretty well, but it's all moot now, I picked up a pair of Hayes Dominion A4's that I'm extremely excited to test out next season!

Don't tell Ibis but I'm going to be riding it with a 170 fork next season, I'm very curious to see how far the extra half a degree of slackness pushes the bikes capability. Who knows? I may even look for a half degree or 1 degree angle set.

@socialDem86, Sorry to reply so late. I think I would have been a lot happier with the Ripley AF had I put a Grip 2 fox 36 on it. Most of my complaints came from the feeling of the 34. I believe that frame was far more capable than the fork allowed. I no longer have the ripley, I actually have 2 reviews on the ripmo AF now though (as well as a long term ripley AF review) if you want to watch those to help with the decision. I've since bought a YT Izzo that I'm planning to put a 36 on which, even with the 34, I've been really enjoying (I only have about 100km on it), but that's not to say that don't feel some regret for selling the Ripley AF. Hope that helps!

I'm not mad about how the ripmo af rides on xc trails with my changes, it's still fun and the lighter tires and shorter cockpit all add to its capability in tighter pedally stuff. Is it an xc bike? No, it's a trail bike, with the same geo you find on much shorter travel trail bikes I might add. So I guess it's a question of how much performance you care to chase when you're only running one bike. For me, the 2 different set ups are 100% worth the minimal effort required to swap between. I'm only running 160 up front, so my bike will definitely handle quite a bit differently than yours, regardless of the set ups, but you might be surprised how much a few change can make the bike feel more at home on xc stuff. It's definitely not a short travel trail bike, so ya, it's not perfect, but I still think it's worth the effort... at least until I have a better option.

@@casestudymtb yes I agree the ripmo is definitely more capable than what it's classified as. I think it's hard to find a bike to do everything very well. What you are doing by tweaking the geo with cockpit adjustments is a great way to make it fit for your trails and riding purpose. Great job!

It's a game changer for sure! Out of curiosity, what shock are you running? Did you have a similar experience where you found the small bump suffered after the install and had to make changes to your volume reducer set up or compression settings?

@@casestudymtb DVO Topaz that came stock- I had been running 3 positive 2 negative but I've backed that off to 2 and 1, which I believe is what it came with. I'm still playing around a bit there. I almost always just leave the compression open since I never remember to change it back, and I ride my hardtail if it's a truly XC day

It's been a fun project bike for sure, that said, I wish it didn't have to be haha! Had the ripley just been progressive enough to handle my more aggressive style of xc riding, I could focus the ripmo more on bigger terrain. But here we are, looking for excuses to buy more bikes haha. The exie is such a rad bike, but as much as I love to push the pedals, I know that I'm really a trail bike guy at heart, a true xc bike would inevitably leave me wanting more capability.

I really appreciate that offer! But as much as I'm not that old, I have the ankles of an 80 years old (my doctors words). When it comes to rigid bikes, I prefer to push the gravel angle over an aggressive hardtail. I've just come to appreciate the kindness suspension affords my ankles too much!

I swaped mine for a ripmo af. I'm going to be doing a long term review on that bike shortly, but I'll say it's quite a good one bike solution, even with xc trails as my home trails. It benefits from 2 wheel sets, or changing tires for big mountain and local days, and it does have it's issues, but it's adaptable enough that, with some tweeks, it can cover a lot of different terrain very well (depending on your riding style). I've had mine for about a season and a half now, and the best praise I have for it is that I'm not looking to replace it heading into next season, even with all the killer deals on the table right now.

No, I wasn't involved in the design of the V2, though it's entirely possible that the work we did here inspired that project as a way to make the riprow more accessible to the masses. As for build plans, no plans will ever be release. Unfortunately Lee did not allow me to move forward with the release of the plans and, as per his wishes, I won't be releasing a build video either (likely due to concerns over splitting the audience with the V2 and an official DIY version, and likely finding it more profitable to keep it in house). In all honesty, after building the thing, I'd rather spend the money on a gym membership. I honestly never really used it as much as I'd hoped, I'd rather be doing standing barbell rows, squats and deadlifts among other more traditional exercises just for the variety. I spend a lot of time on the bike (both a turbo and on the trail) already so diversity matters. It is a good training tool but ultimately it left me wanting.

I did that! worked a treat, though still not what I'm looking for exactly... I'm now leaning towards a 2 bike quiver with a fuel ex and some absolute sled. details TBA

Spoiler Alert. I built an even better version that used dampers and it still ended up in the manual machine pile. Fun project, waste of time. Haha.

The Ripmo has a better pedaling platform for sure, along with more moderate geo I believe. I think the difference there is more one of personal style than performance. I really like the ripmo, it suits me, I'm not convinced the status does.

rip row's official site sells the ones that come with the riprow as replacement parts

Sorry I missed this question, If it's still relevant, I'm 5'11 and riding the large with the stock stem. I might be inclined to go with a medium in your case, but it depends on the kind of descending you're doing, if it's steep and fast, size up to the large, if you're riding more XC stuff or jibbing around, I'd likely recommend the medium, though obviously, if you can get a demo on each size that would be the best way to determine fit.

not yet, there's still snow on the ground up here so I haven't been out on it since the end of last season. One day I'll end up at my local on a ride and I'll weigh it then, I'll include that info in the long term review when I get that out mid-late next season, but until then, I'd ball park it around 36