15 September 2011 - 10:43Cool Stuff to Come

One of the things that frustrates me the most about living in a place where there are seasons, is that summer eventually leads to fall, which leads to winter. Which leads to spending less time out riding bikes, and more time figuring out how to stay warm. If we’re lucky (or unlucky if you like snow sports) we might have a mild winter like we did in 09/10, we were riding dry singletrack in March. If we are unlucky, we get never ending snow and rain until June, like we did this year.

One of the things that frustrates me the most about the cycling industry, is that all the new cool stuff gets released at the end of summer, and doesn’t really become available until winter.

One of the things that is the topic of many conversations amongst my cycle nerd friends is the new Ibis Ripley. Ibis is one of those classic bike companies that seems to do everything right. They’ve made some of the most lustworthy bikes over the years, and have just released details on their first 29er.

It has all the things I really want in a trail bike. It’s carbon, dead sexy, and has all the features one would expect, tapered head tube, ability to run a 120/140mm fork, 120mm rear travel, cable mounts for a telescopic seatpost, 142mm Maxle rear end. t also has a really cool pivot design. It’s a pretty fancy schmancy DW link suspension that has eccentric pivots, which is an industry first. The way the bike is executed is amazing.

I really want to ride one of these, but it most likely will not be available until there is 3 feet of snow on the ground in New England. Until then, I’ll have to daydream about all the nice places in the southwest where I could potentially be riding such a cool bike once it’s finally available.

I want it now!